Francis Ford Coppola's new movie Megalopolis has a long, storied history that he's discussing more and more about.

It's been in the making since his childhood, to some extent, by being intrigued by tales about scientists and researchers. In a recent Vanity Fair statement, the famed director discussed the film's roots and what brought it to life after all these years.

Coppola clarifies the timeframe of working on Megalopolis

“The seeds for Megalopolis were planted when as a kid. I saw H.G. Wells's Things to Come,” Coppola said. “This 1930s Korda classic is about building the world of tomorrow and has always been with me, first as the ‘boy scientist' I was and later as a filmmaker.”

Coppola made the movie entirely under his control. In fact, to self-fiance the film, he sold a portion of his winery estate. The movie has a budget of $120 million, so it's not exactly a cheap feature.

“I wasn't really working on this screenplay for 40 years as I often see written, but rather I was collecting notes and clippings for a scrapbook of things I found interesting for some future screenplay, or examples of political cartoons or different historical subjects,” the director said. “Ultimately, after a lot of time, I settled on the idea of a Roman epic. And then later, a Roman epic set in modern America, so I really only began writing this script, on and off, in the last dozen years or so. Also, as I have made many films of many different subjects and in many different styles, I hoped for a project later in life when I might better understand what my personal style was.”

Interestingly, he listed all scholars, poets, filmmakers, novelists, and artists who inspired Megalopolis in his statement. They include people like Plato, Hitchcock, Moses, and many others.

Plus, Coppola clarified the real bulk of getting to work on the film started 23 years ago.

“Believing I had the basis of the project in 2001, I set up a production office in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and began to work,” he stated. “I did casting, table read-throughs, and had a second unit led by brilliant photographer Ron Fricke, thinking it would be easier and cheaper to begin before we actually announced principal photography.”

Megalopolis is a story about a city left in ruin. Unbeknownst to him, or anyone, while working on the film, it came to fruition.

“The script always had an element of an aging Soviet satellite falling out of orbit and falling to Earth, so we needed some shots of destruction and cleared areas, but of course, no one could have anticipated the events of September 11, 2001, and the tragedy of the World Trade Center,” he added. “As we were shooting our second unit at the time, we covered some of those heartbreaking images.”

Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis does not have a theatrical release date. However, it will be shown at Cannes in France next month.