Stepping out from the shadow of Christopher Nolan, at the age of 52, to make your directorial debut might carry a lot of baggage and many expectations, but Wally Pfister is ready for them. “If people are expecting Nolan-lite, I think they’ll be surprised,” he told the LA Times last month. “My training comes from Chris, but my emotional content comes from a different era. I’m steeped in a 1970s, pre-‘Star Wars‘ period, films like ‘Soylent Green.’ Chris comes from a different place.”
Bold words from Pfister, who has assembled Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, Paul Bettany, Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy for “Transcendence.” The story follows Dr. Will Caster, whose creation of sentient machines puts him at risk from anti-technology extremists who inadvertently set the researcher on a dangerous path. It’s an ambitious story for a first-time filmmaker, but Pfister reveals it was Nolan himself who gave him the confidence to take it on.
“I told Chris, ‘I think it’s a good project. My hesitation is that it’s just too big for my first adventure,’ ” he said. “And Chris very calmly said, ‘Absolutely not. You know how to handle this scope of filmmaking. And storytelling is the same whether you’re dealing with $100 million or $10 million.’ “
We’ll see if Pfister got the job done when “Transcendence” opens on April 18th. Watch below. [HeyUGuys]
