Tim Allen Gets ‘Crazy on the Outside’

Whether it’s his stand-up routine, his hit ’90s sitcom Home Improvement, or one of his many films, Tim Allen has been entertaining audiences for years. With his latest venture, the comedy-drama Crazy on the Outside, Allen moves into the director’s chair for the first time.

“I’ve been in so many wonderful movies where I thought they missed a shot or questioned why a director picked a certain take. So I asked Kevin Costner, who I know, if that’s what a director gets to do and he said, ‘Yeah.’ That’s when I wanted to be a director,” Allen says.

Allen got the script for Crazy on the Outside sent to him years ago and thought it was one of the funniest things he had ever read. He believed in the project so much that he even financed it himself.

“When I did Wild Hogs I realized there was a market for adult-themed comedies and it doesn’t always have to be about frat houses. The [economic] crash hit right in the middle of production and all our [studio] money went away so I ended up financing the rest of it myself. I just loved this project,” he states.

In Crazy on the Outside Allen stars as Tommy, an ex-con who upon his release from prison finds it hard to fit in with his eccentric friends and family. When asked about directing himself Allen says he was surprised at how easy it was.

“I had prepared for this movie more than any movie I had ever done,” he describes. “I had done two or three re-writes on the script and knew everybody’s lines backwards and forwards. So I could watch the playback and know if I could do it better or not.”

He says the toughest part of directing wasn’t working with the cast, which also includes Sigourney Weaver, Ray Liotta, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and J.K. Simmons, but all the legal and financial elements. He’d do it again in “a minute” though and hopes to one day make his dream project — a sequel he’s written to the Jules Verne classic tale 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He explains it’s not a remake of the original but a look at what happened to Nemo many generations later.

Allen, who transitioned from television to film quite easily, admits he would love to return to that medium to do another sitcom.

“There’s no pretense of art with it [television]. It is what it is and I came from that. I miss Home Improvement so much and would go back to television if I found the right project,” he says.

Fans of Home Improvement will be excited to learn that Allen and the cast are game for a reunion special but he warns it’s a long way off because the writers haven’t found a proper story yet.

In the meantime, Allen is working on Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride as well as preparing for the upcoming release of Toy Story 3, where he reprises his Buzz Lightyear role.

“Tom Hanks and I saw it about three weeks ago when it was 90 percent finished and both of us looked at each other after with a tear in our eye and gave a fist pump. They really got it this time. I can’t tell you what happens but I can say the opening is spectacular and the story is really special. It tugs at you in the right way,” he gushes.

As for what he hopes people get out of Crazy on the Outside, he just hopes they laugh.

“I did this because I love to make people laugh and I hope adults get it. It’s not about kids getting laid, it’s about adults falling in love again, and second chances,” he says.

Crazy on the Outside is available on DVD. Find out more at crazyontheoutsidethemovie.com.

brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com

Top image: A scene from Crazy on the Outside. Courtesy E1 Entertainment.