Director Tim Hill is best known for his work on SpongeBob Squarepants. From that success it has led him the upcoming movie The War With Grandpa.

Here’s the synopsis of the film:

Sixth-grader Peter (Oakes Fegley) is pretty much your average kid. He likes gaming, hanging with his friends and his beloved pair of Air Jordans. However, when his recently widowed grandfather Ed (Robert De Niro) moves in with Peter’s family, the boy is forced to give up his most prized possession of all, his bedroom. Unwilling to let such an injustice stand, Peter devises a series of increasingly elaborate pranks. He hopes to drive out the interloper, but Grandpa Ed won’t go without a fight. The friendly combatants engage in an all-out war with side-splitting consequences. 

Based on the award-winning book by Robert Kimmel Smith, The War With Grandpa is a hilarious family comedy featuring an all-star supporting cast: Christopher Walken, Uma Thurman, Rob Riggle, Cheech Marin, Laura Marano and Jane Seymour.

I had the opportunity to speak to Tim Hill about The War With Grandpa. He spoke about how he got involved. Also, how the great cast came together and a must ask question about Spongebob.

Nancy Tapia: So, this is a big week for you, we have The War With Grandpa coming out this Friday. Based on the story, I have to ask you a personal question: As a kid, who would you have written a declaration of war letter to?

Tim Hill: Oh, probably my brother. We all lived in the same room, haha…I have two brothers and we were always fighting, haha…

Nancy Tapia: Haha…Let’s talk about the film. How did you even get involved in directing it?

Tim Hill: I got a call, someone sent me the script, can’t remember… read the script. I liked the premise and the concept. So I came, pitched how I would do it, and what changes I would make. The producers seemed to like what I said, so they wanted to attach me. I had to meet with Robert De Niro and see if we could find some common ground and get him to come on the picture. That sort of progressed from the film not being real until officially funded. So they don’t get green-lit until certain elements are in place.

ALSO READ: Icons Jane Seymour And Cheech Marin Are Part Of The New Family Comedy The War With Grandpa [Exclusive Interview]

So, you do a lot of this work on things, like “If I can make it go, then maybe I get paid.” That’s sort of the motivation getting it all together, so that’s how everyone agreed. Rob too, said that we needed changes. He liked the book, The War with Grandpa and I did, too! I think it’s a little darker than our movie, but the messages are there, the games. So we followed that as our beacon, the idea of this kid who has to give up his room because his grandpa’s moving back in and that kind of conflict at that age. For Rob, I figured that his character evolved, to a good place.

He starts out really depressed, his wife has passed. He’s hoarding and he’s backing over mailboxes, haha… It’s like, “Okay, we got to get you into our house,” but of course that has consequences. By the end of the movie, he goes from this mopey, dopey grandpa to a guy stepping out on a date. I think that helped attract the movie and the actor.  Being able to evolve his character over time and become a kid again, basically. I think that’s what attracted that about it. Obviously on the other side, the kid becomes more mature. So, you have these two things happening, a buddy story or relationship story. Or even a love story. The prospect of bringing all those elements together made me want to do the movie.

Nancy Tapia: What was it like to meet Mr. De Niro for the first time? 

Tim Hill: It was great! Obviously intimidating and he was working on a comedy in Florida and we were sitting outsideI think, South Beach. Harvey Keitel kept coming by and saying, “Don’t listen to this guy. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” I was like, “Shh. Thanks a lot Harvey.” Haha… and he was. like, “I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding.” So he was kind of dancing around in the background. It was a little distracting. Rob is pretty quiet. He’s just like, “Tell me what you think? I don’t know.” And he just kind of left there.

So it was a lot of me kind of convincing him to the extent that it would be a fun project for him. I think he thought it was a little silly. He’d just come off the other grandpa movie. I think his problem probably was he didn’t want to do the same kind of stuff.

That gross humor, gynecological humor, or stuff that was too mean. Like you can’t really do that to a kid and still have a redeemable character. All those things came with a plan. Rob was very good at development and we went back and forth and we hired good writers. He was involved every step of the way.

ALSO READ: Rod Riggle Brings His Comedy To The War With Grandpa [Exclusive Interview]

Nancy Tapia: It’s nice to see him in some of these more nicer roles, right?

Tim Hill: It’s really good! He’s really engaging. You see him in the gangster roles, but he really took to this part. I really thought his performance was special.

