How Long Did Christopher Nolan Wait to Make Inception?

David Senra, reading the book's account, says Christopher Nolan waited something like 23 years between coming up with Inception and actually making the film.

The idea first took shape in late-night sessions after lights out. Sharing a dream was the jumping-off point. Playing music outside someone who was asleep would translate in an interesting way. Nolan came up with a couple of the ideas that went into Inception when he was about 16. He had put the wait at 10 years. It was probably more like 20, and he had been thinking about it for a very long time.

Edwin Land came up with the instant photography camera around 1946. By 1973 it was the size he wanted and it could do color, about 30 years on the same idea. Steve Jobs talked in the 1980s about a handheld computer that sounds like an iPad, and the iPad came out around 2009. Ideas can sit in the mind until the work is possible, and the ideas someone has today can still be used 15, 20, or 30 years later.