We’ve heard recently that the budget for Christopher Nolan’s Inception might be sky-high, as in north of $150m, and now we know that the film has begun shooting in Tokyo. Cue eager photographers trying to get a glimpse of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as they move from trailer to set to shoot the closely-guarded sci-fi tale.

In addition to Tokyo, Inception (working under the title Oliver’s Arrow) will also reportedly shoot in Los Angeles, London, Paris, Tangiers and Calgary. That certainly won’t keep the budget down, but that’s still a lot of money for what sounds like a fairly low-key, conceptual sci-fi story. The picture above was taken on the 15th, and in a brief interview with IGN screenwriter David Goyer confirmed that the film was shooting now. “You know, talk to [Nolan] after he finishes Inception, which he’s shooting right now. That just started shooting” Goyer also kept mum about Batman 3 possibilities — as he says, don’t expect to hear anything much until Inception’s principal photography is done.

At this point we still know next to nothing about the plot of the film. The original logline remains: “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” What does that mean? Great question. No one is talking. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was asked about the film recently and wouldn’t offer any details. I hope they manage to keep most of it secret for a lot longer. Too many genre projects are put all out in the open way too early; it would be nice to have confidence in a filmmaker and just let them work away at a project that can be discovered when it is done. I don’t want spoilers; I don’t want secret details; I just want to see the thing. Going to make it dificult to keep reporting on this one as it goes forward…

[photo from NolanFans]