David Wain is one of the masterminds behind the cult cinematic comedy "Wet Hot American Summer." He has also appeared in the popular Comedy Central shows "Stella," "Reno 911!" and "The State." "The Ten," featuring the intertwining scandals of 10 characters, played by Adam Brody, Jessica Alba, Winona Ryder and a host of Comedy Central regulars. It opens today at Sundance Cinemas in Hilldale Mall. Look for a review Monday.

DW: Hi there.

TW: Hi.

TW: How's it going?

DW: Very good, I'm glad I could talk with you.

TW: Okay, I apologize if any of these questions are inane and/or incoherent. I probably have slept about two hours in the past week.

DW: I'm sorry to hear that.

TW: I'm sure you are even more busy, though…

DW: [Gracefully interrupting Tim's babble] You know, my sister's a Wisconsin alum.

TW: Awesome.

DW: I've visited there many times.

TW: How do you feel about the campus?

DW: Quite literally, it's the greatest college campus… in the world.

TW: That is the correct answer.

DW: In my opinion.

TW: Okay, first thing… I'm sure you have never even heard of our paper before, but —

DW: I read it every day.

TW: Man, you are just scoring points on all fronts.

DW: Go on.

TW: The old comedy columnist [Mike Peters] wrote probably 12 columns about how much he loves "Stella" and how sad he was that it disappeared. Do you have any parting thoughts on that?

DW: On the columns?

TW: Oh, no, on "Stella."

DW: Oh yeah, we're all sad that Comedy Central cancelled our show, which sort of spurred a new era of inactivity with "Stella." "Stella" was active for many years before the Comedy Central series, but I think we'll do stuff beyond that as well.

TW: Awesome. Given the rise of shows on Comedy Central, even if they are often quickly cancelled, do you think television today is more important in comedy versus movies?

DW: There's just so much more television than there is movies, so there's more opportunities to do stuff. I think movies are still the gold standard of what people look to for the art of the motion, the art of the moving image.

TW: How did you get into directing, and what was the impetus behind "The Ten?" I read your highly amusing description of your process behind it on the website (www.thetenmovie.com)and perhaps you have something to add.

DW: Well, how did I get — those are two very, very different questions.

TW: Yes, sorry.

DW: I got into directing because I was just always as a kid making videos with my friends, running around just being silly, and I just never stopped doing that. That led to doing that in college and doing that after college, and I really, still to this day, my job is to run around with my friends and make videos.

As far as "The Ten," in addition to the amusing thing you read on my website, it was something where Ken Marino got together and plotted to write something that was funny and silly and had no huge point. We thought the Ten Commandments was a good kind of structure for that, and we went to town.

TW: Do you think this is like a return to the classic "Animal House"/"Airplane" style of comedy that we've seen less of in the past few years?

DW: Umm, I don't know. I think it's case by case; I think there's definitely a new era in comedy where people are talking about new, different kinds of comedy, but, you know, every time another one comes out and does well or doesn't do well, everyone talks about a trend, but I think it's really more of movie by movie.

TW: Of course I should give you a chance to plug the all-star cast you put together. How did all these people sign on, for what I'm sure is an amazing movie?

DW: Some of these people we've worked with before like Paul Rudd, but more often than that, it was just people who read the script and thought it was fresh and different and would — you know, we didn't pay anybody, but people just thought it was fun to come and do something outside of the normal kind of work they usually do. You know, someone like Famke Janssen who's used to doing "X-Men"-type things now gets to be silly and funny in a deadpan way. They all just enjoyed that opportunity.

TW: I know "The Ten" is structured around ten different stories with an overarching theme and a connecting story; do you want to say something about that?

DW: Do I want to say something about that?

TW: Like the structure of the movie.

DW: It's true, we had fun putting together the ten different stories, and the different ways the comic motifs overlap and interweave and the characters come and go from the different stories was part of the fun for us in making it, and it was great to have these actors, you know, latched up in different ways among the different stories.

TW: And I guess I was wondering what you plan to do after "The Ten"; I know you have another movie that's in production at the moment.

DW: Yes, well, I'm about to start shooting in about a week on this movie in Los Angeles called "Little Big Man," (a remake of the 1970 movie) and that's, that's my next thing, I guess.

TW: Awesome.

DW: That stars Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott.

TW: Okay, is that in the same style as "The Ten" or completely different or anything?

DW: Completely different, actually. Much more of a straightforward, you know, kind of bigger budget comedy.

TW: Do you plan on focusing more on directing movies in the future? Or do you want to go back to television? Do both, probably the latter, but…

DW: I want to do it all in different times and places, but right now, you know, I've taken the job to do this bigger movie, so I'll be directing for the next year or whatever, but I like the variety and I like doing different kinds of things. I like performing and writing as much as I like directing, so I hope to continue doing a variety of different things. It's sort of an evolving, comedic genius vision.

TW: Are there any stories that you're allowed to tell us from the set that we could amuse our readers with?

DW: Um, well, a funny story I never told anyone, but it's kind of a funny thing that happened on the set of "The Ten," was at one point I had asked the production people to bring me some decaf iced tea, and when they brought it, unbeknownst to me, it was not — it was fully caffeinated iced tea. I became distraught, and, you know, I was awake more throughout the day than normal, and, you know, that's pretty much the end of the story.

TW: Okay, I am really running out of questions, so really, you can just keep talking about anything and I'm sure it'll all be fascinating.

DW: We could wrap it up then, but I'm very excited that "The Ten" is opening in Madison, and I really think everyone will enjoy it, and I hope they go see it and if they do, write to me via our website and then we'll talk about it.

TW: Okay. Well, thanks very much, Mr. Wain.

DW and TW: Thanks, talk to you soon, buh-bye.