It’s been 519 days since we first learned about Christopher Nolan’s next project. Today is July 16, 2010 and Inception is now.
Over the past year and five months, we’ve written 119 Inception-related news articles (this is #120) and now, right now, theaters across North America are opening their doors for displays of Mr. Nolan’s seventh feature film.
Go see it. Enjoy it. Love it.
Inception premiered stateside last night in Los Angeles, opening with an excellent live concert featuring Hans Zimmer and Johnny Marr. The Los Angeles Times managed to catch most of the film’s cast on the red carpet (or, well, red and black carpet) for quick interviews. First up is Leonardo DiCaprio. Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Lukas Haas, Dileep Rao, Ken Watanabe, Hans Zimmer, and Johnny Marr after the jump.
Although Christopher Nolan admitted that Inception‘s snowy action got “quite a bit” of the urge to do a James Bond film out of his system, he recently told the BBC that a Bond film is something he would love to do. “I’ve loved the Bond films since I was a kid. For me, they’re always about the expansiveness of cinema. The first Bond films set up infinite possibilities about the world they create. I’d love to do a Bond film.”
007′s influence on Inception is something both proclaimed by Nolan and noticed by many critics. Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers called the film “James Bond meets ‘The Matrix,’” a line now being used to sell audiences in Inception’s latest TV spots. “The Bond influence on the film was very intentional because, for me, growing up with the Bond films – they’ve always stood for grand-scale action,” said Nolan. And Inception does seem to have its fair share of espionage, globetrotting, fine suits, and exciting set pieces. The character name Dom Cobb even sort of has that James Bond ring to it.
The prospect of Nolan doing a Bond film is an interesting one. Although he’s committed to Batman through 2012, that film’s (very likely) success will put Nolan in a position to do tackle nearly any project he desires thereafter. But even with MGM’s near bankruptcy putting Bond 23 on indefinite hold, director Sam Mendes is apparently willing to wait for the studio to get itself sorted out (according to Deadline). All in all, a Bond film directed by Nolan is not something we should expect to see anytime soon. But considering the franchise’s fifty years of success, who’s to say Nolan won’t eventually get a chance to direct the MI6 agent?
So here’s an opportunity to take your mind off of Inception for a couple minutes – MTV SplashPage is reporting that Chris Columbus (the man behind the first two Harry Potter films) is rumored to have been offered the job to direct the next Superman movie. The screenplay, as you know, is being written by Batman Begins scribe David S. Goyer and is rumored to be titled Man of Steel. Christopher Nolan decided to oversee the project in a producer-like role after Goyer told the Dark Knight director ‘I have this thought about how you would approach Superman’ sometime earlier this year.
Since then, David S. Goyer himself and Christopher Nolan’s brother Jonathan have both been rumored to be under consideration to direct the new Superman. But MTV is reporting that Columbus is said to be “the right fit” for the superhero film according to insiders at Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Could they be this far in the process of setting up the film?
More recently, Christopher Nolan told MTV News that his current focus is on fine tuning the right story for Superman rather than finding the right actor.
“It’s all about figuring out exactly the tone and meaning of the story and how you’re going to approach it,” said Nolan. “Casting comes later, and all of those considerations come later.”
Read the full article over at MTV SplashPage to get the full scoop. What do you think of Chris Columbus directing Man of Steel? Is he the right fit?
UPDATE (July 13, 2010): It looks like this rumor has been busted. Chris Columbus will not be directing Man of Steel.
For those of you that have followed Inception‘s production updates over the past year, much of the twenty-six pages worth of production notes that were released on the film’s official website may feel relatively familiar. That said, the notes still reveal many aspects of the characters, filming locations, and music that have previously gone undiscussed. This article, however, will be as informative as possible without delving into the certain details that may be considered spoilerish.
Leonardo DiCaprio on Inception and Cobb:
“It is this highly entertaining, complex thriller where anything can happen, but at the heart is one man’s quest to uncover a long-buried truth and to get back home. [...]No matter how surreal the dream state, everything needed to be grounded in our connection with the character; everything had to be emotionally charged. From Cobb’s standpoint there is something very real at stake, so all his choices, his reactions, and how he deals with the people he’s working with is a means to one end: getting back his life.”
