On “Red State”…

Are you still working on Red State, about the religious Phelps family?

Yes, trying. We haven’t had luck finding money; it’s an uncommercial venture at best so it’s been tough finding cash.

What fascinates you about Fred Phelps?

Um, he’s so paternal and yet so… I mean, look. I’m not going to say he’s evil, but he’s so outside the mainstream, so marginalised, you know what I’m saying? I mean, his views are beyond extreme, they’re ridiculously extreme. The whole country’s founded on, ‘Say what you want, you’re allowed to say whatever you want.’ So because we’re the United States you have to afford that dude a voice, and he’s the exception that proves the rule. It’s a strong reminder of the republic we live in, but then it’s like, ‘What kind of universe do we live in that this man would wanna put this bile into the world?

So sure, it’s legitimate and legal, but it’s immoral, it’s absolutely immoral and the dude preaches on behalf of the immoral, and I’ve never seen an instance where someone so immoral maintained they were so moral.

Have you been to any of his parades? Will your movie be fictional?

No, it’s more fictional. The one thing you know about the Phelps family if you read anything about them is how litigious they are – they’re a family full of lawyers. So I’m not getting real close. I felt bad it was kind of based on Fred Phelps, but they can’t sue me for that. When you see what we do in our version of the story, they wouldn’t wanna be that’s us! Because they’d be admitting to some heinous things.

On “Hit Somebody”…

What are you doing next?

The one i’m gearing up to is Hit Somebody, the hockey movie. It’s based on a Warren Zevon song called ‘Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)’ and it’s written by Mitch Albom, the guy that wrote Tuesdays With Morrie and those books, and it’s a story song. Some songs are just like, “I love youuuuu” over and over, but I like songs that tell a story, like The Brady Bunch theme song. This song is like that, a three-act structure tells a story of a character’s life and it washes over me like a flick and I feel I can bring something to it, because I identify with the subject matter in a big way.

So I got into it with Mitch, where I was like, “Dude I’d like to turn this into a movie.” So we kicked off a friendship and suddenly the movie’s moving closer and closer to fruition. December is when I have my first big break after A Couple Of Dicks and the press tour and the shows I’ve been doing all fall. In December I go home and start writing the script, and God willing next year we go into production.

Please check out the entire interview, which includes a couple of great Willis stories from the set of “Cop Out” that we haven’t heard before. Worth your valuable time.