Cillian Murphy Cast in ‘Dark Knight’ Cinematographer Wally Pfister’s ‘Transcendence’

We can now report that Cillian Murphy has become the latest strong addition to the Transcendence acting roster, which means the project will mark the fifth occasion he and Pfister have worked together, after Batman Begins, Inception and Murphy’s cameo appearances in The Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises.

Transcendence is based on a script by relative newcomer Jack Paglen, and tells the story of an artificial intelligence scientist (Depp) whose consciousness is uploaded into a supercomputer that he helped to design, after he is killed by a group of anti-technology terrorists; award-winner Rebecca Hall (Iron Man 3) will serve as the female lead, by playing Depp’s wife and fellow researcher.

Meanwhile, Latino Review, which has the exclusive on the latest casting update, is reporting that Murphy has “bagged one of the three male leads” in the film. He joins a cast that includes the aforementioned names, in addition to the supporting players Paul Bettany (the voice of Jarvis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and Kate Mara (American Horror Story, House of Cards).

When Freeman was cast, it wasn’t clear whether he is portraying a friend or foe of Depp and Hall’s characters, but it’s a fair bet that Murphy has secured the role of the anti-technology zealots’ leader. As mentioned before, he is an excellent actor, but also has a knack for being type-cast as the complicated antagonist and/or flat-out conniving villain (see: Batman Begins, Red Eye, In Time and Murphy’s cameo appearance in TRON: Legacy), which is an archetype that he plays quite well.

In related news: there’s a reasonable chance that Murphy will follow up his work on Transcendence by playing an expanded role as the dangerous programmer Edward Dillinger in TRON 3, which is steadily gearing up to begin production by next year. The Legacy sequel could begin filming around the time Pfister’s movie hits theaters in the spring, some 6-7 months before Nolan returns to the sci-fi genre with his next directing project, Interstellar.

Transcendence opens in U.S. theaters on April 25th, 2014.