A ridiculously talented director + a great cast + an interesting and original story + amazing imagery + jaw dropping action + heartfelt emotions= win win win win win win win win win win……and more win. Inception is finally in cinemas now and believe you me it does not disappoint. By a stretch it’s my favourite film of the year, Christopher Nolan has truly become the modern master of balancing entertainment and substance. 2010 has been a great year for Leonardo DiCaprio after an amazing performance in Shutter Island and now with an even more astonishing performance in Inception. I caught up with Christopher Nolan and Leonardo DiCaprio – two men at the top of their games - at the London Press conference for Inception. Check out what they had to say below:

What was your initial inspiration behind Inception, and how did it develop into the movie it is today?

Christopher Nolan: I’d always wanted to make a film that addressed dreams, and do something set in that world. About ten years ago I focused in on the idea of a exploring a technology that might allow people to share dreams, and the uses and abuses of that, and came up with this idea of doing a heist film set in the world of dreams with a technology that could be used to penetrate a person’s subconscious.

Inception is an emotionally complex and complicated film. When you were first approached to appear in the film, did you understand it?

Leonardo DiCaprio: It certainly took a couple of readings, but it was really the interaction with Chris, one-on-one. It’s an idea that’s been locked in his mind for eight years now. So for me a lot of the preparation was understanding what he wanted to accomplish and achieve. Being able to sit down with him and understand that he had this concept of doing a highly entertaining Hollywood film, that is existential, cerebral, surreal, and that delves into various states of the subconscious. The way that he wanted to put that up on screen involved us really talking with him at great lengths to truly understand his concepts.

How did you find the process of creating the rules of Inception’s dream worlds, as compared to the realism of The Dark Knight?

Christopher Nolan: I think that with every film you take on, you try to establish the rules and the tone of what you’re working with. In taking on the idea of dreams, you have a real burden on the rules of the film, because dreams are infinite and have infinite potential, which is the thing that really makes them fascinating in the first place. But it also makes them hard to address in drama, because anything can happen, and therefore how does anything matter? The rules of the world were designed to impose limits. The key thing for that, in my head, was to make it the story of a con, as soon as you take on the idea of trying to fool somebody and creating a reality for somebody else, naturally the team have to adhere to certain rules within the dream to avoid fracturing the reality of it.

Did you have get up to scratch on the world of dreams when researching your role?

Leonardo DiCaprio: I tried to take a very traditional approach to researching this film and read the analysis of dreams immediately and tried to pick apart the psychology of what things represented in the dream world. But I quickly realised that this was a whole new type of preparation, that meant basically talking with Chris at great length about this cathartic therapy session my character goes on, the psychoanalysis. In doing that we created this really powerful emotional journey.

As far as the analysis of the dreams in this movie, and how Chris was going to make four different states of the human subconscious interact with each other in a cohesive plot structure, I left that ENTIRELY up to Chris (laughs). I did not want to get involved, because Chris is obviously very capable of pulling off complex narratives like this and making them emotionally engaging for an audience. It’s reassuring as an actor to know you’re dealing with someone who has a great track record of accomplishing stuff like that. As far as my own dreams, I’m not a big dreamer, I think obviously we suppress things in life, emotions and thoughts, we wake up, and we should look at that. Ironically I had a really powerful dream the other day, I won’t get into the details of what it was but I remember sitting there saying to myself, forgetting totally that I’ve done this movie, but saying to myself, wait a minute, these details in this dream are real and I can create these dreams and manipulate the environment, I’ve heard this somewhere before (laughs). And I started to play with the dream in a very surreal way. I had that moment of knowing I was dreaming and being able to combat my surrounding so it was kind of cool. I had no previous knowledge I had done Inception or heard of this movie in that dream state so it was kind of fun.

The film was kept under a wraps. Why was this, and was it difficult to maintain such secrecy?

Christopher Nolan: It’s difficult to keep anything fresh in movies these days, with technology being what it is people seem to know everything there is to know before you’ve even made it. For me, as a film goer, I like nothing more than to sit in a cinema, have the lights go down and not know what I’m about to see and every time we go to make a film we do everything we can to just systematize things so we’re able to make the film in private. So then once it’s finished it’s up to the audience to make of it what they will.

What were the challenges of making this movie?

