Money Is The Most Resilient Parasite In Hollywood: Should Inception Remain A Stand-Alone Film?

It still baffles me that many so-called experts and analysts in the movie industry believe that Inception’s financial success was a fluke.  I am not sure how a fluke comes in the size of an $823 million dollar box office return.  Because toys and video games (although Christopher Nolan has expressed interest in developing a video game) were not an option for supplementary income were among the reasons why some predicted box-office failure.   Of course this theory was entirely wrong, for audiences wanted a challenge to keep up with the storyline.  Furthermore, I believe that the marketing team at Warner Bros. used reverse psychology for audiences to flock to theaters to see this film that was deemed over the comprehension level of the average viewer.   The King’s Speech may have won the Best Picture Oscar, however Inception will be the film that is studied at film schools, re-assessed by critics, discussed on podcasts, and selected for preservation once it is eligible.  This may be one of the most clichéd movie review statements of all time, but Inception has everything we go to movies to see:  Great story, acting, set locations, and incredible special effects.  The latter aspect was inspired by but yet exceeded the cinematic worlds of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner.    

Now considering all of the aforementioned and countless articles in regards to this great film, should Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures go ahead with a sequel or some other type of spin-off story?  For the vast majority of Nolan fans would say “hell no” and want this unbelievably talented writer/director/producer to work on other original projects.  Yet the suits at the studio would want another profitable mini-franchise on their hands, especially with Harry Potter ending, and The Batman Trilogy coming to its final chapter.  Purely for entertainment value and moviegoer speculation, consider the following scenarios from bloggers and Cinematic Impact. 

1.  Rumors spread that a group of people managed to pull off Inception, and middle-eastern terrorists soon catch onto the idea and plan to perform Inception on world leaders, forcing them to dissolve law and order.”
2. A prequel that explains the origins and original use of the PASIV-devise.  Was it always in briefcase form?  Was it originally engineered by a prestigious University and Department of Defense to simulate battle scenarios for military members?
3. Will Ariadne, Eames, and Arthur return to counter a team of extractors that are trying to undo what Cobb has done on previous extracting missions?

These ideas and more are not terrible ideas, yet they are cliché’ and rather redundant in comparison to what Nolan has already accomplished.  Nolan labored 9-10 years on Inception’s script and it certainly shows.   I had a person once tell me that they thought that Inception was okay at best, and thought that the movie was weak if you took away the “layers” aspect of the film. Hmmm...let’s see.  Let’s just take away the 30-minute D-Day landing from Saving Private Ryan. How about doing away with Andy Dufrene’s daring escape in The Shawshank Redemption?  The entire movie and especially the “layers” concept are so complex that it seems as though it should have appeared in a well-written sequel.  Yet Nolan introduced a worldwide audience to action and dramatic scenes hosted within three dreams (four including limbo state) in a stand-alone film.  And in our humble opinion it should remain stand-alone.  Here is Cinematic Impact’s suggestion for an Inception continuation if it must happen.  Since Time Warner owns HBO, have a mini-series based on Inception.  And in the tradition of Band of Brothers, cut no corners in the budget and institute a fierce marketing campaign.  The mini-series allows a longer period to tell an origin or spin-off story to its fullest capacity.  Give the series a name in the tradition of the animated short:  Inception: The Cobol Job.  Furthermore Blu-Ray and DVD sales would be phenomenal.  Hardy is no stranger to large-scale television, for he was in Band of Brothers.  I just can’t foresee a better or equal film in cinemas. 

Why am I bringing this up now?  Nolan is my favorite filmmaker and as much as I love his (and only Nolan’s) Batman series, I want to explore the possibilities of his other future projects.   I have been a huge advocate for his resurrecting of the Howard Hughes project based off of Michael Drosnin’s Citizen Hughes.  There have been talks of him directing The Twilight Zone and a Blade Runner sequel.   The latter two notions have already been proven false, so once again we are back to pure speculation.  However speculation is fun in the world of online journalism.  Ultimately I just want to explore the best movie of the 21^st century. 

2nd Unit Director? 2nd Unit Director? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ 2nd Unit Director!

Everything is in place.  The Cinematographer has given the appropriate instructions to the camera operators.  The actors/actresses are in place and have fully rehearsed their lines.  The Director is quiet but is studying the upcoming scene with acute intensity, and nods to his Assistant Director (AD).  The AD asks “Is everybody ready”? And then the AD says, “Roll sound”.  After the cameras are turned on and sync up with sound, camera operators shout “speed”.  Then the slate is clapped in front of the camera to give the editor an image of where to sync the sound to the picture.   All of the aforementioned is the combined efforts of Unit Production Managers (UPM), Assistant Directors, and camera/sound crews to capture what could be just a few seconds of footage.   The Director of a film already has the weight of the world on his/her shoulders to give his respective financer (a movie studio) the best possible product for distribution.  The Director certainly needs the help of UPMs and ADs, but some Directors go a major step further by utilizing 2^nd Unit Directors.

2^nd Unit Directors often capture aerial and action sequences in remote locations that the Director sometimes may steer away from to concentrate on key dialogue intensive scenes.  2^nd Unit Directors have their own crew who mimic what the main unit is accomplishing on the majority of the movie shoot.  Their camera crews are careful to have their shots (including lighting, film-stock, and camera movement) match the main crew’s efforts. 

Remember the desert chase sequence in Steven Spielberg’s classic Raiders of The Lost Ark?  Or how about Jason Bourne driving an Audi off the rooftop of a New York building while fleeing a hailstorm of bullets in The Bourne Ultimatum?  Sure Spielberg is a great director and Paul Greengrass is a good director.  But their 2^nd Unit Director(s) deserve the credit for the aforementioned action sequences.  From what I have gathered from online articles and Blu-ray/DVD commentaries, Spielberg predominantly does not use 2^nd Unit Directors.  However, Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino are the only major directors (at least to my knowledge) that have never used 2^nd Unit Directors.  They indeed have UPMs and ADs that assist their vision, but Nolan and Tarantino are involved in every scene.  Nolan donned a scuba tank and wetsuit to oversee the under water sequences of Inception.  Imagine the dedication that this man has put into the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises.  Tarantino fans can rest assured that no gut-wrenching swordplay scene in the Kill Bill series or memorable Nazi annihilation scenes in Inglorious Basterds was the work of a talented unsung hero.  

A great book to read on the roles and responsibilities of a film crew can be found in Frederick Levy’s “Hollywood 101”.