Watch an exclusive preview of Bee Movie

After spending a decade on his much-loved sitcom Seinfeld, you might say Jerry Seinfeld can laugh at himself. Which is just as well, as to promote his latest film, Bee Movie, at the Cannes Film Festival Seinfeld, wearing tights, antennae and a fluffy black-and-yellow costume, flew (via wire) across the Croisette.

Yes, the most successful comedian of recent times is making his comeback, as a bee. Before the leap, standing on the roof of the Carlton Hotel, Seinfeld deadpanned: “You know, one thing I hate is any kind of movie promotion that smacks of desperation in any way.”

This is his first big project since Seinfeld ended in 1998 and the way the 53-year-old comic tells it, he was invited to dinner by Steven Spielberg and pitched the idea for Bee Movie during an awkward lull in the conversation. The director got excited, called his business partner Jeffrey Katzenberg, the head of animation at DreamWorks, and before you could say “honey”, Bee Movie got the go-ahead. The truth, of course, is a little different. “Actually, I have been approaching him to do a movie for 12 years,” Katzenberg says. “Every year I have gone to him and said, ‘Jerry, why don’t you do a voice for me in one of these movies?’ And for 12 years he has said, ‘Ah, I don’t think so.’ So before that dinner, I like to think we did a bit of the leg-work.”

Typical of the creative force that is Seinfeld, he had no interest in just showing up at someone else’s party. He wanted in from the start. He voices the lead character — Barry B. Benson, a bee who flees the hive when he becomes disillusioned about his one career choice — making honey — and becomes curious about the human world. Seinfield also signed up as co-producer and co-screenwriter. It meant him being attached to the film far longer than he expected. “It’s really hard to make a movie,” he says. “I didn’t know when I got into it how hard it would be. I also became so interested in animation that I wanted to see every detail of how they were doing everything, and the more they showed me, the more I wanted to see. That’s how it ended up taking four years.”

As is the way with animation movies, the film is still being fine-tuned when we meet on the day of the Cannes stunt. Yet this is a little different. “We have a producer, who’s also the writer who’s also the lead character, which is a blessing and a curse!” says Simon J. Smith, the co-director. “You think, ‘This is working’ but then he’ll go, ‘What about this line?’ And it’ll be better! So you have to start all over again. You want to keep making the movie the best it can be.” While this has undoubtedly caused Smith and his animators to pull more than a few hairs out, Seinfeld merely shrugs: “I like to get every line just so. I’m very fussy about the material.”

With an array of Hollywood stars on voice duties — including Chris Rock (as a mosquito) and Renée Zellweger (as a human florist Barry falls for), Bee Movie had the unique advantage of having access to the voice talent from the start. Usually, when scenes are being animated, it’s the storyboard artists who temporarily voice the characters months before a star is drafted in.

“We’ve had Jerry from the word go and that’s a huge plus,” Smith says. “You can feel the character’s journey. You can feel what he cares about and you can start to find out what works for Barry and what doesn’t.”

With the singular nature of the project, it becomes clear why Seinfeld was attracted. “It’s got to be something new,” he says. “A few people have asked me, ‘How come you haven’t made a live action movie?’ but it’s just not new enough for me.”

With its exhilarating sequences in which audiences are given a bee’s eye view as Barry takes flight across Manhattan, there’s no argument that Bee Movie will be groundbreaking. But will it be funny? That remains to be seen, but expect a lot of “bee” puns — including a cameo from Sting. “When you ask someone to make fun of their career, you have to be very secure,” Seinfeld says. So could he ever do that? He glances back at his empty bee costume. “I think I just did.”

Bee Movie is the Family Gala Screening at the Times BFI London Film Festival on Oct 28, and is released on Dec 14

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