Christopher Nolan: For me, the underlying tone of the thing is best summed up by Leo’s character in the film when he says that dreams feel real while we’re in them. So everything we did in a production sense was an attempt to try and retain a tactile sense of reality to the world of the dreams, so they felt like possible worlds even as impossible things were happening. This creates challenges for all departments, for example, when you have a freight train barrelling down the street smashing cars and things. We wanted to do these things for real, so they would feel possible to the audience and that we wouldn’t have an obviously surreal quality to things. That’s why we went to all these locations and travelled all around the world, and shot in blizzards and so forth.

Inception is in cinemas NOW (finally!)

I was fortunate enough to attend a press screening for Inception today. After leaving the screening I’ve been feeling supremely enthusiastic, motivated and awe inspired. It was even better than I expected. I’m sure it will be my favourite film of 2010. It’s truly a feast for your eyes and mind, it’s the complete picture. To keep you salivating Warner Bros have unleashed these four new clips from the film. Inception is in UK cinemas July 16th. Interviews coming soon!

Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan directs an international cast in an original sci-fi actioner that travels around the globe and into the intimate and infinite world of dreams. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible–inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming. This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime. Inception is directed by Christopher Nolan and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger and Michael Caine.

My anticipation for this film has reached stratospherical proportions. Christopher Nolan has become the modern master of balancing entertainment and substance, this 2 minute clip showcases that perfectly. This character driven featurette gives us a better look at the characters involved in the film and cements the film as this years most anticipated film…….for me that is.

Inception is directed by Christopher Nolan and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger and Michael Caine. Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan directs an international cast in an original sci-fi actioner that travels around the globe and into the intimate and infinite world of dreams. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible–inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming. This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime.

This is the last clip or trailer I’m going to watch for Inception, I’m already ridiculously excited for this film, there’s a strong possibility I’ll wet my pants in excitement while watching it. It looks about as intense as falling into a volcano while being attacked by a bear. Enjoy the TV Spot below.

Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan directs an international cast in an original sci-fi actioner that travels around the globe and into the intimate and infinite world of dreams. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible–inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming. This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime. Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine

I’ve only gone a few days without gushing over this film so I’m not going to write much, especially with a new trailer coming in a few days. This poster did give me a mangasm though – when a man, has an extreme rush of joy similar to an orgasm from something manly/awesome, I thought I should put that out there. Below is the official synopsis.

Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan directs an international cast in an original sci-fi actioner that travels around the globe and into the intimate and infinite world of dreams. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible–inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming. This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime. Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine

Martin Scorsese’s latest film and fourth collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio tells the story of two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who are summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island’s fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane. If you like your films predictable and wrapped up in a little bow Shutter Island is definitely not for you, it’s twisted and creepy. Leonardo DiCaprio recently talked to me about Shutter Island, if you missed my interview with the living legend Martin Scorsese, check it out here. Shutter Island is in cinemas now

You must of put yourself through hell for this role, your character goes through some pretty dark places. What was the interest in doing that?

Leonardo DiCaprio: It was the nature of the material, when I first read the book and the screenplay it was a complex jigsaw puzzle, the line that reality starts and dreams begin for my characters past. His past is blurred but through the course of the movie you learn about different aspects of his mind. He’s learning the truth, it’s a truth about his past, that is a traumatic truth and in order to tell this story of this complicated character study we had to keep pushing these story lines further and further. In order for one set of circumstances to be believable we had to push emotional extremes in another set of circumstances. Me and Martin kept pushing my character to darker and darker places through the course of the film, it was surprising for both of us because reading from a screenplay there’s only so much you can extract. It shocked us the levels we had to put in to this.

It must have been weird finishing up on set then going about your normal life?

Leonardo DiCaprio: I have to admit going home I’d be in a sombre mood from some of the emotional extremes, that’s just the nature of playing a character with extreme emotional trauma. For the most part I do try to isolate myself from people when I’m filming anyway, there were a few weeks towards the end of filming where I had a laps of understanding where I was, because we kept pushing this guy further and further, day after day of rein-acting an event that was either a dream or that was either reality, I remember saying to Marty what am I doing right now, what’s going on, he just said don’t worry do the scene again (laughs) it’s ok keep pushing it. It’s great to have a guy you trust and you see as a mentor in situations like that because you are making yourself vulnerable. Through our relationship and the years with we’ve worked with each other it made it a lot easier.

