It’s no rarity for blockbuster Hollywood directors to dream big. Dreaming big and smart, though, is Christopher Nolan’s specialty.
Nolan elevated the superhero thriller to high art with “The Dark Knight,” his follow-up to “Batman Begins.” He pushed the bounds of illusion and perception in the thrillers “Insomnia” and “The Prestige.”
Now Nolan is casting audiences into the subconscious of Leonardo DiCaprio and his co-stars with “Inception” — essentially, a heist movie taking place in people’s dreams.
The scale, action and visual effects are as grand as those in the biggest summer popcorn flick. “Inception” also offers a depth in theme, story and characters seldom seen in huge Hollywood spectacles.
“I view the film first and foremost as a large-scale thrill ride. That’s what it’s always been intended to be for me,” Nolan said in an interview.
Nolan and distributor Warner Bros. have played coy about “Inception,” only gradually revealing plot points to stoke the imagination of fans.
The movie’s trailers have been artful teases loaded with wild images — a train barreling through traffic down a city street, characters hurtling about the walls and ceiling of a hotel hall in a gravity-defying fight scene, a section of Paris tilting up and folding in on itself.
The film co-stars Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page and past Nolan collaborators Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine.
“There’s a lot riding on ‘Inception,’ ” said Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who co-stars as DiCaprio’s right-hand man in an operation to sneak into people’s dreams and steal their secrets.
“This is going to really send a very strong signal to the mainstream movie industry that if this movie does really well, you don’t need to have some sort of prepackaged, market-researched brand in order to make a big hit movie. What people really respond to is good storytelling and compelling human drama.”
Writer-director Nolan said he dreamed up the idea about a decade ago, as his independent hit “Memento” was opening studio doors for him.
Next, the British filmmaker is returning to the franchise that made him a Hollywood heavyweight. His brother is writing the screenplay for a new “Batman” movie, but the director declined to discuss the prospects of an “Inception” sequel.
“I refuse to answer the question on the grounds that I don’t want to jinx the film,” Nolan said. “My fingers are crossed, and I’m hopeful that the film is going to be a success for the studio, because they really supported me making a film that I’m very, very passionate about. But I’m very, very superstitious.”
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