This film with Johnny Depp was so unsuccessful that the director’s career was cut short

The history of cinema is littered with examples of very famous cinematographers who one day, out of challenge and/or envy, turned on themselves. Of course, with more or less happiness.

We can cite Nicolas Roeg, who was the director of photography for David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago and signed the pure masterpiece Trek (1970) in 1970 and Don’t Look Back in 1974.

Barry Sonnenfeld, the Coen brothers’ fetish cinematographer who signed Blood Simple or Miller’s Crossover photo, went on to direct The Addams Family and Men in Black.

Jan de Bont, Paul Verhoeven’s cinematographer who worked on Flesh and Blood and Basic Instinct, as well as with John McTiernan on Piège de cristal and In pursuit of Red October, signed off on one of the year’s biggest hits in 1994. Speed, until you hit him again two years later with Twister.

A highly respected figure in the profession, Wally Pfister is one of the best at his profession. And he’s also a favorite cinematographer of Christopher Nolan, who hired him on Memento.

Until The Dark Knight Rises, the filmmaker entrusted him with the direction of all his films. Setting a visual foothold that has become a true trademark and standard meter in Hollywood, Pfister also won an Oscar for his work on Inception.

In 2014, Pfister dedicated himself to the siren songs of cinema, signing his first feature film, Transcendence. But despite the benefit of the vast experience gained over the years, there is still a bet on whether the endeavor will succeed or fail. In case TranscendenceThe result, unfortunately, had the power of an uppercut for Pfister…

A sci-fi thriller starring Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany and Morgan Freeman, the film is expected to set its plot in the near future. A group of scientists is trying to create the first computer with a conscience and independent thinking.

They must deal with attacks by anti-technological terrorists who see the project as a threat to the human species. When the scientist at the helm of the project is killed, his wife uses his work progress to “pass” her husband’s spirit into the first supercomputer in history.

It can now control all the networks connected to the Internet, thus becoming almost omnipotent. But how can he stop her if she’s lost what’s left of her humanity?

Somewhat a few years before the giant leaps in artificial intelligence that are now largely in the news, the film was critically acclaimed upon its release.

And society did not follow either. With a budget of $100 million, it grossed just over $10 million in its opening weekend in the United States, ending its worldwide career with just $103 million.

A hell of a cold shower for the studio behind the film, Warner, and even more so for Wally Pfister, who hasn’t made a movie in ten years…he’s only directed four Netflix episodes to date. series Flaked and two episodes of the Amazon series The Tick.

This obviously in no way rules out a return to the helm of a feature film one day soon, but something tells us that his purgatory is unfortunately far from over in this regard…