Samuel L Jackson has praised Tim Burton for his childlike "enthusiasm".

Samuel L Jackson

Samuel L Jackson

The 67-year-old actor worked with the director on their new dark fantasy film 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' - which is based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Ransom Riggs - and admits he was inspired by Burton's creativity on set.

In an interview with Nick Grimshaw on the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show, he said: "Tim is like a kid who has this amazingly creative persona. His enthusiasm, his assurance of what he wants to do and how he wants to do it and the way he allows you the creative space inside of the parameters that he has drawn is great."

In the film, Jackson plays Mr. Barron, the leader of the Wights, undead human creatures that hunt and kill Peculiar Children - kids with special abilities.

The Hollywood heavyweight was taken aback by how much praise Burton, 58, lavishes on his cast when they cut a scene how he wants.

He added: "When you do as he wants, it makes you feel so very special at the end of a particular scene because he laughs, he claps, he skips around, he's so amazing and effusive in his praise of what you've done and he makes you want to work harder.

"There's nothing sombre about it [the filmmaking process], it's full of joy, look we're here to have fun and we're doing something that's going to be fun for the people that's watching it so make me enjoy what you're doing."

Jackson has appeared in more than 100 films, including 'Pulp Fiction', 'Goodfellas', 'Avengers' and the 'Star Wars' prequel trilogy, but he already has his sights set firmly on his next project.

He shared: "I'm a genre person so I look at different genres and see what I haven't done - I haven't done a rom com but I'm not chomping at the bit to do one either but I've been talking to Eli Roth about writing a really good slasher movie for him because I like slasher movies and I want to be in one. I like to be in movies that I like to go and see and I want to go and see one of those."

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