Tony Todd, who appears in the movie MAN FROM EARTH, gets to play a college professor this time around, as opposed to his usual makeup-heavy and villainous roles he’s played in other genre movies and TV shows.

“I have a lot of collegiate friends and professorial friends, and the fact that I can finally say I got to play a college professor was wonderful,” Todd said in an interview.

“Also, a dear friend of mine was in the hospital when I received the script. I went over to her room and read it to her, and she said I had to do it. That sort of sealed the deal for me, because it had a healing power. [Director] Richard [Schenkman] actually gave me the choice between Dan and the character William Katt plays, and I said, ‘I need to play Dan.’”

MAN FROM EARTH is based on the final script by Jerome Bixby (Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Fantastic Voyage). It centers on a college professor (David Lee Smith) who reveals to his friends and colleagues (Todd, John Billingsley, William Katt, Richard Riehle, Ellen Crawford, Alexis Thorpe) that he’s actually 14,000 years old.

“It’s an intellectual film,” Todd said. (Why are we talking about it on HYB then?)

“I love the art of filmmaking. There’s not one special effect in the entire film, other than the power of imagination.”

Starz Home Entertainment will release MAN FROM EARTH on DVD on Nov. 13.

- Molly Celaschi