Gentlemen Broncos' Mike White On Playing an 'Albino Slick Rick' and the Status of School of Rock 2

You never know where Mike White -- the defiantly square-peg filmmaker behind The School of Rock, Nacho Libre, and Year of the Dog -- might pop up next. One second he's crisscrossing the globe in matching outfits with his gay dad on The Amazing Race, the next he's giving Zombieland audiences an object lesson on the mortal dangers of going pottie in a zombie zone. For his next act, look no further than Gentlemen Broncos, his second collaboration with Utah-based dweebcore auteur Jared Hess, where he plays Dusty, a barechested "guardian angel from hell" to the film's aspiring science fiction writer hero (played by Michael Angarano). We talked to White about that Zombieland cameo, the prospects for his School of Rock sequel, and finding the Zen in Hess's universe of the gleefully absurd.

Why don't you direct more movies? I really loved Year of the Dog.

Well, that was like 2007. Sometimes it takes a while between things. Lately I've kind of been making more choices based on lifestyle. There was a time where I had like, two movies shooting at the same time, and a pilot, and was really burning my candle at both ends. I got really burned out. So at some point I changed my attitude about work, and it became more about using work as a way to have cool experiences, meet cool people, do other things, and not just be like, "I've gotta get my one-sheets on the wall!"

I am going to direct this pilot for HBO that I just wrote that stars Laura Dern, and that will be a big undertaking if it goes to series. And there's other movies I'm going to do, but I kind of was a workaholic for a little too long, and at some point I was like, dude, you better step back and have a life, too.

Do you find producing allows you to be in the game but not quite as intensely as directing a project?

The thing is that there's always stuff going on. In the last year, I wrote School of Rock -- the sequel. That took me -- and I don't know if the movie's getting made or not, I know deals are still trying to get made, whatever -- but you know that took a year to write a draft, get all the notes, do a rewrite, you know. So, you're in the game, but it's the nature of the business. It's the waves. Sometimes you're as busy as you ever are, and sometimes you're not.

What was the last thing the studio told you about the state of School of Rock 2?

At this point I think it's really about -- you know, deal-making is getting really complicated. Everything is still in flux as far as how to structure deals, the way technology is changing and the way people go see movies and stuff. So they were trying to figure out schedules with Jack [Black] and Rick [Linklater] is doing another movie right now, Jack just finished a movie. I don't know. It's out of my hands. I've moved on and I'm writing other things. But I have a feeling at some point I'll be tapped on the shoulder and pulled back into it.

Could you describe your Gentlemen Broncos character? Because I can't.

[Laughs] I think Dusty is some kind of acid casualty. It's Jared's vision and I was the guy with the stache that showed up to bring the albino Slick Rick to life. I don't know. Dusty is like a Guardian Angel from Hell, for lack of a more inspired cliché.

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