Nancy Tapia: So how did you know Oakes Fegley and Robert De Niro were going to be the perfect rivals for this film?

Tim Hill: Well, my wife is an associate producer and she also did a lot of kid coaching, kid castings for me. In all my movies and just helps the kid get comfortable with the material. Also talking about different choices and we all talk together.

Oakes was one of those that came in and he was just serious. Then he was sort of playful at the same time. He had many colors, I guess you could say. When we started messing around, playing, he got emotional really quickly, then he would laugh and be impish. So he had this great, really dynamic personality once he opened up. Everyone’s a little closed off when they first meet each other. I was aware of his work and I brought him to New York to read with Rob at Rob’s office. That’s when it sort of became clear that these guys had chemistry, a good contrast and character. They could argue and it’d be funny. I have them like, just play around in the meeting room. By the way, we were looking at a ton of kids, but I think we had so many submissions from every state and from Canada. Oakes just rose to the top.

Nancy Tapia: You had a great cast!  You also had Uma Thurman, Rob Riggle, Cheech Marin, Jane Seymour, Christopher Walken to name a few. How did you manage to get them all? 

Tim Hill: Yeah, I know! It sounds kind of amazing when I look back on it. During the time I didn’t realize I was assembling this superstar cast.

The schedule is such a problem when you’re trying to get everybody down to Georgia at the same time. So all those parts have to come together. As far as motivation, I think having Rob on board really helped us reach out to high caliber, high visibility actors. Then people like Jane and Cheech I’ve always been a fan of them. There were other actors, but we really wanted them. We wanted Rob Riggle. My wife had worked with Rob on some kind of a silly webcast, but he’s funny.

He cracks me up. I just thought, wow, he’s done movies, he’s been in commercials, and he’s done TV. That was a role he really bit into it. Because he could be sort of ironic, but also serious and have a real team with Robert De Niro. I thought that was great! You know, I think he loved it!

Nancy Tapia: This film with all the different casts with different followers, the audience is going to have a great time.

Tim Hill: I hope so. We’re not in ideal times. I’m sure you recognize that, haha..

Nancy Tapia: Right, but do recognize some good comedy.

Tim Hill: Oh yeah. I real hope people will come out. It’s just hard now with some theaters closed, it’s hard to tell. But I’m proud of the movie. I’m excited for people to see it in any form that they can get it.

ALSO READ: The War With Grandpa: Laura Marano And Oaks Fegley On Playing De Niro’s Grandkids [Exclusive Interview]

Nancy Tapia: Out of all the pranks, which one would you say was your favorite and is there one that didn’t make it in the cut?

Tim Hill: Let’s see my favorite prank? I don’t think I have a favorite. I liked the old guys dumping the bully in the dumpster. I liked all the pranks. I liked the one where Oakes goes too far and presses his life alert button. I liked it, you shouldn’t do that. That’s like a terrible thing to do. That was kind of where the movie turned, you know? Haha…

Nancy Tapia: Haha…Yeah…

Tim Hill: It’s like eventually it’s going to get out of hand. I kind of liked that. They’re all fun to photograph. 

Nancy Tapia: For the adults, when it came to the scene in the trampoline park, how comfortable were they? Or did it take some time to break-in to be at ease?

Tim Hill: Yeah, I don’t think anyone was comfortable with even that idea. Like they walked up the little stairway and they looked out over like this sea of trampolines kind of pushed together with padding. They were sort of looking at each other going, are we walking out on that? Haha…so we had to take them through like a little trampoline therapy to get them comfortable. Cause, if you’re not used to a tramp it’s pumping you. It’s like walking on a wobbly raft or something.

You have no sense of balance or where you’re supposed to be. The way to do it is kind of keep bouncing and that gets tiring. It’s easy to kind of do a little bounce on it to walk. They have little like pads as they could stand on in between takes.

Try jumping on a trampoline for 10 minutes, you’ll be like, “Oh my God, I’m going to die” if you’re not used to it.

Nancy Tapia: Plus acting, sounds challenging.To finalize I have to ask, what does SpongeBob have to say these days?

Tim Hill: SpongeBob? Yeah, he’s doing well. He’s got Gary back after he lost him. And Bikini Bottom loves him more than ever.

Nancy Tapia: That’s good time!

The War with Grandpa out today October 9th