20 Things You Didn't Know About Batman Begins
10. Christopher Nolan Made Batman Begins To Get Enough Money For Inception
Nowadays, Christopher Nolan is hailed as a visionary director. But when he made his pitch for Batman Begins, he wasn't very well-known. He had only directed three films at the time; Following, Memento, and Insomnia. After Insomnia was released in 2002, he wanted his next project to be Inception; a film that revolved around dream stealers. Because Nolan hates relying on computer-generated images, he wanted to make the film with practical effects, which would have required an enormous budget.
When producers refused to back the film, Nolan knew he had to work on very lucrative project to secure the finances for Inception. Since he was passionate about the eccentric film director, Howard Hughes, he decided to make a film about his life with Jim Carrey in the lead role. That film was scrapped after Martin Scorsese announced he was working on his own Hughes biopic, The Aviator, with Leonardo DiCaprio as the lead. (Interestingly, DiCaprio went on to play the lead role in Nolan's Inception.)
After a 15-minute meeting with studio executives, the studio accepted Nolan as the director for the Batman reboot.