Heaven can wait once more

Every movie's got a story. So does this one. I had gone in for this meeting with Warren Beatty - I think he was getting ready to film Bulworth - but I was blown away instead by the man himself.

I mean, I knew who Warren Beatty was, but I didn't know Warren Beatty - the legend. As far as I was concerned, he was the guy who made Ishtar, Bugsy and Dick Tracy. I didn't know the other stuff. So I decided to go down to the video store. Saw Reds - wow! Saw Shampoo - wow! But when I saw Heaven Can Wait - I just thought it was incredible. It just jumped out at me. And I just knew there was a whole other movie to be made here.

I was attracted to the story, of course, to that idea of someone being in someone else's body. But I knew that by putting a black man, myself, in an old white man's body, it would just take it to another level. The film has that whole message of 'judging people for who they are on the inside', which resonated with me. By injecting that cross-racial mix I knew I'd found something unique.

I saw Heaven Can Wait on a Monday, and by the next Monday we were writing the script. It's always the same process though, with me and my partners just throwing out ideas. "You think this is funny? What about this?" That's pretty much it. Of course, the question now is, will you all find it funny. I mean, I don't know if it's harder to make British people laugh than Americans. I really can't answer that yet. But I hope that's not the case...