The Next Big Thing

"Batman Begins" director Christopher Nolan, who saw some of his dailies on an Imax screen in London and found it "astounding," says of the Imax experience: "It takes you right back to the scale of movies that you felt when you were a little kid in some large movie palace. And for me, that's what I'm striving for, to get back to the sense of scale in films."

When Nolan, who also made "Memento" and "Insomnia," thinks about the future of Imax, he sees more than just swooping superheroes and animated family fare.

"When Cinemascope and Cinerama were invented to compete with television and everything went widescreen, it was for the big tent-pole movies," Nolan says. "And then ultimately it permeated down to the point where we did 'Memento' in Cinemascope and that was completely accepted. I think that it's action films and the cinema of spectacle that drive technological innovation. But I firmly believe, then, that all different types and genres of films ultimately tend to follow."

Imax and some studio executives say it's a format reserved for tent-pole movies -- they need the buzz of a blockbuster to increase the odds that they'll recoup the high costs of the format.

Still, imagine an Imax reissue of "Casablanca," and the feel of actually being in the smoky, arid sauna of Rick's Cafe Americain. Then, imagine Ingrid Bergman's glorious face 70 feet high as she turns to see Bogart for the first time since Paris.

It's an experience David Thomson wants. Thomson, author of "The New Biographical Dictionary of Film" and "The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood," was amazed years ago by the stunning photography of "Yellowstone," an Imax film on the national park. He would, however, love to see the crowded cafe scenes of "Casablanca" writ large.

"I think the mistake is in thinking that the Imax films have got to be very, very spectacular," Thomson says. "Just to see what it feels like, I would love to see a much simpler, more domestic kind of film tried in Imax."

That sound you hear is the collective sharp intake of breath at the prospect of seeing a David Lynch film eight stories high.

It's the stuff -- like Imax itself once was -- of pure imagination.