Immortality is a subject that has been explored more than a few times in various media, and this summer director Tarsem Singh is putting his own spin on the idea with Self/Less, which finds Ben Kingsley as a dying man who transfers his consciousness into the much younger body of Ryan Reynolds. Not a bad trade off, all things considered.
After a clever viral marketing campaign involving a mysterious package and an LG cell phone, the first Self/Less trailer debuted online earlier today, courtesy of Focus Features.
The idea of transferring one’s consciousness to another vessel certainly isn’t anything new, and we’ve seen it portrayed on the big screen in various incarnations. Charles Xavier pulled it off during the post-credits scene of X-Men: The Last Stand, and more recently Johnny Depp’s character transferred his brain into a computer network in Transcendence. So there’s certainly a little bit of risk involved with exploring such familiar territory.
On the other hand, Tarsem Singh has made quite a reputation for himself as one of the most visually interesting directors working today. Say what you will about Immortals and Mirror, Mirror, you can’t deny that the films were absolutely gorgeous – and of course, he’s also responsible for The Cell and The Fall, which were just as captivating from a cerebral perspective.
It’s hard to make any sort of judgment just yet – after all, we’ve only seen a couple of minutes of footage, so for now we’re reserving judgment. But if the film is half as clever as the viral marketing, then we might be in for a treat.
Self/Less hits theaters on July 31.
In this provocative psychological science fiction thriller, an extremely wealthy man (Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley) dying from cancer undergoes a radical medical procedure that transfers his consciousness into the body of a healthy young man (Ryan Reynolds). But all is not as it seems when he starts to uncover the mystery of the body’s origin and the organization that will kill to protect its cause.
ben kingsley focus features ryan reynolds tarsem singh