Johnny Depp commits to Wally Pfister’s Transcendence and Barry Levinson’s Black Mass

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Johnny Depp is in high demand. This is something you know. The actor is in such high demand, in fact, that he’s issued a press release laying out in no uncertain terms the next couple of projects he has committed to. You know, just in case you were thinking of asking him to be in your movie within the next year.

Johnny Depp is set to star in TRANSCENDENCE, the directorial debut of Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister (INCEPTION). The film will begin principal photography in April. Although the plot has been under wraps, rumor has it that it concerns a man who uploads him consciousness into a super-computer.

After that, Depp will move on to Barry Levinson‘s BLACK MASS, about notorious Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger. Jez Butterworth is writing a new draft of the screenplay by Mark Mallouk, based on the New York Times best-seller Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerald O’Neill.

Shooting on BLACK MASS begins in the early summer, immediately after TRANSCENDENCE wraps. While it was announced back in January that Depp will jump into Captain Jack Sparrow’s boots again for another PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN adventure, that flick remains unmentioned in the press release. As Disney has marked that film with a July 2015 release date, however, it’s likely they won’t begin production until next year.