Director Andrew Davis is perplexed that so many people would think his hit family movie, Holes, is a huge departure in his career.

He is best known for action movies and thrillers such as The Package, Under Siege, The Fugitive and Collateral Damage.

Holes is the Disney adventure about Stanley Yelnats (Shia LaBoeuf), who is wrongly sentenced to hard labour in a youth detention camp.

"Stanley is an unjustly acused kid, which makes him not much different than Harrison Ford in The Fugitive. I certainly didn't treat Holes any differently than my other movies just because I was making for kids and families," says Davis.

Holes has become a box-office hit, but that's only one reward for Davis.

The other is having worked with Jon Voight, who plays the camp disciplinarian, Mr. Sir.

"I knew Jon was one of the finest character actors working today, which is why I wanted him to play Mr. Sir.

"What I didn't know was what a great person he is to boot.

"He's a real sweetheart of a guy who dives 100 per cent into a role. He was in character from the first day he arrived on set.

"I am absolutely determined to work with him again and am sifting through offers to find one we can team up on again right away."

Davis says he was far from Voight's only fan on Holes.

"The boys who played the camp kids absoluely loved him and they were genuinely inspired by him. They saw how he would try to enrich his character and began doing the same with theirs.

"They introduced some great little touches that we incorporated into the film."

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Comedian Rob Schneider is not exactly a shy, sensitive guy.

Nor is he a wild man who'll sacrifice every shred of dignity to get a laugh.

Director Tom Brady, who has been Schneider's friend and collaborator since they met on the TV series Men Behaving Badly, says Schneider is "not a crazy person who vibrates off walls.

"He's not out there willing to humiliate himself if it means people will like him."

Brady says he knows how Schneider earned such a reputation.

"That's the impression he gives from his days on Saturday Night Live and his movies Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, The Animal and The Hot Chick.

"I knew he was extremely talented from directing him on Men Behaving Badly but I until I worked with him on The Hot Chick I didn't appreciate his true range of talent.

"He's a very complex guy who is a total control freak in the very best way."

The Hot Chick which comes out on video and DVD on May 16 is a body-switching comedy in which Schneider wakes up one morning to find he is trapped in the body of a sexy but mean-spirited teenage girl.

"When I first brought The Hot Chick to Rob he was terrified. He could see the comic potential in the situation but he was afraid it would require him to act too feminine."

Brady says he and Schneider reworked the screenplay so the actor could "go for the innocence of the situation."

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Schneider is currently in Hawaii working with his long-time friend Adam Sandler on the comedy 50 First Kisses.

"After that, Rob will film the sequel to Deuce Bigalow, which has been his biggest success to date," says Brady.

"Rob and I conceived of the original film just after Men Behaving Badly went down in flames and we were both temporarily out of work."