Here is an excerpt where he is asked what his inspiration was for the film:
“My inspiration comes from Chris Sparling, who wrote the script. I mean that. He was inspired. A script like this… you can shoot it in many ways. One of them, probably the easiest one and the one everyone recommended at the beginning, is that you shoot on the surface and cut out to the other side of the line to show the other characters. I thought it was the perfect way of ruining everything. Because I always saw this film as a very big film since the moment I read the script, not in spite of its elements but because of them. So at the beginning they told me this is going to be experimental, obscure, strange… and I always said, “No, this is going to be Indiana Jones in a box. Believe me.” But we have to keep it underground. Rule number one was never leave the box. So the reason why I felt attracted to it is because it was impossible.”
Check out the rest of the interview