While he would probably shy away from, or more likely laugh at, being called a "big Hollywood movie star", and he might not be what you'd call a household name, Tudyk's IMDb listing is impressive.

And whether it's stealing scenes as the accidentally drug-addled mourner in Death At A Funeral, threatening to "fong" Geoffrey Chaucer in the anachronistic adventure A Knight's Tale, battling giant robots in Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, or voicing King Candy in the animated Disney hit Wreck-It Ralph, Tudyk is usually impressive too.

So it begs the question: how did someone who's worked with directors Michael Bay, Frank Oz, James Mangold and Judd Apatow and starred in films with Russell Crowe, Heath Ledger, Harrison Ford and Will Smith end up in Warrnambool acting in a movie about the life of a south-west chicken farmer?

"The director (of Oddball), Stewart (McDonald), directed a television show I was in, Suburgatory, in the States and he gave me a call and that's how I ended up here, really," Tudyk explained while sitting in his trailer in the Flagstaff Hill car park.

"I read the script and thought it was great and seemed like a lot of fun and I'd never done a family film before.

"Actually that's a lie I've done animated (family films), but never a live-action type thing."

The appeal of doing something he hadn't done before was a factor, although Tudyk said he wasn't game to take on the Australian accent.

"No, thank goodness for all the people who will watch it they don't have to hear my bad Australian accent," he said.

"If I ever needed to do an Australian accent for something I would get a coach because it's not one that comes naturally (and) because people have butchered it in the past and you would want to be the one who didn't butcher it, at least I would.

"Luckily I'm an American in Australia and that's just fine."

Tudyk plays Bradley, a publicist working for Warrnambool City Council who has spent the four months before the film's beginning trying to revive Warrnambool's economy and attract tourists and job opportunities.

Not only is Bradley credited with creating the Shipwrecked attraction at Flagstaff Hill, he's dating Swampy's daughter and inadvertently becomes the film's token bad guy.

"Before we get to see Shipwrecked in the movie it's destroyed by the dog Oddball," Tudyk said.

"He (blows) up the project. Oddball ruins my plans."

Villains are a rarity in Tudyk's filmography. He's played a Wild West doctor (3:10 To Yuma), a dodgeball-playing pirate (Dodgeball), and a well-meaning hillbilly (Tucker & Dale Vs Evil), but not many bad guys.

One of the roles he's best loved for is as spaceship pilot Wash in the short-lived TV series Firefly and follow-up movie Serenity. It's a role that has brought him to Australia a couple of times to appear at sci-fi conventions.

"I should have been at one this past weekend actually," he said. "I just saw online there was a picture of almost the whole (Firefly) cast. It was the biggest collection of cast members for a while.

"And they were speaking to this crowd of 6000 people packed into this hall and paid to hear them speak.

"It's insane. It was over 10 years ago, we only had 14 episodes which in the States isn't even a full season, it was just over half a season.

"I love sci-fi fans, they blow me away at those conventions.

"They're the heart of those things. There's a lot of people there selling a bunch of shit but fans are there out of love. They're there to have a good time."

His love of sci-fi continues. His next project is an un-named sci-fi comedy he intends to write and produce.

Just the mention of that should have Firefly fans aquiver.

"I want to create something. I'm in the process of writing and producing something," he said.

"I can't really talk about it, but that is my next thing to achieve to create something, a comedy that I will also act in and produce.

"I'd like to do a sci-fi that's funny. What I liked about Firefly, or one of the things I liked about Firefly, whenever I've seen one of the episodes again I'm always reminded that it was funny. It's unexpected to have a funny hour of television. Usually hour-long television is dramatic.

"Battlestar Galactica? Not funny. Good, really great show, I saw all of them, but not funny.

"It's interesting - now they're doing (another six) Star Wars (movies) and sci-fi is really having a huge (resurgence).

"(Sci-fi is seen as) a safe investment for people making movies. They're a great opportunity for the spectacle that people want to see in those big summer blockbuster movies but they're also intelligent."

Tudyk said he hadn't been pestering Firefly and Avengers director Joss Whedon for a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although "I definitely wouldn't turn it down" .

He has been talking about a possible sequel to the under-rated horror-comedy Tucker & Dale Vs Evil, which he said was one of his own films that he'd really liked.

But his all-time favourite is Death At A Funeral, in which he played Simon, a hapless new boyfriend of one of the bereaved family members who is accidentally dosed with hallucinogens and memorably ends up naked on the roof by the funeral's end.

"I like Death At A Funeral because it was an intersection of a lot of things," he said.

"It felt like a play when we were rehearsing it. Frank Oz directed it and he was great. The whole cast was wonderful. I got to do an English accent, which I love doing. There was physical comedy."

And the nudity?

"Nudity! Finally I got to do the nudity I'd been begging to do for so long," he joked.

"I'm trying to get it in this movie but they keep saying 'no'. Something about it being a family film."

mneal@fairfaxmedia.com.au