A true auteur, writing, designing, directing, producing, creating his movies, Wes Anderson at 56 has become an international draw with highly personal, idiosyncratic films.

“The Phoenician Scheme,” opening nationwide Friday, continues in this Andersonian galaxy with an elaborate, convoluted plot about the richest man in the world — Benicio del Toro’s Anatole “Zsa-Zsa” Korda — planning to leave his fortune to the daughter Liesl that he’s never known. Liesl — a name right out of “The Sound of Music” — is in a convent planning her life as a nun.

“After making the movie, maybe seeing the movie when we had it all put together, I think sometimes you sort of realize what you had in mind,” Anderson said in a virtual press conference with cast members.

“But you’re not totally conscious of it. I told this to my agent, and he said, ‘But I don’t understand. How could you not know that?’

“My thought was that I didn’t realize that was obvious. The whole story of the movie, this whole mission that he goes on in our movie, he’s being confronted with the possibility of his death. He’s dying again and again, in fact.

“He has his business plan that he wants to make sure it goes through. But maybe from the beginning, in a way, his whole business plan is really a mechanism for him to get back together with her (his daughter Liesl).

“He’s acting like he’s making her his successor but really it’s more about what’s going to happen between the two of them right now.

“It’s almost like the business plan almost becomes like a ritual for him to be reunited with his daughter. And in that sense, his plan goes great.”

For Bryan Cranston, 69, this “Scheme” was a chance to work with Tom Hanks.

“Tom and I arrived at the same time in Berlin at Babelsberg Studio. And until you see the ‘cartoon,’ as Wes puts it, with the full animatic film where he voices all the characters — until you actually see that! — it’s not always clear where he’s going.

“Because the scripts are very dense in detail, there is no skimming. Everything in a Wes Anderson movie is very specific. If you miss one little bit, it’s not going to track.”

“About the dialog,” del Toro, 55, added, “there were a couple moments where I went to Wes and said, ‘Maybe we can take this dialog out.’ Only it wasn’t as good. I had to put it back.

“That’s why I couldn’t join these people every day for dinner. I had to go up into my room and talk to myself,” to memorize the next day’s dense dialogue scene.

“The Phoenician Scheme” opens Friday