The film was first intended as three independent film adaptations ("", "The Golden Pot" and "The Sandman"). However, the final film combines all the tales into a single narrative. With the exception of the popular "Nutcracker", most of the characters of the German classics of Hoffman are rarely filmed in cinematic format. Central to the film will be the character, E.T.A Hoffman himself, who is rejuvenated as a poor student Anselm who travels and interleaves the many fairy tales described by the film. The film was intended to feature unusual fantastic interiors such as a crystal city, Atlantis, and a story line with deep philosophical meaning. The film is framed as a story within a story style where the author E.T.A Hoffman himself is transported into the magical world of his own fairy tales and lives with his own characters. The film depicts the author as participating in his own plots where good triumphs over evil. The film makers wanted to unearth the inner emotions and thoughts the author himself would have underwent when writing the dramatic stories such as "The Sandman".