It must have been demanding physically and mentally?

Leonardo DiCaprio: By shear necessity to survive the film making process I do switch off when I go home. Ultimately I’m challenged by these types of characters, maybe this is the most challenging role for me to date, physically yes but emotionally more so, it does give me great excitement though, this character is difficult to talk about because we want the audience to have that virgin experience, we were also conscious we were making a film that would have a completely different interpretation the second time watching it, that could take on different meanings. There’s a certain level of ambiguity at the ending of the film and in fact through a lot of it that could lend the audience to having a different experience on further viewing, that added even more of a challenge the way I played Teddy, pushing him to different extremes. It was one of the most challenging roles but at the same time I relish those experiences.

We’re used to seeing you play very intense and complex characters are we ever gonna see you in a comedy or a romance?

Leonardo DiCaprio: (Laughs) I don’t know really, I just respond to what I read,what I’ve read and took on has moved me some way and gained my interest, they throw me back to what moved me in cinema at a very early age. These were the type of characters I’ve also felt emotionally connected to and I think you never fully feel satisfied that you’ve found THAT role. I’m driven in my mind to be able to get close to some of the great master works of great performers I’ve seen in cinema since years past, I don’t know if that thirst will ever be quenched. I would love to try other genres but it depends what moves me emotionally.

The 2nd Inception Trailer has been finally released after much anticipation. I’m not gonna write alot about it, the visuals speak for themselves it looks EPIC, I’m truly pumped for this, the imagery looks ridiculous. I like how Warner Brothers are approaching the film, it’s got a real mystique about it in that it’s not giving away too much but still giving us enough to want much much more and keep us guessing. Christopher Nolan’s succession of great films doesn’t looks like it’s gonna stop – Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight……..

The plot is top secret, we’ve only been given extremely brief information about the film, all we know about it is that it’s a – “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” “Inception is about entering peoples’ minds/dreams. A technology to do so has been developed and is done through an injection. DiCaprio and his team work to enter the minds of other characters in order to retrieve/plant information.” Nolan wrote the original screenplay himself, Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard. The film will open on July 16th, 2010, in both traditional theaters and in IMAX. DiCaprio is a CEO character named Cobb, Ellen Page is Ariadne -a grad student working for Cobb and a sidekick of sorts, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Arthur – an associate to Cobb at his company, Tom Hardy is Eames, Ken Watanabe is Saito, Dileep Rao is Yusef, Cillian Murphy is Fischer, Tom Berenger is Browning and Marion Cotillard plays Cobb’s wife.

The 2nd poster for Inception has been released just a couple days before we are blessed with the second Inception, I like this poster much more than the 1st one that I posted last week. It reminded it me of the Jokers Dark Knight Poster too much. I’m amped for this, I don’t even need posters or trailers, they’re just adding to my anticipation!

The plot is top secret, we’ve only been given extremely brief information about the film, all we know about it is that it’s a – “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” “Inception is about entering peoples’ minds/dreams. A technology to do so has been developed and is done through an injection. DiCaprio and his team work to enter the minds of other characters in order to retrieve/plant information.” Nolan wrote the original screenplay himself, Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard. The film will open on July 16th, 2010, in both traditional theaters and in IMAX. DiCaprio is a CEO character named Cobb, Ellen Page is Ariadne -a grad student working for Cobb and a sidekick of sorts, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Arthur – an associate to Cobb at his company, Tom Hardy is Eames, Ken Watanabe is Saito, Dileep Rao is Yusef, Cillian Murphy is Fischer, Tom Berenger is Browning and Marion Cotillard plays Cobb’s wife.

Inception is shaping up to be the film I’m anticipating most in 2010, I’m a big fan of Christopher Nolan, I loved Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, Batman Begins and of course The Dark Knight, unlike 99% of directors he hasn’t made a film I haven’t enjoyed (yet).

