This was this guy's passion. He sat in movie theaters when he probably was supposed to make collections and break some knees or something.

Even when you read the script of 'Big Fish,' which is really a terrific script, you don't really get into the world that he's creating until you take that step with him, that first step into a world he's created in his mind.

I developed that for a long time. I also developed 'Sugar Sweet Science' at New Line and that didn't happen. That was a boxing movie. And between all that there were a couple of other things.

In this movie, you have all the things you love from Tim. All the magic and the whimsy and the surreal, but he also has a fantastic story of a father and son that really gets under your skin.

When VH1 said, 'We think you're probably going to die, and we don't want to film you dying,'

It reinvented me. It got me back doing what I probably was supposed to be doing.