Case File Two: The Players

Between the months of March and April, a torrent of casting reports came flooding in.

First signed was Leonardo DiCaprio, who would play the film’s lead, a “CEO type”. He kept pretty schtum as well.

Next, Nolan approached Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy and Ellen Page. They all swiftly signed the dotted line – Cotillard as DiCaprio’s wife, Page a young grad student. Murphy’s role remains a mystery.

On 3 April, Michael Caine cleared up rumours that he was involved by poo-pooing any reports tying him to the project.

“All I know is that Christopher Nolan, who writes and directs Batman is doing a picture called Inception, and I’m not in it,” the British ledge said. “So I think another Batman film is a long, long way off. Long Way. I would say three years, must be.”

Just four brief days later, Caine back-tracked on his statement, confirming that he had been recruited to the project after all.

“I think there might be a part for me. Just a tiny part. Chris and I are very good friends so I’ll do that little part. I think I’ll work about three days. It’ll be extraordinary, wait until you see this one. I think if I say another word he’s going to kill me!”

As interest in the project began to pique, Joseph Gordon-Levitt joined the project. Unsurprisingly, when he spoke to MTV he revealed that he and the rest of the cast had been asked not to talk to the media about the specifics of the film.

“Here’s the thing… I can’t wait to talk to you about [Inception] but I’ve been very specifically asked not to talk about it. I want to respect [director Chris Nolan's wishes] because I love his movies and I’m so honored and grateful to be working with him.

“He’s got a really specific idea and way he wants people to be presented with this thing.”

As May dawned, Ken Watanabe and Tom Hardy both joined the team, concluding its principal casting.

We were still none the wiser.

Read our Inception review.

Next: Case File Three: On Location