jul 11, 2013 - LA TIMES Johnny Depp Transcendence Gets China boost

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BEIJING -- “Transcendence,” the upcoming Johnny Depp sci-fi film directed by Christopher Nolan’s longtime cinematographer Wally Pfister, will get a boost in China from DMG Entertainment, the Beijing-based company that helped add Chinese elements to “Iron Man 3” and “Looper.” But don’t look for any extra China-specific footage in the 2014 film.

DMG said Thursday it had partnered with Alcon Entertainment to help finance, produce and distribute the movie in China, which is now filming stateside and will be released in the U.S. by Warner Bros. in April. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The two companies will also collaborate on a planned remake of the 1991 film “Point Break,” which starred Keanu Reeves as an FBI agent who infiltrates a group of surfers to crack a string of bank robberies. Alcon and DMG said the new version would be “set in the world of international extreme sports.”

“Transcendence,” like many of Nolan’s movies, has been shrouded in secrecy; the cast includes Morgan Freeman, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall and Kate Mara. (Nolan is serving as an executive producer on the film.)

At a news conference Thursday in Beijing, DMG representatives sought to whet the appetite of Chinese reporters without giving away much about the film.

A version of a script leaked about six months ago indicated that the plot revolves around a group of scientists trying to build the world’s first self-aware supercomputer; Depp uploads the contents of his brain to a supercomputer but then is slain.

DMG founder Dan Mintz said the core of the plot is the notion of immortality, but there’s also a strong love story as well.

“Without giving away too much, ‘Transcendence’ is about that moment when human consciousness and the insanely fast rise of computing power collide,” Mintz said. “It pulls from the idea of singularity to tell a truly meaningful story that is more ‘science reality’ than science fiction. This is something that is likely to happen in our lifetimes and that makes it a story everyone can get into.”

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