If you become part of the "Charlie's Angels" franchise, what elements do you see planted here that you might want to bring into full bloom?

Well, I would definitely want to continue to grow. Perhaps if there were another one, it would be a lot more complex in the story and the plot. Perhaps we'd make it more of an intense film in that respect, as long as we were always having fun and having that excitement radiating off the screen. But as far as a sequel or franchise ... my goodness. I mean, all of our efforts are just going into this thing and before I did a second film there would be a long conversation with me and Drew and Cameron and Lucy. For this film what I wanted was a platform for these characters to be everything they could be and for us to enjoy them. I hope the plot is substantial and the story's fun enough to keep it going. I think it ultimately satisfies and has a little bit of heart at the end.

The Angels here are like comic book superheroes, complete with alter-egos and secrets they have to keep from boyfriends.

Matt LeBlanc's character [Alex's boyfriend] is a Hollywood action hero and we just wanted to have fun with that male-female dynamic. I thought it would be kind of fun to invert it. Also, the route we went in the casting was very particular: Tom Green and Luke Wilson and Bill Murray; Tim Curry, Crispin Glover, Sam Rockwell. I wanted to bring a decidedly male energy to round out this film. I wouldn't want anyone to ever misconstrue it as a "chick flick." Yeah, I certainly hope the film works for girls and young women and mature women. But at the same time I want it to work absolutely for boys and men, and I want them to be able to go for a whole different set of reasons, but always to really enjoy the film.

You have a lot of pop satire in the film, too. Starting, of course, with the great gag about "T.J. Hooker the Movie."

I mean, this is never going to be "The Deer Hunter." It's like, this is "Charlie's Angels," let's have a good time. I want to be respectful to the original show, and I just want to really deliver for the audience. So they can go and have a great roller coaster ride and walk out of the theater feeling exhilarated and with a little more spring in their step.

It's fun that guys like Sam Rockwell or Murray are not the most dead-center choices for a movie like this.

Something that's always been attractive to me is making a film that works on several different levels. Not everyone will get everything that Sam Rockwell is up to, and what's really going on between Tim Curry and Bill Murray's characters. Or the subtleties of Crispin Glover and the friction between what he's doing now and what he did with David Lynch. The 12- to 14-year-old kids, they won't understand that dynamic with Curry and Murray, or why Glover's holding a cigarette the way he is, reminiscent of the great bad guys of the film noir period. But there's stuff in there for everybody.

Murray and Curry really try to out-droll each other.

There's a "Goldfinger"-James Bond thing going on. They're cocksmen jousting with each other.

All sorts of other parodies sneak in, too. Not just of "The Matrix" and Hong Kong movies, but of that great scene in "Rising Sun" with the big drums going during the party scene.

I like "Rising Sun"! Yeah, the taiko drums. That was an underrated film. I just wanted to make a movie that was an amalgam of many different styles. One part "Grease," one part "Singin' in the Rain," one part "Rocky."

And two parts "Saturday Night Fever."

You bet your ass! I realize we're not going to change the world with this film. But one thing I am artistically proud of is the tone and voice of the film. If you can create something that's original, even if it's in the context of a light delivery, that originality is artistry for me. I think this film feels original; you can't say that it's just like "Austin Powers," or like this, that and the other. I think it is its own animal.

I know there's a slew of critics ready to break out the thesaurus and slam us with it. But I believe in entertaining. I think it's fabulous when you can get to somebody who's got a tough job at a mini-mall and just wants to go to the movies for two hours and live a little better of a life. We set out to make a movie that doesn't make you think too much and hopefully does make you dream. I don't want to ever apologize for that. I hope someday I'll be deep enough where I'll be able to make a "Cider House Rules."

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