Nolan tackles 'Inception' for WB
Studio gets 'Dark Knight' director for sci-fi pic



Warner Bros. is tying up a big deal with its "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan for a big-scale spec script titled "Inception" that Nolan wrote and will direct as his likely next film.

WB is aiming for a summer 2010 release; production begins this summer.

Nolan will produce with Emma Thomas.

Christopher Nolan inks 'Inception'
Sets up original screenplay at Warner Bros.



Christopher Nolan has set up his next project with Warner Bros., an original screenplay he wrote called "Inception." The "Dark Knight" director hopes to shoot the sci-fi action film in the summer for a release during summer 2010.

Nolan will produce with partner Emma Thomas, who served as a producer on "The Dark Knight."

"Chris Nolan is a visionary filmmaker who continually raises the bar with each movie he makes," Warner Bros. Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov said. "We are thrilled to be collaborating again with him and Emma on this exciting new motion picture."

Given the billion-dollar bonanza Nolan delivered with "Knight," one would suppose a treatment based on some poems he wrote in his fifth-grade journal would have gotten the green light. The writer-director-producer has done well by the studio, with "Insomnia," "Batman Begins" and "The Prestige" bringing in close to half a billion in additional theatrical revenue.

"Inception" is described as "a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind."

This pushes back any potential filming on a new Batman film, but three years -- and "The Prestige" -- passed between "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight." Nolan has also long been attached to direct a big-screen adaptation of the British TV series "The Prisoner" for producer Scott Stuber at Universal.

The CAA-repped Nolan wrote the screenplays for "Memento," based on a short story written by his brother, Jonathan, and "Following," his debut feature in 1998. The only directing project he hasn't written is "Insomnia," his 2002 remake of the Norwegian thriller.

He and Jonathan (with story credit) earned Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for their "Memento" script, which won an Independent Spirit Award for best screenplay and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance in 2001. Their "Dark Knight" screenplay earned a WGA Award nomination this year for best adapted screenplay (with David S. Goyer).

Bigger than Batman: Christopher Nolan says 'Inception' is 'the biggest challenge I've taken on'



So what exactly is “Inception”? That’s a popular question after a visually dazzling but enigmatic trailer was released for a film that didn’t exactly clear things up with its title.

Is it an international thriller? A story of madness and lost love? Or Hollywood’s very first metaphysical heist movie? The answer is “all of the above,” according to writer-director Christopher Nolan, whose follow-up to “The Dark Knight” seems to have Ian Fleming, the Wachowski Brothers and Sigmund Freud as its spiritual advisors.

“I think we’ve put a lot of different things into the pot with this one,” Nolan said this week during a break from the editing bay.

“I grew up watching James Bond films and loving those and watching spy movies with their globetrotting sensibility.... We get to do that here, not just geographically but also in time and dimensions of reality as well. We get to make a movie that’s expansive, I suppose you’d say, in four dimensions.”

The Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. release is shaping up as one of the most intriguing releases of 2010. Leonardo DiCaprio leads a cast that includes Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Ken Watanabe.

The film was produced by Emma Thomas, who is Nolan's wife as well as his career partner. She said that "Inception" is a story that requires a huge canvas. The pair didn't set out looking for a way to top their Batman epic in scope, that's just where Nolan's "Inception" script took them.

“It’s something that we had been talking about on and off for seven or eight years," Thomas said. "Coming off of the ‘The Dark Knight,’ the only thing we really knew is that we wanted to do something more personal. It seemed like the right time to do this. The fact that it’s really just an enormous movie -- that wasn’t ever really a factor in the decision. This story lends itself to a movie of this size."

A key part of the premise is corporate espionage by way of dream invasion, but motives and even reality are slippery in a film that toys with perception as its travels through time and space. The crew covered a lot of territory too, filming in six countries.

“This is the biggest challenge I’ve taken on to this point,” said Nolan, who may return to Gotham City for his next feature. “We’re trying to tell a story on a massive scale, a true blockbuster scale – the biggest I’ve ever been involved with. We tried to make a very large-scale film with ‘The Dark Knight’ and with this one we wanted to push that even further.”

Leonardo DiCaprio Says Inception “Didn’t Make Sense to Many of Us When We Were Doing It”

The material and its complexity are what I’m attracted to…I’ve been lucky to work with people who want to tell stories that hit on different cylinders simultaneously. ‘Shutter Island’ is definitely that. ‘Inception’ is the same. It is Chris delving into dream psychoanalysis and, at the same time, making a high-octane, surreal film that came from his mind. He wrote the entire thing, and it all made sense to him. It didn’t make sense to many of us when we were doing it. We had to do a lot of detective work (laughing) to figure out what the movie was about.

New Inception Tidbits: Plot Details Confirmed, Running Time and Conception



There hasn’t been much new on the Inception front recently, but I thought I’d cover some of the recent tidbits we’ve missed.

