Nolan’s next film is…

Christopher Nolan has signed a deal with Warner Bros. to direct a big-scale film based on a script he wrote. But, no, it’s not another Batman film. Nolan long professed his desire to direct a non-Batman film after THE DARK KNIGHT and kept good on his promise quietly working on the script for INCEPTION, a top-secret film that Warner Bros. is looking to get into production this summer. The studio has penciled in a summer 2010 for the film, which I incorrectly first read as INCEPTICON and thought Nolan was directing some weird TRANSFORMERS spinoff.

While this is not Batman news, it sort of is in that it gives us an idea when we might see another Nolan/Bale Batman film if at all. If Nolan is working on INCEPTION through 2009 and the early parts of 2010, he’ll likely be busy through the majority of 2010 promoting that film. Assuming he and brother Jonathan could get cracking on a new Batman script during all that hullabaloo, the soonest he’d be able to get filming going on a new Batman movie would be 2011, which would give us a 2012 release date. And that’s best cast scenario. Worst case scenario, obviously, is that Nolan walks away from the franchise and takes Christian Bale with him. Still, Batman aside, aren’t you just dying to know what he’s cooking up with INCEPTION? Action? Sci-fi? Slapstick comedy? Or is INCEPTION just a clever nickname for BATMAN 3?…. UPDATE – Warner Bros. has sent out a release that describes the film as a “contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” So no slapstick. 🙁