With writer-director Shane Black‘s Iron Man 3 now playing around the world and opening in America this weekend, I recently got to speak with the cast and filmmakers here in Los Angeles.  During my video interview with Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall, we talked about how their families reacted when they were cast, script changes during production, how it’s hard to talk about the movie without giving away some of the twists and turns, what it was like working with Shane Black, and more.  In addition, I tried to get Hall to talk about Wally Pfister‘s Transcendence (it didn’t work), and Pearce talks briefly about The Rover with Robert Pattinson.  Hit the jump to watch.

Here is a slew of new release dates for the following films:

• Dracula – Universal’s Dracula origin story directed by Gary Shore and starring Luke Evans (The Raven) will open August 8, 2014.
• Transcendence – Cinematographer Wally Pfister’s directorial debut starring Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman has been moved up one week to April 18, 2014.
• Blended – The tentatively-titled new rom-com with Adam Sandler and (possibly) Drew Barrymore will open May 23, 2014.
• The Purge – The violent speculative-thriller written and directed by James DeMonaco and starring Ethan Hawke (Sinister) and Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) will open June 7th.
• State 194 – Dan Setton’s documentary on Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will open May 17th.
• When the Game Stands Tall – Director Thomas Carter’s (Coach Carter) upcoming high school football drama starring James Caviezel (Person of Interest) and Michael Chiklis (The Shield) will open September 19, 2014.
• Heaven Is for Real – Director Randall Wallace’s novel adaptation starring Kelly Reilly and Greg Kinnear is set to open April 16, 2014

Hit the jump for more.

Here is today’s casting news:

• Cole Hauser (Olympus Has Fallen) joins the already star-studded cast of executive producer Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller Transcendence.

• Rosario Dawson (Trance) is in final negotiations to play the leading role opposite Chris Rock in his latest comedy.

• Aasif Mandvi (The Daily Show) lands role in Disney’s Million Dollar Arm.

• Christine Lahti (Hawaii Five-0) is set to star alongside Katie Holmes in indie flick Mania Days.

Hit the jump for more details on each project.

Check out the latest casting news below:

• John Cusack (High Fidelity) is reportedly in talks to play The Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson in the indie Love & Mercy.
• Clifton Collins Jr. (Sunshine Cleaning) is the latest addition to Wally Pfister’s directorial debut Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp.
• Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi) will star in Disney’s true-life sports drama Million Dollar Arm, starring Jon Hamm.

Hit the jump for more on each casting announcement.

We’ve got a couple of rather interesting casting stories to report this evening.  First up, Wally Pfister has added another familiar face to the cast of his directorial debut Transcendence.  Pfister previously worked as a cinematographer, most notably collaborating with Christopher Nolan on all of his films, and now Batman Begins and Inception star Cillian Murphy has been tapped to play one of three male leads in Transcendence.  The film stars Johnny Depp and is rumored to concern a scientist whose brain gets uploaded into a supercomputer, but confirmed plot details are being kept under tight wraps.

News of Murphy’s casting comes courtesy of Latino Review, but further details regarding his character are unknown.  Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, and Kate Mara also star.  The film is due out April 25, 2014.  Hit the jump to find out which Seinfeld alum has been cast as Master Splinter in the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles redo.

Check out the latest major casting news below:

• Robert Redford (The Natural) will star in The Old Man and the Gun for writer/director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints).
• Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption) has joined the cast of Wally Pfister’s directorial debut, Transcendence, which also stars Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall and Kate Mara.  The film is due out April 25, 2014.

Hit the jump for more on both pictures.

Casting news for two anticipated upcoming projects has been unveiled.  First up, Alcon Entertainment has announced that Kate Mara (House of Cards, American Horror Story) is joining the cast of longtime Christopher Nolan cinematographer Wally Pfister’s sci-fi project Transcendence.  The film stars Johnny Depp and is rumored to concern a scientist whose brain gets uploaded into a supercomputer, but confirmed plot details are being kept under tight wraps.  Mara’s role is unspecified, but she most recently did excellent work on Netflix’s fantastic original series House of Cards and should make a swell addition to the Transcendence cast.

Rebecca Hall and Paul Bettany are also poised to star in the film.  Kate’s sister Rooney Mara was previously considered for one of the pic’s lead roles that eventually went to Hall.  Nolan is executive producing the film alongside Emma Thomas and Aaron Ryder, with filming set to get underway soon.  Hit the jump for casting news concerning the female lead in Michael Bay’s Transformers 4.

Christopher Nolan’s long-time cinematographer Wally Pfister is set to make his directorial debut with Transcendence, a secretive sci-fi project that already has Johnny Depp and Paul Bettany on board.  You may now add The Town’s Rebecca Hall to that enticing cast.  Transcendence opens on April 25, 2014.  Hit the jump for full details on Hall’s casting announcement. 

Warner Bros. has announced that Transcendence, the directorial debut of Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight Trilogy), is set to open on April 25, 2014.  The film stars Johnny Depp, and yesterday we reported that Paul Bettany had joined the flick.  Plot details are being kept tightly under wraps, but the story is rumored to revolve around a scientist whose brain gets uploaded into a supercomputer with the aim of creating the world’s first machine that can think for itself.  As we all know, nothing bad ever happened from creating machines that are capable of independent thought.

