Very little is known about Christopher Nolan's upcoming space odyssey Interstellar . The Dark Knight trilogy director has remained evasive as ever and the simple one-line description reveals precious few details about the story: "A space adventure about wormhole travel between dimensions."

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A Fantastical Space Film Based In Science:

Extensive CG and Practical Effects, And More IMAX Than Ever:

Star Wars Roots:

Matthew McConaughey Plays an

The trailer that was released in December did little to illuminate viewers about either the plot or visual aesthetic. In many ways, it read as a very well-produced promo for a documentary about the history of space travel.Nolan made a rare appearance at CinemaCon in Las Vegas today for a one-hour conversation entitled "From Passion to the Big Screen: The Work of Christopher Nolan". During the course of the interview, Nolan touched on everything ranging from his early filmmaking career to his well-known resistance to shooting digitally and/or in 3D. (Though, he did note that he enjoyed Baz Luhrmann's use of the medium in The Great Gatsby).Though the phrase, "I don't want to say too much," was a repeated refrain throughout the talk, Nolan did reveal just a few details about Interstellar.Here are the highlights of what we learned:The film is based on a combination of a script that Nolan's brother - and frequent collaborator - Jonathan had been working on for years and several ideas that the elder Nolan had been toying with. The team worked very closely with theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, who is an expert in the science of wormholes, in order to infuse their film with a sense of realism."Really it's about travel to other places you could not reach via travel through space because the time spans are far beyond anything you could even conceive of," Nolan noted.The director did liken Interstellar to some of his previous films - Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy in particular - in that the film also has some of the more fantastical elements that you may expect.As always, he has worked to ground that fantasy within a created universe that feels a real as possible. He does that, in part, via the use of practical effects.Nolan has created stunning practical effects sequences over the past several years. Not the least of which was the breathtaking hallway sequence featuring Joseph Gordon Levitt in Inception. The director has taken great pains to build practical sets for Interstellar as well.When asked why he'd made that decision, Nolan responded, "Whether it was the Dark Knight Rises or Inception - which had fanciful environments, and Interstellar is very much in the same vein - I always felt that shooting a real location and getting as much in camera as possible maximizes the sense of immersion. The audience can sense things really happening and being there, which adds to the excitement."They are in the midst of editing the first cut of the film right now, and Nolan did stress that there are extensive visual effects being worked on. "But if you've given them something in the camera," he said, "the quality of those effects is enhanced."In an effort to maintain that sense of tactical realism, Nolan had his team build closed sets to scale of the spaceships that the characters are traveling in. They included the environment outside of the ship on the elaborate sets, which allowed he and his cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema to shoot documentary-style. "That payed huge dividends for the performance," Nolan said.The director, who has a well-known affinity for IMAX, shot more IMAX footage for Interstellar than any of his previous efforts and will release the film in that format in select locations.Early on in the conversation, Nolan reminisced about his experience as a boy going to see Star Wars multiple times. He noted that post-Star Wars, anything in space was a "must see" and, as such, he also saw 2001 several times in the theater, though he confesses that he didn't, "really understand what it was about."When asked if he was able to see traces of the filmmaker he is now in his very early super 8 shorts, Nolan responded,"not really" he did quip that they felt they were kind of his "Star Wars rip offs," joking that you, "may be able to see a little of that in Interstellar.""As far as the tone, this is something that I've wanted to do in my work for some time," the director said of what he hoped to achieve with his latest project. "I grew up in an era that was the golden age of the blockbuster. Something being a family film didn't necessarily have any pejorative context. It could be a very broad base and very universal in its appeal and I feel like that's something I really want to see again and something I want to explore in terms of the tone of the film. Something that looks at where we are as people, and where we might go and has a universality of the human experience. For me, it's about hearkening back to films I grew up with that really took me to places that I'd never been."Matthew McConaughey has enjoyed a phenomenal career resurgence recently, which Nolan notes is quite fortuitous for his film. However, the director cast the actor after seeing an early screening of Jeff Nichols' Mud."I feel like I had the inside track on how good he could be," Nolan said, stressing that it was the strength of that performance that convinced him that McConaughey was not only an incredibly charismatic movie star, but also a remarkable actor."I needed someone who was very much an every-man," Nolan went on to say. "Someone relatable who you can experience the extraordinary events of the film though and with. His performance is extraordinary and I'm very, very exited about that."Interstellar opens in theaters in early November .We will keep you updated as details emerge.

Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @RothCornet and IGN at Roth-IGN