Christopher Nolan’s Inception: more expensive than The Dark Knight?

What at first looked like a smaller project that director Christopher Nolan would sneak in between The Dark Knight and his third Batman film, it now seems that next summer’s Inception is anything but.

The film, according to reports circulating this morning, is going to actually cost more than The Dark Knight did to make, with the suggested figure being in the $200m region (The Dark Knight is believed to have come in at around $185m). That’s a staggering amount of money by anyone’s standards, especially so when you consider that it’s a non-franchise summer picture, and in the science-fiction genre. We suspected that the bill for Avatar would have scared studios off for a while.

But then, just as with Avatar, Inception has behind the camera a director who’s delivered one of the two biggest films of all time at the US box office. Plus, unlike Avatar, it seems to have spent a chunk of its change in front of the camera, with a cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard and Tom Hardy. Throw in some special effects, and Nolan’s fee, and at least there’s some idea where the cash has been going.

Not that we begrudge it one little bit. Nolan, even out of the Batchair, has served up many films that 98% of Hollywood directors couldn’t get close to making – The Prestige and Memento, anyone? – and to have a major science fiction project landing in the midst of summer blockbuster season 2010 is a very good thing indeed. It might, already, be our most looked forward to movie of next year….

Inception is set for release on July 16th, 2010.

See Slashfilm for more on this.