The plot is top secret, we’ve only been given extremely brief information about the film, all we knowabout it is that it’s a – “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” “Inception is about entering peoples’ minds/dreams. A technology to do so has been developed and is done through an injection. DiCaprio and his team work to enter the minds of other characters in order to retrieve/plant information.” Nolan wrote the original screenplay himself, Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard. The film will open on July 16th, 2010, in both traditional theaters and in IMAX. DiCaprio is a CEO character named Cobb, Ellen Page is Ariadne -a grad student working for Cobb and a sidekick of sorts, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Arthur – an associate to Cobb at his company, Tom Hardy is Eames, Ken Watanabe is Saito, Dileep Rao is Yusef, Cillian Murphy is Fischer, Tom Berenger is Browning and Marion Cotillard plays Cobb’s wife.

After Martin Scorsese announced he is set to direct a biopic based on the life of Frank Sinatra a bunch of questions were raised around which aspects of Sinatra’s life the film show, he was an extremely complex man. It will be hard to fit everything into one film, will it just show his career in music and film – which in itself was legendary and lasted over 50 years, will it include his childhood, his Mob ties, his depression, his family life, his varying political activities and changing beliefs and the question I will covering in this feature, which actor will have the daunting task of playing the man himself? Playing an Icon as big a star as Frank Sinatra will be no mean feet.

In a recent interview with New York Magazine Scorsese said of the film ‘ it spans his life from being a young child to his twenties, his thirties to his late seventies, inter-cuts everything throughout time. ‘ This could mean he uses a number of actors to play Sinatra or he goes The Curious Case of Benjamin Button route and gets one actor to play the different ages. One thing that won’t be necessary for the part is the singing voice of Sinatra, reports have said Peter Guber and Cathy Schulman, the producers from Universal Pictures and Mandalay Pictures have secured rights to use Sinatra’s original recordings in the film from Frank Sinatra Enterprises — a joint venture of the Sinatra Estate and Warner Music Group. During Sinatra’s life he worked with and was friends with some of the biggest names of the 20^th Century so expect a huge ensemble cast. This looks to be EPIC!

James Franco

James Franco is my personal favourite for the part, he looks a lot like a younger Frank Sinatra, he’s a great actor and I personally think having someone who isn’t the biggest star playing such a huge star would be more beneficial to the film, you would focus more on the character than a star playing a star, I can see the tagline’s now – ‘Johnny Depp IS Frank Sinatra’ too me that takes a little bit away from the man as a character, I think the role of Sinatra will be a great step for his burgeoning career as well

James Mardsen

I had a little look online to see what the movie community is saying about the role, a number of people brought up Marsden, which to be honest I hadn’t even thought about, he is a very good young actor who’s career is building with every film he’s in, he does also have the look for Sinatra – maybe a bit too pretty boyish.

Leonardo DiCaprio

If I was a betting man I’d put my money on Leonardo DiCaprio he’s appeared in Scorsese’s last four films (including Shutter Island which is coming out Febuary 2010) and is his current muse. For me he doesn’t have the look down at all and I think him being such a big star himself will take away from Frank Sinatra. I can see him playing another part in the film though, possibly John F Kennedy (he looks like him).

Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp looks like he’s’ the studio bet for the part, he’s currently the most popular and arguably the most famous actor and would bring in his huge audience, he’s a great actor so it could definitely work and he does resemble him slightly (not as much as Franco and Mardsen though). The draw back for me is like Leo, I’m not completely confident in having a mega star play a mega star, I could understand if he was playing someone less commercially known, like Robert Di Niro did with Jake Lamotta in ‘Raging Bull’ but he’s not. Depp is great for the tortured soul sort of rolls but to me he’s not that masculine.

Christian Bale

Christian Bale is my dark horse for the role, he doesn’t’ look particularity like him, but out of all the younger actors today he is possibly the best at playing complex characters, I dunno if he’s be interested in playing another iconic roll though – he’s already been Batamn, John Connor and Bob Dylan (kind of)

Harry Connick Jnr

Harry Conner is the modern day Frank Sinatra and has got the crooner click your finger and sing in a tux roll on lock! I definitely wouldn’t be mad at him being cast, he has acted in films before, I don’t know about him carrying a whole film by himself but he’d definitely be a good choice.

Other possibilities include George Clooney, who Tina Sinatra, Frank’s daughter, has said she would like to play him. I can only see him playing an older Sinatra. Robert Pattinson has threw his hat in the ring himself, I would HATE to see him play Sinatra, whats he gonna play a moping around emo version of Frank

Sinatra is set for realease 2011