Funnyman Harland Williams has something to be cocky about. (Sun Media file photo)

As we speak over the phone, Canadian comedian Harland Williams has a date with a pair of overalls.

"I'll be dressing as a hillbilly for a sketch called Tennessee's Next Top Model," Williams says in-studio between shoots for his upcoming DVD Child Wild.

"They'll be parading these hot supermodels in front of us and me and the judge will be p---ed off that none of the girls are fat."

Williams, who has grazed through the entire showbiz experience in his career -- from a short-lived sitcom (Simon) to animated voices (Ned's Newt) to screwball comedies (Employee of the Month, the cross-dressing campus comedy Sorority Boys) -- is going the do-it-yourself route with this DVD.

Half of Child Wild will be standup, to be taped tomorrow in two shows at Toronto's Diesel Theatre, and half sketches filmed in Los Angeles (performed in tandem with his pal, opener of choice and former Mike Bullard show contributor Sean Tweedley).

The catch, for fans of one of Canada's most gifted comics, is that this may be his last live appearance for a very long time.

Williams' next wardrobe change involves a director's hat -- and the break of his career.

A grad of Sheridan College's storied animation school (based in Oakville, Ont.), Williams gets to work next week storyboarding a $140-million CG animated feature for DreamWorks called Roadside Attraction, which he would co-direct and co-star in voice-wise.

If you can believe it, it's about a giant golf ball who falls in love with a giant blueberry.

"It's about all those kind of giant statues you see all along the highway across the country when you go driving -- y'know, giant chickens and cheeseburgers.

"I get into a certain mindset when I was doing kids books and stuff, and whenever I see these giant characters, I'd always imagine what it would be like if they came to life.

"So I put a story together and pitched it to DreamWorks and Jeffrey (DreamWorks animation boss Jeffrey Katzenberg) bought it right there in the room after I pitched it. He's a feisty guy and it's really fun working with him.

"So he signed off on the script and bought the project and it means we start this week storyboarding the script and putting the pieces together to get the final green light from Mr. Katzenberg. If we have it, it's coming to life."

An accomplished illustrator, among his many other talents, Williams says, "I am doing some rough sketches, but I'm working with one of my best friends from college, a guy named Rej Bourdages who's the head storyboard artist at DreamWorks, and he's doing the final drawings. I'm just doing some inspirational sketches to help out. It's a very cool reunion.

"I'll be one of the directors, a co-director alongside some seasoned guys that have done this before.

"It's certainly a debut for me for something of this scale. I've directed my own specials and stuff like that. The budget for this would be $140 million, and I'm up for the challenge.

"I mean, somebody's gotta do it. Might as well be an old Canadian boy from North York, right?"

The hitch: It takes at least a couple of years to put together an animated feature from start to finish, "and I actually had to give them that commitment. I said if we get up and running and everything's greenlit then I would commit to staying off the road. I've been on the road a long time, so it would be a good changing of gears for me."

Strangely, for someone whose career has been so meandering, Williams says it's all going according to plan. "It's kind of unfolded exactly the way I expected it to," he says.

"I always expected that by my early to mid-40s, I would kind of find myself, find something big, and here it comes," the 45-year-old says.

"In my early 20s, I envisioned myself being a comedian and being on Letterman, and everything I've envisioned has kind of happened."

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