Take Jon Favreau. He has made his living as a funny character actor and occasional screenwriter and director -- which turns out to be his forte. Favreau is enjoying early raves for his third feature, the family flick "Zathura," based on children's book author Chris Van Allsburg's 2002 sequel to "Jumanji," which was made into a 1995 film starring Robin Williams and a cast of badly pixilated jungle animals.

Ten years later, Columbia Pictures is pitting "Zathura" -- which this time hurtles a gorgeous Craftsman house into outer space when two bickering brothers play the title game -- against the big guns of the holiday season. And Favreau made the space adventure the old-fashioned way: with models and in-camera photo effects. "We're surrounded by big-budget, hugely anticipated movies based on best-selling children's books, using cutting-edge computer technology," says Favreau, his voice rough with fatigue after long hours in the mixing room. "We're trying to find a seat on the bus."

Favreau, now 39, made his mark in 1996 as the writer and co-star, with pal Vince Vaughn, of Doug Liman's hipster hit "Swingers." Off that, Favreau scored more acting gigs ("Deep Impact," TV's "Rocky Marciano"), directed TV movies ("Smog," "Life on Parole") and produced and hosted the IFC celebrity talk show "Table for Five." He also wrote and directed his first indie feature, the 2001 gangster comedy "Made," co-starring Vaughn, which landed him a gig directing New Line Cinema's 2003 holiday comedy "Elf." The $33 million movie was another surprise smash, grossed $173 million and launched Will Ferrell's career as a comedy star.

"Elf" also established Favreau as a seriously gifted director. But he knew that to make the best of his move from the indie minors to the big show, he must choose wisely. "I've had a lot of experience," he says. "I have a wife and two kids. All those things add up to a clear perspective."

For now, acting is taking a back seat to directing, though Favreau did agree to co-star in Vaughn's production "The Break-Up." "Acting is fun but frustrating," Favreau says. "You don't get to steer the ship the way you want it to go. You're a deckhand. It's fun if the movie turns out well."

And to his agency's chagrin, Favreau turned down a tall stack of comedy scripts. "Big comedies are not a director's medium," he says. "It's more the actor, producer, manager's medium. With 'Elf,' Will Ferrell and I were both hired guns collaborating as equals. We both wanted to make as good a movie as we could. At a certain point, all comedic stars become protective of the brand. Comedy stars are putting audiences in seats, and directors are appreciated as midwives to the talent. It's a star-driven genre."

Instead, Favreau went "looking for something as different as possible, where the studio would still be comfortable with hiring me," he says. Columbia's family sci-fi adventure sequel "Zathura," a project loosely associated with "Jumanji," "made sense for them and stretched me. It's about how to grow as a filmmaker. I want the luxury of doing different genres. It's difficult to be Billy Wilder or Sydney Pollack. That doesn't happen anymore."

It also helped that "Zathura" was a sequel. "A tie-in gives you a certain comfort level," Favreau says. "I looked at the top 10 films every year, and half of them were made for families. That's a safety zone. There is more opportunity for pure storytelling when you're dealing with the family audience and more creative freedom to explore different genres without being held to the same standard as movies geared toward an adult audience."

The director took his cues from the master, Steven Spielberg. "The goal is to take this situation and make it as universal as possible," Favreau says. "Spielberg's movies may have children in the central roles, but their appeal is to everybody; they are not skewed toward children. The more extreme the situation, the more grounded in reality the performance has to be. Everything in 'Zathura' is so fantastic and ridiculous that you have to work twice as hard to create reality and an emotional story. The kids were great because they were so real."

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