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Inception took 23 years
Years stuck on the script
The first pieces were the idea of sharing a dream and the thought that music played to a sleeping person would translate into the dream in some interesting way. Nolan carried the idea through university and his early years in Hollywood, and he made several attempts to write it. He got about 80 pages in, reached the beginning of the third act, and stayed stuck for years.
A short story by Jorge Luis Borges got him moving again. Nolan took one idea from it, and that idea became one of the main ideas in the film. A story like that only sparks something when something is already rattling around inside you for it to connect with, and Nolan had been carrying this one for years.
After The Dark Knight
Then The Dark Knight made over a billion dollars, and Nolan's position at Warner Brothers went from solid to unassailable. The studio was going to let him do whatever he wanted, and for the first time he could step back and ask what he wanted to make next. What he had always wanted to make was Inception.
Can music really change what a sleeper dreams?
Sleep researchers have long documented that sounds heard during sleep can show up inside dreams. The brain keeps processing sound while conscious awareness is dimmed, so a noise from the room can be woven into whatever story the dreamer is already living through. This is especially common during REM sleep, when dreams are most vivid. In laboratory studies, sleeping volunteers played sounds or spoken words have sometimes reported dreams that referenced them.
Why does a billion-dollar hit buy so much freedom?
Studios fund films largely on a director's track record, because box office results are hard to predict. A director whose last film earned more than a billion dollars worldwide is a rare asset, so the studio has a financial reason to say yes to the next idea. That kind of success gives a director more say over what gets made, not just how. The Dark Knight was released in 2008, and Inception followed in 2010.
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