“I wrote the first draft of this script seven or eight years ago, but it goes back much further, this idea of approaching dream and the dream life as another state of reality.” ...

Yet for all the fanfare that will accompany Mr. Nolan’s new film, “Inception,” when Warner Brothers releases it on July 16, most of its intended viewers will know almost nothing about it.

Written by Nolan, Inception follows Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), an industrial espionage agent who extracts secrets by entering subjects' dreams. After a mission goes awry, ...