Television 2 Movies

Tim Allen has just returned from a Detroit charity premiere of his new feature comedy, “Jungle 2 Jungle,” and was thrilled with the response from the audience of nearly 4,000.

“I left that premiere with high confidence,” he says.

Based on the French film “Little Indian, Big City,” the comedy finds Allen as a self-absorbed New York commodities trader who travels deep into the Amazon jungle to find and divorce his doctor wife (JoBeth Williams), so he can marry his ditsy fiancee (Lolita Davidovich). Allen is shocked when his wife, who left him 13 years earlier, informs him he has a 13-year-old son (Sam Huntington).

His offspring, named Mimi-Siku, carries a pet tarantula in a wicker basket and is a whiz at the bow and arrow and blow dart. Through a misunderstanding, Allen finds himself bringing his loincloth-clad son back to the urban jungle of New York City.

“Jungle 2 Jungle” reunites Allen with director John Pasquin, who directed numerous “Home Improvement” episodes and Allen’s hit 1994 comedy, “The Santa Clause.”

The 43-year-old Allen is committed to one more season of “Home Improvement,” starts “For Richer, For Poorer,” a romantic comedy for Universal, next month, and will reprise the voice-over of Buzz Lightyear for a direct-to-video sequel to “Toy Story.”

Allen is so busy, it’s a bit of a challenge to chat with him. This interview was conducted in his dressing room at Disney Studios, en route to a nearby sound stage to shoot a promotional ad and in his makeup chair.

Question: Is that really you posing in the “Jungle 2 Jungle” ads clad only in a snake--or is that a body double?

Answer: If that’s me posing, that’s Howard Stern posing too [in the “Private Parts” poster]. If those are Howard’s arms, that’s my body.

Q: What was it like filming in the jungles of Venezuela?

A: It was the most spectacular place I have ever been.

Q: Did you encounter a lot of creepy creatures?

A: Horrible bugs. But once you knew where they were, you don’t go where the bugs are. Where there is rubbish, there’s bugs. On the jungle floor where we shot most of this, there’s bugs. If it’s night with lights on, there are bugs. So what do movies do? They shoot at night with the lights on. You certainly wouldn’t want to be in a loincloth, at night, after rain. What did they do? I am in a loin-cloth, at night, after it rained.

Q: Did you see “Little Indian, Big City,” the original French version?

A: Yes. What the French will say is that it’s the same movie but just add $30 million. I picked it because Thierry Lhermitte, who was the me in that one, had that little edge that I liked. One of the reviewers [of “Jungle 2 Jungle”] said I’m like a Fred MacMurray with an edge. I took offense to it and then I said it isn’t that bad. I am able to get away with a lot of stuff because I am a likable guy. I play that.

“Donnie Brasco” is easy to sell to the public [in a phrase]--it’s about a cop undercover. “Jungle 2 Jungle” is a paragraph--a guy who didn’t know he had a son, found out he has a son and is getting married to another woman. It’s basically about a man learning to become a parent. The love story between the two young adults, which is so sweet even I got emotional, and the love story about me and my ex-wife-to-be and my boy is very emotional. The adventure is huge.

Q: I would imagine you received a lot of offers to star in features after the success of “The Santa Clause,” but you didn’t hurry to make your next film.

A: I have a very successful TV show. I don’t need to make movies. There is a tremendous--and I am just new at this--pressure to keep going because you’re afraid that it might stop and it takes a lot of confidence to not do stuff.

I liked “Santa Clause” because I cried. I love movies where one moment to the next you are on the edge. With “Santa Clause” the script was hysterical and very emotional.

This one gets real slow and then there’s something emotional and the next thing there’s a huge joke and big laughs. The French version of this was not quite as sad. There is a greater emotion in this one. I say that because the women who saw it, which is the hardest sell, loved that.

Q: What do you feel about Disney’s decision to move the opening of “Jungle 2 Jungle” a week so it wouldn’t be in direct competition with the opening of “The Return of the Jedi” on March 14?

A: We thought we were going to change the name [of “Jungle 2 Jungle”] to “The Umpire Strikes Back” so people would just by mistake go to this and say, “Wow, I didn’t know Tim Allen was in that.”

I am a huge “Star Wars” fan until I am competing with them. Then all of a sudden, it’s how do you compete? It’s got the exact audience that my movie does.

I am a worry wart. I am not built for this [expletive]. I am not built for awards shows. I like the work. I don’t like all of this [pressure]. This is a week of hell for me.

Q: Have you ever thought of producing your own movies?

A: The next two I will. I will still be worried about [all of] this. With “The Santa Clause” I was so innocent, it was just bliss. I should coin that phrase. It was just bliss compared to now.

Q: Can you talk about your upcoming movie “For Richer, For Poorer”?

A: It’s a big romantic comedy, a little different for me.

Q: So it’s not a family film?

A: You know what? It could go either way. Right now, it’s not. My wife suggested that I get naked with a strange woman. My wife said you got a nice tush, you should show it to somebody.

BE THERE

“Jungle 2 Jungle” opens Friday; “Home Improvement” airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC; repeats of “Home Improvement” air weekdays at 6 and 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 7 p.m. on KTTV-TV Channel 11.