Christopher Nolan always thought that the physicist who oversaw the creation of the atomic bomb, J.J. The story of Robert Oppenheimer was an important one to tell.

newly released biopic, Oppenheimer, Starring Cillian Murphy, looks at the events that led to the world being changed forever.

in a candid interview with new York Times, Nolan shared that there are some stories that just wait for the right time to tell.

Recalling the events of his youth, Nolan revealed that he learned of Oppenheimer’s story when he was growing up “under the shadow of nuclear weapons in the United Kingdom in the early 80s”.

He added that it was “too much in pop culture”.

He said that after reading the biography, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J.J. Robert OppenheimerHe felt ‘confident’ that it could be ‘the basis of the screenplay’.

,[This] The story is one I’ve known about since I was a child growing up in the United Kingdom in the early 80s under the shadow of nuclear weapons. It was very much in pop culture,” he continued.

“These were the days of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Greenham Common protests and the deployment of nuclear cruise missiles. To me, it’s always seemed like one of those stories that I don’t feel has been told in any definite filmic sense. And yet it is one of the most important and dramatic stories ever told.

Elsewhere in the interview he also addressed his views that he believed the scientist was “the most important person to ever live.”

“I think it’s too easy to present Oppenheimer as the most important person who ever lived,” Nolan told the outlet.

“Because he is the person who facilitated and achieved nuclear weapons and in fact the hydrogen bomb, because he let Taylor work on it. Therefore, he is the person who was able to control the armies effectively.

He further added, “He gave the world the power to destroy itself. No one has done this before.”