Derek Cianfrance has revealed that The Place Beyond the Pines was partly inspired by impending fatherhood.
The director is back in the chair with a new movie that he wrote before he was about to become a father for the second time.
And Cianfrance says that he would think about what gets passed on from father to son and from and from generation to generation - and that really inspired the story of the film.
Speaking to Movieline the director said: "It’s a movie about what we pass on. I started writing it in 2007 right before my second son was born.
"I was thinking about what kind of father I was going to become again, and I was thinking about this feeling I’ve had inside me my whole life.
"There's this fire inside me that had helped me do many things in my life, but that also was very destructive.
"And I started thinking that my father - and my grandfather - had that fire and then wondering how far back it went and where it started."
The Place Beyond The Pines is the first film for Cianfrance since the success of Blue Valentine.
The movie sees him reunite with actor Ryan Gosling with Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes are also on the cast list.
The Place Beyond The Pines is released 12th April.