Nolan Leaves Gotham City for His Next Movie

That third Batman movie is going to have to wait. Christopher Nolan has announced his intentions to direct Inception, which The Hollywood Reporter says is a "contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind." Nolan wrote the script and it's set to go into production this summer, with Warner Bros. shooting for a summer 2010 release. "Chris Nolan is a visionary filmmaker who continually raises the bar with each movie he makes," said WB honcho Jeff Robinov. "We are thrilled to be collaborating again with him and Emma on this exciting new motion picture." I have no idea what "set within the architecture of the mind" could mean, but Warner Bros is kind of compelled to release anything Nolan makes at this point. All through this process, we'd been telling people to keep an even keel, noting that Nolan took a break between the first two Batman movies and he'd likely space them out again. He's earned the studio over $1.5 billion with four films, and granted, The Dark Knight is two-thirds of that. But science fiction sounds like a good place for Nolan to land. Ant it puts off those Batvillain rumors at least for another year.

Comments

[Lengthy Johnson]

I bet that script went down like a lead balloon with WB.

"Wtf?! No Batman!?"

I knew Nolan would do this, anyway, as he did with The Prestige. People even thought that The Prestige was a cover for the next Batman movie.

That's what happens when you start catering to the masses.

[Get The Big Picture]

Yeah, to me the best thing about this project is that Warner Bros. has no idea how to explain it. Nolan won't go for the cash, which is what a lot of directors would do with this clout. He's going to go way out there, or it sounds that way.

[Anybody]

Prestige is still Nolan's best work so I'm stoked that he's doing something in between Batmans again (not that I'm not looking forward to the third film but the worst thing they could do is rush one out). And as always, I'm glad to see he's writing the film with his bro, who's maybe one of the best writers of big budget flicks working today. The more Nolan the better...

[Lengthy Johnson]

Insomnia is actually Nolan's best film. The Prestige is number three, after Memento.

The Batmans are just a waste of his talent.

[Asana]

You may deem his Bat flicks as a waste LJ but to me it just broadens the scope of what Nolan is capable of doing. It's undoubtedly now more a question of what can't he do? It also sets the bar for such material to a level that I doubt few others could replicate. Superhero films needed a legitimizing force to avoid being cast as all hype and special effects without substance, Nolan provided that legitimacy.

[Lengthy Johnson]

Well, I thought the first couple of Spiderman films were fairly decent comic book films.

There was really no need for Nolan to waste his talent on showing people how to make comic book movies. There are too many of those anyway.

With his first two films, Nolan was starting something very exiting. He was a new, thoughtful, intelligent and aesthetic voice in film making.

That all derailed with the first Batman. The Prestige wasn't as good as his first two films and The Dark Knight is just a mess if you take Ledger out of it.