Francis Ford Coppola claimed that this is the kind of film he set out to make as a young man, before he was sidetracked by fame and fortune.
In September 2007, thieves broke into Francis Ford Coppola's home studio in Buenos Aires and stole all the electronics, including his computer with the film's script, but it didn't affect the production: "Anyone who's gotten robbed, it's always depressing, and I did lose some data. I didn't lose the script. They said the script is gone, but I have other copies of the script. Obviously I had to send it to actors and stuff, so no. I was astonished that that got such news coverage." [Dec.2007]
Francis Ford Coppola was attracted to Argentina as a location to set the film/story: "I knew Argentina has a great cultural/artistic/literary/musical/cinema tradition, and I like those kinds of atmospheres very much because you usually find creative people to work with."
Francis Ford Coppola wanted Matt Dillon in the title role, but Dillon was unavailable due to conflicting schedules with other films. Later, Coppola realized it would be too close to Rumble Fish (1983) (which also starred Dillon), so after a long search he settled on Vincent Gallo for the title role.
According to Francis Ford Coppola in an interview with Empire magazine, this is what he considers to be "the most beautiful film [he's] ever made", and a very "personal" project.