Morgan Freeman, at age 76, seems to be busier than ever before. In 2013, he appeared in four films, all of which did quite well at the box office (Olympus Has Fallen, Oblivion, Now You See Me, Last Vegas), and is slated to appear in seven films (yes, seven!) in 2014, according to the IMDb. He even appears, mistakenly, on a billboard in India meant to memorialize Nelson Mandela (who he played in 2009’s Invictus). So, it is not surprising that Freeman’s deep, iconic voice is a selling point in the trailers to several of his upcoming films.
For instance, that warm, booming voice narrates the second teaser trailer for Transcendence, Wally Pfister’s directorial debut. Pfister, of course, is Christopher Nolan’s good friend and cinematographer, and the two teaser trailers released this week seem to share much thematically with the teaser for Nolan’s upcoming opus, Interstellar.
In the trailer, Freeman lays down some of the science-oriented themes and questions that will likely be central to the sci-fi thriller, due in theatres on April 18, 2014. “What if humanity’s next evolution wasn’t human at all?” Freeman asks. “What happens when artificial intelligence becomes self-aware? Is it the key to immortality or is it the path toward annihilation?”
From the questions above, some audience members could think that Freeman is narrating the trailer for an upcoming Terminator film. The plot for Transcendence, for those who haven’t been keeping up, follows Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp), a researcher who hopes to make a machine that knows all intelligence and has a full range of human emotion. (I guess that is where the similarities with The Terminator end.)
A warm orchestral score plays in the background of the teaser, which is full of signs and symbols but no actual footage from Transcendence. Stay tuned for more though, as the film’s first theatrical trailer is set to debut online this evening. Perhaps we can hope for more of Morgan Freeman’s narration, because there is simply no such thing as too much Morgan Freeman narration, right?