In the not-so-distant future, people stop aging when they reach the age of 25. Will Salas lives in the poorest region, or time zone, named Dayton. He rarely has more than 24 hours on his body clock, and must work every day at a factory to afford another day of life. For his mother, Rachel, it is the same story, as it is for all in hard-scrabble Dayton.

But far from desolate, Dayton is alive with color, sound, speed, music, urgency — and crime. Gangs called Minute Men are always on the lookout for ways to steal time, and ending a life in exchange for a few hours means nothing to them.

When Will protects the wealthy interloper Henry from a crew of Minute Men intent on timing him out, Henry makes a present to Will of a century of time. But as time is currency and painstakingly tracked as such, the movement of such a large sum within the confines of Dayton alerts the authorities, the Timekeepers.

Moreover, Will is falsely accused of murder, which triggers a veteran Timekeeper named Leon to begin a relentless pursuit of Will. Without an overriding plan, Will decides to spend his time in the richest zone, New Greenwich. In stark contrast to Dayton, nothing moves quickly here; time is a luxury all residents can afford, since most have hundreds, or even thousands of years to live.

But relative immortality comes at a price, and all are fearful of theft and injury – “the poor die and the rich don’t live,” Will observes. It soon becomes apparent to Will that in order for a few to live, many must die, to keep the scales of rich and poor balanced. Maybe he can use his time to do some good?

But New Greenwich does have something that attracts Will – Sylvia Weis, daughter of the super-wealthy Philippe Weis. When the Timekeepers attempt to apprehend Will, he takes Sylvia hostage, and what starts as a flight from the law becomes a high stakes game to change the rules of this not-so-brave new world, with two lovers on the run at its center.

Three young, hot names are headlining this explosive ride which will hit theaters on October 28; Justin Timberlake, Olivia Wilde and Amanda Seyfried. Timberlake and Wilde play the part as mother and son while Seyfried is the hero’s love interest Sylvia Weis.

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One of today’s busiest actresses, Amanda Seyfried has showcased plenty of excellent performances in the last couple of years. The 25-year-old starlet has starred alongside starts such as Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Sissy Spacek and Robin Wright and proved to many that she is worthy of her place among these profiles.

In the sci-fi action thriller In Time, she plays the part of rich girl Sylvia who’s encounter with Will Salas makes the explosive cocktail for one of the most exciting movies this winter. While Sylvia may become someone who inspires Will to take up the fight, she certainly does not start out that way.

The nascent darker side of Sylvia was something Seyfried could bring to the fore, says executive producer Andrew Z. Davis: “What I love about Amanda is there’s a sweetness about her but, at the same time, she has an edge. I don’t think audiences have really gotten to see her edge that much in movies.”

“Sylvia is the girl in the gilded cage,” seconds his co-executive producer Amy Israel, “trapped by her situation; she questions it because she isn’t sure everything is exactly the way it should be. But she’s kept in that system by her father and her circumstance, all the time yearning for more, wanting to take risks. But no one in New Greenwich takes risks.”

“Sylvia dreads her life every day,” reveals Amanda Seyfried. “She wants to have some kind of adventure. In a world like this, you spend so much time trying to protect your life that you don’t really end up living. Everybody has bodyguards. They all eat very well, but very little, they don’t drink or smoke; it’s mundane.

Sylvia just isn’t made for this kind of life. She gets her wish for a different life when Will takes her away.” Seyfried was attracted to many of the things that captured her on-screen partner Justin Timberlake’s imagination about the world Niccol had created. “Andrew’s one of a kind, and I wanted to be a part of this.

It’s so very different, but at the same time, it has so many parallels to the way we live, which is why it’s so smart. And I have to admit, getting to hold a gun and kick some butt also sounded like a blast.” Sylvia and Will are running for their lives – not just to find enough time to make it through another day, but from the Timekeepers out to capture the fugitive duo.

“Timekeepers keep the system running; they actually keep time,” says Niccol. “And our principal antagonist, Timekeeper Leon, is not really a villain. He is just a bureaucrat, an authority figure who has allegiance to no one, rich or poor. His only allegiance is to minutes and seconds.”

For the role of the Timekeeper Leon the filmmakers cast another versatile actor, Cillian Murphy. Murphy acknowledges the circumstances of his character – “he’s a cop charged with keeping this system going” – but the actor finds the deeper layers of Leon more compelling to play: “What’s great about the character is that he is a contradiction, because he’s actually from that same ghetto where Will lives.

Deep down, he knows that it’s a corrupt system, and yet he’s decided to accept that and pursue his goal of keeping time. He’s a very kinetic and focused character, and for him it’s just about constantly moving forward. I think he’s suppressed all of his past. What I liked about the writing is that Will and Leon, they’re the flip side of each other.

