The Surprising Legacy of <em>Inception</em>, 10 Years Later
A year after the release of his 2010 film, Inception, Christopher Nolan invited some of the movie industry’s most prominent directors—Michael Bay, Jon Favreau, Edgar Wright, and others—to a special screening in Los Angeles. He treated them to the first six minutes of his next film, The Dark Knight Rises, on an IMAX screen, the huge canvas that had become a trademark for Nolan’s movies. Afterward, he took the stage and said, “I have an ulterior motive for bringing you here,” before arguing for the importance of directors shooting films on celluloid, rather than adapting to the new norm of using digital cameras.
“For me the choice [between in a later interview. “The message I wanted to put out there was that no one is taking anyone’s digital cameras away. But if we want film to continue as an option, and someone is working on a big studio movie with the resources and the power to insist [on] film, they should say so.” The 2011 screening was the first time the director assumed the mantle of defending cinematic traditions, trying to preserve what he saw as a crucial artistic pillar being eroded by business interests. , which just celebrated its 10th anniversary,was the project that invested him with that authority. It was a wholly original blockbuster attached to no existing property, depicted on the grandest scale possible, featuring one of the biggest movie stars (Leonardo DiCaprio) in the world. And it made more than $800 million globally.