/Film Shane T informs us that in the February issue of Empire Magazine, there is a very brief mention of Inception in the “On-Set Preview” section, where it states that writer/director Christopher Nolan came up with the idea for the movie when he was only 16 years old. Crazy…

Secondly, Playlist has also reprinted a quote Nolan gave the magazine which further confirms the leaked plot line from last year:

“Basically the film deals with levels of reality, and perceptions of reality which is something I’m very interested in. Its an action film set in a contemporary world, but with a slight science-fiction bent to it. Cobb [Leonardo DiCaprio's character], who is the center of things and expert in a particular technology that the film revolves around, has put this team around him [Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon Levitt]. It’s very much an ensemble film structured somewhat as a heist movie. It’s an action adventure that spans the globe.”

And lastly, star Leonardo Dicaprio was recently interviewed by movies.ie where he was asked about Inception, and answered:

“I can tell you it’s about two hours long, give or take,” DiCaprio smiles. “Anything more than that, and Chris has vowed to have me strung up by my tongue…”

Christopher Nolan Filmed Some of Inception Using 65mm, Calls 3D “An Interesting Development”

“We have the highest quality image of any film that’s being made and that allows us to reformat the film for any distribution form that we’d like to put it in. We’re definitely going to do an IMAX release. We’re excited about doing that and using our original negative 65mm photography to maximize the effect of that release.”

“3D I think is an interesting development in movies or the resurgence of 3D. It’s something we’re looking at and watching. There are certain limitations of shooting in 3D. You have to shoot on video, which I’m not a fan of. I like shooting on film. And so then you’re looking at post-conversion processes which are moving forward in very exciting ways.”

ya, should put in the "watch at your own risk" tag, my bad

but have faith in Nolan, there is still more about this movie that have not been revealed

yea...there are a few that i like. Dream within a dream, Time, and 528491 are my favs from the OST

This movie has an insane 9.3/10 on IMDB with over 5,000 ratings cast by users. Impressive.

I am tempted to reduce my rating to a 9/10 but 4 screenings in 4 days is f***ing mad. I'll let the film settle and I'll decide when the BD is out.

Oh the rating will come down definitely. Way down. IMDb sucks anyway, especially for new movies, where fanboys all vote 10.

Btw, 20,000k is 20 million.

ARGHHHH somehow that eerie music like the 28 days later theme song gets stuck in my head. The part where things were falling apart, building began collapsing and crumbled down.

Why INCEPTION Should Have Been Made In Native 3D

*Minor Spoilers*

I don't know about you guys but I loved INCEPTION. I saw it twice this weekend and may take it in again soon. It is hard to take it all in with only one or two screenings so a third screening is more than likely for me.

But it could have been even better. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. I think Christopher Nolan's achievement with the film is one of Hollywood's definitive moments in history. But in all seriousness he could have knocked this one out of the park with 3D.

How would INCEPTION be improved with 3D? The superb slow motion sequences, the zero gravity and 360 degree fight scenes, the various architect's environment manipulations, the chase scenes, the list goes on. 3D would have brought us into their dream states all that much more. It would have been spectacular to see the streets of Paris flip upside down in 3D and see that illusion of depth in the outdoor mirror scene.

What would have suffered or not existed at all in 3D? Parts of the movie just would not work in 3D, like the shaky cam scenes or the extremely fast cut fight sequences. Nolan could have still worked those bits in though using longer takes and less emphasis on shaky cam for realism and more on immersion. It would have worked.

Will Nolan work in 3D in the future? Yes. I don't think he has a choice - especially with his relationship with Warner Bros. who are embracing 3D wholeheartedly. It is the future of cinema.

Nolan's recent stance on 3D has been: "We did tests on 'Inception' with the different post-conversion processes, and they all went very well," Nolan told the crowd during a Q&A. "It's quite easy to do, in fact. But it takes a little time, and we didn't have time to do it to the standards that I would be happy with."

"There is no question if audiences want to watch films in stereoscopic imaging, that's what the studios will be doing, and that's what I'll be doing."

Michael Bay has no choice either. That's why TRANSFORMERS 3 will be in 3D. It is happening now whether you planned on it or not. Audiences have spoken. Both Bay and Nolan prefer to work in 35mm but with 3D pushing harder and harder, combined with the backlash against 3D conversion (which 35mm mandates) you will see both of these men start to work with digital. I don't think they will settle for 3D conversion at this point though. As that technology improves they will adjust but for now I think they will want native 3D.

In the end, I am still very satisfied with the movie. I still shake my head at times in the movie, thinking "what if" but it is a thoroughly enjoyable movie.

Damon Lindelof on 'Inception' ending (pic)
[Spoiler Alert!] Only the showrunner of “Lost” could take the ending of “Inception” and simultaneously blow your mind and confuse the crap out of you a little further. Here's Damon Lindelof weighing in on the two common interpretations of the movie's last scene ...