It’s just different paths having been taken. This is the path he’s chosen, and he suppresses all of the misgivings and issues he has with this system. He’s tried to leave them behind over the course of his life.”

As with the classic archetypal chase – the hunter and the hunted – so beautifully realized in, for example, The Fugitive, a bond forms as the chase quickens. Murphy adds, “Not only does Leon realize he’s from the same side of the tracks as Will, but there is a sense of history; Leon knew Will’s father. I think over the course of the story, they gain a respect for each other.”

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The upcoming movie In Time, featuring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, is written and directed by Andrew Niccol and will introduce audiences to a mind-blowing concept that makes reality out of the saying “time is money.”

In a future where time is literally money and aging stops at 25, the only way to stay alive is to earn, steal, or inherit more time. The main character, Will Salas, lives minute-to-minute, until a windfall of time gives him access to the world of the wealthy, where he teams up with a beautiful young heiress to destroy the corrupt system.

The story picks up the obsession with youth of our society. Billions of dollars are spent annually by the health and beauty industries, trying to find ways to halt the body’s aging process, feeding consumers willing to spend a cumulative amount that could erase a small country’s debt in exchange for their very own fountain of youth.

Science edges ever closer to finding the solution to combating the complex process, but in the meantime, one man may have found a way to keep human beings young forever — on paper, at least: future-realist filmmaker Andrew Niccol. Niccol’s skill in bringing together big action set pieces and big ideas in unexpected ways, in fantastical yet recognizable worlds is in full evidence in his new feature.

“In Time is an action thriller,” Niccol points out. “I think people can enjoy it on that level. They’ll go for the stunts, action, car chases and to see Amanda Seyfried wielding a gun, which she does brilliantly! But I think audiences will appreciate some of the ideas and themes we explore, because In Time does say something about our desire to stay young forever.

While we can’t turn off the aging gene, as we’re able to do in the film, we do go to a lot of extremes to stay young.” Niccol, a New Zealander, had honed his filmmaking skills in London directing commercials, before arriving in Hollywood with a splash as writer and director of Gattaca.

The following year, he penned The Truman Show, which garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Niccol’s ability to bring together bold, new ideas with instantly relatable ones resonated with producer Eric Newman. “Like all of Andrew’s work, his screenplay for In Time really transported me, and I found myself in a world he had created,” Newman recalls.

“It was a parable, a socially conscious work and yet, like all his work, it was incredibly entertaining, fast-paced and brilliant.” Executive producer Andrew Z. Davis was eager to work on a film that was both a great ride and a social commentary: “In Time has resonance. Everyone can relate to a story about haves and have-nots, which is essentially what the story’s about.

But, at the same time, it has action, romance, and a political message. And as everyone knows, a good thriller has to have a ticking clock, whether you’re waiting for a bomb to go off or a hostage to get rescued. In this movie, it is actually a clock; time is the great discriminator.”

Executive producer Kristel Laiblin was taken with the intricacies of Niccol’s work and the flourishes in his storytelling: “Andrew’s way with telling a story is economical and evocative. The world of our hero moves quickly; no one wastes time.  At the opposite end is the world of the wealthy, where you’d never see anyone timing out.

You can spend time however you want—a leisurely game, like cards, which no one would play elsewhere. They are completely different worlds and Andrew created them both vividly in a few pages.”

Amy Israel, an executive producer on In Time, was at New Regency Productions when Niccol brought in the project and she, like all of her colleagues, sharply remembers her first read: “Andrew’s script was original, had a big idea and had a compelling emotional story at its core. It was special, and we all knew that from the start.

And the story took place in a world not unlike our own, sort of an alternate reality. Here, time is currency, and everyone is born with a body clock embedded on the wrist. At the age of 25, when the frontal lobe of the brain and the body are considered fully matured, that clock starts ticking – and you have one year to live.

Either you’re born into time, and have no worries, or you begin working your life away, literally.” Producer Eric Newman notes the speed with which Niccol introduces this world in his script. “The biggest challenge in a movie like this is how do we sell the world?” Newman explains. “Andrew did it in the first three pages of the script.

Will Salas wakes up, walks into a room, and there is a beautiful 25-year-old woman and he says, ‘Hi, Mom.’ And he’s got this counter on his wrist, and it’s counting down. And his mother gives him 30 minutes for lunch. You understand immediately that Will has 22 hours to live [unless he can obtain more time].

And that’s his mother, even though they appear the same age, and she just gave him time to buy a decent lunch. That’s brilliance in economy, which is difficult to accomplish in a script.”

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