Taika Waititi’s ‘Jojo Rabbit’ is described as an “anti-hate satire” in its promotional posters and rightfully so. While it was unusual for a film to specify its genre on its promotional material for Jojo Rabbit it was somewhat required.

After all, it’s difficult to wrap one’s head around a story that centers a 10-year-old boy aspiring to be a fascist in Nazi Germany whose best friend is an imaginary Adolf Hitler. If an obvious effort had to be made to convince audiences to give the film a chance then it’s hard to imagine how Waititi managed to convince the producers of Tinseltown. See Waititi as a hilarious buffoon of a Führer in Jojo Rabbit’s trailer below:

That’s exactly what the director discussed during an interview at the Variety Studio in this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. During the interview, Waititi was joined by the cast of the film.

“Ok well I went in and said ‘I need Money’…I’m desperate, and I’ll do anything.” the filmmaker and actor quipped about approaching producers. He then revealed that he wrote Jojo Rabbit way back in 2011 “based on a description of a book that my mother told me.”

“I went around and trying to make the movie and it was 2011, 2012 and then I gave up on that,” the actor and director told Variety.

He then revealed that it wasn’t until 2017 when FoxSearchlight finally greenlighted the film that it started to come together. In between that time, Waititi says he went on to make smaller movies.

Jojo Rabbit hits theaters on October 18, 2019.