Hot off the success of "The Dark Knight," Christopher Nolan elected to take a break from superheroes and go back to his roots with a mind-bending, non-linear thriller, only this time making the project on a massive scale with one of the biggest studios in Hollywood. The result was the 2010 sci-fi classic "Inception," a film about dream thievery and living with regrets.
The movie tells the story of a man named Dom Cobb who specializes in breaking into people's minds to steal information from their subconscious brains. Only now, he has to plant information inside a target's mind instead. The action-packed role of Dom was played by Leonardo DiCaprio, an unusual outing for the actor who usually avoided big-budget action films and was better known for his dramatic roles at the time.
While DiCaprio acquitted himself very well as Dom, Nolan originally had a more traditional action lead in mind. According to a report from the L.A. Times, Will Smith was at one point in talks to play Cobb. Unfortunately for the actor, this wasn't the first time he'd miss out on a major sci-fi role, as Smith had passed on playing Neo in "The Matrix." Also, Brad Pitt was at point offered the part of Cobb, marking the second time he and Nolan almost came together after Pitt initially turned down "Memento."