Production is set to begin in April in Los Angeles.  Transcendence currently has no competition on April 25, 2014, but the following weekend belongs to The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The cast for the much-anticipated Transcendence is starting to take shape.  Christopher Nolan’s longtime cinematographer Wally Pfister is making his directorial debut on the secretive project, and Johnny Depp is set to star in the lead role.  Today it was announced that Paul Bettany has boarded the pic, though details regarding his role are being kept firmly under wraps.  The story is rumored to revolve around a scientist whose brain gets uploaded into a supercomputer with the aim of creating the world’s first machine that can think for itself.  Actresses rumored for the female lead include Rooney Mara, Rebecca Hall, and Emily Blunt, but we haven’t heard anything on that front in a while.

Nolan is exectuvie producing the project, which was written by Jack Paglen.  Production begins this April in Los Angeles and Warner Bros. is eyeing a “mid 2014” release date, so I expect this will be a big, mind-bending summer tentpole not unlike Inception.  Hit the jump to read the full press release.

The 2012 Black List has been released.  For those unfamiliar with the Black List, it’s usually described as a list of the most-liked unproduced screenplays circling Hollywood even though A) the list is promoted by people who have a vested interest in making sure the script gets into development so this is more of a sales technique than a serious evaluation; B) some of these scripts are in production.  In the case of the latter, Transcendence is in pre-production with Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pifster directing and Johnny Depp attached to star.  The highest-ranked film, Draft Day, is currently in turnaround with Kevin Costner set to star and Ivan Reitman on board to direct.

Noteworthy inclusions on the list are biopics of Hillary Clinton and Dr. Seuss as well as screenplays from Jeremy Slater (Fantastic Four reboot), Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber ((500) Days of Summer), Eric Heisserer (Final Destination 5), Zack Whedon (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), and more.  Hit the jump for the full list.

Just yesterday some intriguing plot details for director Wally Pfister’s upcoming sci-fi film Transcendence landed online, and now it appears that the female lead has been narrowed down to three actress.  Pfister, who is Christopher Nolan’s longtime cinematographer, is making his feature directorial debut on the project which stars Johnny Depp as a scientist whose brain gets uploaded into a supercomputer with the aim of creating the world’s first machine that can think for itself.  The story also involves two other leads that are also scientists, a character named Evelyn who is Depp’s wife, and a character named Max.

Per Deadline, Rooney Mara, Emily Blunt, and Rebecca Hall (The Town) are all in the running for the role of Evelyn, with a decision due to be made on Friday.  Blunt’s dates on the Tom Cruise-fronted sci-fi actioner All You Need Is Kill are still being worked out, so the report notes that the conflict could affect her availability. These are three fine actresses with tremendous talent, so whatever the final result may be, I think Transcendence is in good shape.  Production is set to begin on March 4th.

When it was announced that director Christopher Nolan’s longtime cinematographer Wally Pfister would be making his directorial debut on an original sci-fi project called Transcendence, it wasn’t exactly shocking that plot details were being kept under wraps.  Nolan’s films have been wrapped in a similar amount of intrigue and secrecy, with the initial logline for Inception describing the film only as “a thriller set within the architecture of the mind.”  We recently reported that Johnny Depp was in talks to star in the film, and along with the casting news a few plot details started to leak that involved the main character getting sucked into a supercomputer.  Now further story points have been revealed, giving us a better idea of what to expect from Transcendence.

Hit the jump for more, including which actors Pfister has approached for other roles in the film.

Earlier today, IMAX announced that it had signed a 20-picture deal with Warner Bros., revealing a few upcoming IMAX releases in the process.  Now the large-format company has updated its official site with a few interesting additions that seem to confirm a couple of 3D releases and another IMAX release.  Briefly:

• All You Need Is Kill – The Doug Liman-directed sci-fi action film starring Tom Cruise will be released in 3D, presumably through a post-conversion.
• Jupiter Ascending – Lana and Andy Wachowski will apparently be making their 3D debut with the upcoming sci-fi film starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis.
• Transcendence – Dark Knight and Inception cinematographer Wally Pfister’s directorial debut will, unsurprisingly, be released in the IMAX format.

Hit the jump for more details.

Johnny Depp is in negotiations to lead Transcendence, the directorial debut from The Dark Knight Rises cinematographer Wally Pfister.  When the project was announced back in March, details were being kept under wraps.  The plot is still being kept under wraps other than the film now having a title.  So what does “Transcendence” refer to and why keep the logline secret?  Perhaps it could be too confusing or difficult to distill into a single sentence, although when Inception was announced, all we knew was it was a thriller “set in the architecture of the mind.”  It was intriguing even though it explained absolutely nothing.

Depp will next be seen in Gore Verbinski‘s The Lone Ranger, which opens July 3, 2013.  Hit the jump for the press release regarding Transcendence, which is scheduled to begin shooting early next year.  [Update: Hit the jump for more details about the project.]