Preview Of 'Inception', 'The Dark Knight' Director Christopher Nolan's New Feature

Perhaps the shock of such quality sneaking its way into a modern tentpole picture was why critics embraced The Dark Knight with such glee, and why audiences made it one of the highest grossing films of all time (reaching over $1 billion worldwide). Nolan was probably the most relieved: he filmed his comic book epic in cities all over the world, worked with one of the most volatile actors in Hollywood (Christian Bale) from a possibly career-ending (if it tanked) $185 million budget, all for the sake of art. The poor chap must have been exhausted.

You would think, then, that he might want a break. Not Nolan.

The Terminator-like force that he is, Nolan has returned to filmmaking for his most ambitious movie yet, with a cer-azy central concept filmed on his largest budget to date: north of $200 million.

The movie is Inception, where 'Your mind is the scene of the crime' (or so the tagline goes). Influenced by the "globetrotting" spy movies of Nolan's youth, the film's trailer (which you can watch below) gives a hint as to what's in store: lots of shady men chasing each other with guns as the world is stuck in some surreal limbo, with city blocks folding in on themselves, streets bursting into flames and the laws of gravity going completely haywire.

And he's done it all with a solid cast. This is the man who made it cool for A-listers to star in blockbuster movies, starting the trend by populating his Batman Begins with the likes of Sir Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman and, of course, abnormally talented and method-obsessed lunatic Christian Bale as Batman.

Inception ups Nolan's star quotient once again: Leonardo DiCaprio takes a break from hanging around with Martin Scorsese by starring as lead character Cobb, a 'CEO-type', Juno's Ellen Page is his sidekick Ariadne, Marion Cotillard is Cobb's wife Lisa, Cillian Murphy is Cobb's associate Fischer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Arthur, in a role that I'm hoping will finally, deservedly, be his break out, while Michael Caine has a small, as yet unknown role.

That's not even all of the talented actors showing up. Some of the lesser-known, but no-less able, thesps that feature include Platoon's Tom Berenger (if you've seen him in Platoon, you'll probably share my wonder of why he never made it big), rising star Tom Hardy (Bronson), Tallulah Riley (the new St. Trinian's movies), Brick's Lukas Haas and Letters From Iwo Jima's excellent Ken Watanabe.

It's a cast so good it almost leaves you breathless, which is handy considering the measly bits of information revealed regarding the story probably won't get you too excited.

That's because, as was his tactic for The Dark Knight, Nolan has chosen to keep things off the record and very hush-hush when it comes to Inception's plotline. That's no bother really - as he proved with The Dark Knight, Nolan is a master of marketing, and boy has he made his new project look good.

Apart from that, all you really need to know is that this is Christopher Nolan, working with what should be the cast of the year, from a story that is more mind-frazzling than his Memento.

The trailer below should be enough to convince you that there's something special in store.