When a friend suggested to Karey Kirkpatrick that he make his live-action directing debut with the Eddie Murphy vehicle Imagine That, Kirkpatrick says his first thought was "Oh, that's a bad idea for me." Not because he has anything against family-friendly movies-- he helped write the screenplay for movies like Charlotte's Web and The Spiderwick Chronicles, and made his directing debut with the film Over the Hedge. Mostly he was worried about Eddie Murphy. "I just thought, 'I don't think my first live-action movie should be with one of the biggest movie stars in the world.' I'd heard the horror stories of other comic stars and how they treat first-time directors. I thought, 'I'm going to get gobbled up by this guy."

Of course, if that had happened, Imagine That probably wouldn't have made it to theaters at all. Instead Kirkpatrick says Murphy, who had creative control on many areas of the film, worked with him as any actor would any director, and the two of them especially worked together to create a good environment for Yara Shahidi, the first-time actress playing Murphy's daughter Olivia.

I interview Kirkpatrick over the phone, and asked him about what motivated to go into directing in the first place, how he pitched himself as the director for Imagine That, and how he worked with Eddie Murphy to create a character who's maybe more toned down than audiences have come to expect from the comedian. Imagine That opens today nationwide.