A big hit in theaters, the evil and tortured “Inception” by Christopher Nolan was released just ten years ago. But did you know that the filmmaker was planning to deepen the universe of his work in a video game?
About Inception
July 21, 2010: the theatrical release of Inception, Christopher Nolan’s new film. Carried by a magnificent range of actors including a Leonardo DiCaprio more tortured than ever, the filmmaker’s SF thriller was a hit in theaters in the world. More than 4.9 million spectators came out of the dark rooms with their brains on fire, still seeking answers that would not come, for some of them, until much later. Internationally, the film’s success was just as impressive, with more than 829 million greenbacks on the counter. More than ever, Nolan was (still is) an authentic martingale and the fetish of its official producer and distributor, Warner Bros.
If you logically remember the film, on the other hand, there is little chance (or we take our hat off to you!) That you will remember this information dropped by the filmmaker. In September 2010, while the interested party and the cast were promoting the film in Rome, the last stop on the European tour, Nolan surprised the audience by declaring that he also had in his boxes a video game project built around the universe of Inception.
“It would actually be a Spin-Off. We are trying to develop a game based on the universe of the film, which would explore a lot of ideas that we were not able to put and exploit in the film” he explained -he. “This is something that we discussed with Warner, and that we will do in the long term, in a few years.”
An idea anything but absurd; both the very structure of the film, its action scenes and even certain roles (that of Ellen Page in particular, alias “Ariane” the architect, capable of building structures like a Level Designer of a game …) borrowed a lot to the world and language of video games.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nolan elaborated on his idea a bit further: “I’ve always envisioned Inception as a world where many other stories can take place. At the moment, the only direction we’re headed in the development of a video game taking place in this universe “. A title that could have taken the form of an MMORPG (massively multiplayer role-playing game), in the non-linear universe of Inception. What to whet the appetite.
And since that announcement, almost ten years ago? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Not the shadow of the beginning of new information on the subject; Nolan no longer spoke on it. It is obviously not completely impossible that the project will end up resurfacing one day. In any case, the video game division of the Warner group is more concerned with making the DC Comics license grow, in particular with the imminent arrival of a Justice League game and a very likely new Batman game. Even if the firm was also able to give the green light to the development of a game like Mad Max, released in 2015, which turned out to be solid.
NOLAN AND THE VIDEO GAME, A LITTLE CONTRARY LOVE STORY
As long as talking about Batman and Nolan precisely, we can say that between the filmmaker and the world of video games, it’s still a love story a bit upset. If the saga of the dark knight had started to be adapted with Batman Begins on Gameboy Advance, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and PSP, it will not know the adaptation of the second film, The Dark Knight, which was however eagerly awaited.
This video game sequel, entrusted to Pandemic Studios (since closed), was announced by actor Gary Oldman during an interview, who plays Commissioner Gordon in the film franchise, and had been used for this game. Released on PS3 and Xbox 360, the game had to first be modeled on the linear gameplay of the game Batman Begins, before it was completely redesigned to be an open world, more in line with the spirit of the Dark Knight of Nolan.
The trouble is that the studio then realized that the game engine was unable to support this artistic vision because it was too outdated. Pandemic Studios was bought by the publisher Electronic Arts, and the latter preferred to cancel the project when he estimated that the game would never manage to be released in December 2008, the date initially planned. A decision that was not made out of the heart. EA valued the losses at around $ 100 million. A colossal slate, therefore; so much so that the publisher preferred to let go of the video game license, returning to the hands of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which will release the game Batman: Arkham Asylum under the leadership of brilliant studio Rocksteady.
What remains of this Batman: The Dark Knight game? Some prototypes and assets, compiled in an excellent video to discover below, which traces the history of this canceled project.
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