Oscar winner Morgan Freeman is in final negotiations to join Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall and Kate Mara in Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister's directorial debut, Transcendence, it was announced by Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson, co-founders and co-CEOs of Alcon Entertainment.

Principal photography is set to begin in May in Los Angeles. Alcon Entertainment will finance and produce the picture, which will be released via their output deal with Warner Bros on April 25, 2014.

Written by Jack Paglen, the screenplay was developed by Annie Marter and Straight Up Films, whose company principals include Marisa Polvino, Kate Cohen and Regency Boies. Polvino, Marter and Cohen will produce along with David Valdes (The Book of Eli), Johnson and Kosove. Boies will co-produce.

Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas and Aaron Ryder are serving as executive producers.

Freeman reprised his role as Fox in last year's The Dark Knight Rises on which Pfister served as cinematographer. Freeman was most recently seen in Olympus Has Fallen alongside Aaron Eckhart and Gerard Butler. He will next be seen starring alongside Tom Cruise in Oblivion for Universal Pictures and Summit's Now You See Me which also stars Isla Fisher, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Michael Caine, among others.

Aside from The Dark Knight Rises, Pfister served as cinematographer on 2011's Best Picture Oscar-nominee, Moneyball. His other credits include films such as The Italian Job and Laurel Canyon.