As a child, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne dreamed of making a film. Finally, seven years after starting the project, "Christmas on Mars" is in art theaters and on DVD.

"In the ever-expanding concept of what your rock-'n'-roll dreams could be, even going back to when I was a teenager, I thought I would be in fantasy world," Coyne said via telephone from his Oklahoma home.

"I would be in a rock band and we would make records and, of course, we'd play in outer space. We'd make movies. We'd have a candy bar named after us. You just think of all these things. As we went along, you forget about that as a concept of your identity," Coyne said. "Especially when you're just a thrown-together indie-rock/punk-rock/freak-rock group like The Flaming Lips [ tickets ] are."

As the band found its niche in the alt-rock world, Coyne said he thought he should make a movie, in the same way that The Beatles, Pink Floyd or The Ramones made films.

"I always wanted to make a movie, I think, just to follow my own dumb obsessions and blind creative whims," he said with a laugh. "I had this perfect vehicle: The Flaming Lips would be in it, we could make the music and everybody would help me sort of make it. It was a dumb art thing on another level."

The campy "Christmas on Mars" tells the tale of Major Syrtis' first Christmas on a newly colonized Mars. The film stars Flaming Lips multi-instrumentalist Steve Drozd as Syrtis; Coyne as The Martian; Adam Goldberg as Mars Psychiatrist; and "Saturday Night Live" cast-member Fred Armisen as Assistant Electrician.

Coyne spoke to LiveDaily about whether or not "Christmas on Mars" was fun, the challenges of serving as a director and filming the movie around his Oklahoma compound.

After watching the film, it looks like it was a lot of fun to create.

I think it's like a lot of intense art. I think you have to make it fun. I don't know if you've ever been on a movie set; a lot of times, it's just miserable for people. There's a lot of technical stuff--there are lights, there are cameras, there's a lot of stress. It can be all that. We have done so many music videos and so many things, that if we didn't like that type of atmosphere, I'm sure we would be doing something else by now. But I wouldn't say "fun"; I would say it's "intense." In the end, it's a cool way to spend a couple days together. It certainly is bizarre, I'll say that.

How long did it take to finish?

We started making it in the beginning of 2001. We really didn't finish it until last May. Quite awhile. We weren't working on it all the time. There would be years when we didn't work on it at all. We would work in these sort of sporadic, in-between moments, where we could build sets, gather the crew together and all that. Some spurts being more productive than others. There'd be some times where we'd shoot three or four scenes over a four- or five-day period. Other times, we'd simply shoot one scene one night and not get back to it for another six months. I'm sure a lot of people work in that way. If it's a big project, you work on it a little bit here, a little bit there. I'd say a good seven years in the making is plenty long.

Your fans were pretty patient.

Well, I don't think they cared that much. We made plenty of records and videos. There are things that we do just as a rock group. We're very productive in that way, already. [I like to] think this is extra stuff on top of that. The idea that it took us that long is part of the appeal of it in a way. It just kind of lets you--not relax, but you get to immerse yourself in this concept for a long time. That's great. I think that's, in a sense, what all artists would want. They'd want to be given the freedom, the money and the resources and then just be left alone. I didn't have lots of money. I didn't have lots of resources. But the stuff that I had, we used it very efficiently. So it allowed me utter freedom to do really exactly what I wanted because nobody cared. That's the beauty of nobody caring, see? My movie was done like a painting: you start painting and see what the f--- happens.

How would you describe the film?

It's not science fiction, even though I think a lot of people would throw it into that because it's set in outer space. It's a Christmas movie set in outer space. It's equally disturbing and equally hopefully. It's an adult-oriented film, even though we think of Christmas films as being children's tales. It is that at the same time. If kids are like 4, 5 years old, it's fine because they don't know what the f--- they're looking at. If you're 20 years old, it's fine. If you're 16 and you're watching it, it would really disturb you.

I think I'd describe it as just a fantastical sort of freak-out film. I think it's full of story and emotion. I don't really think it's sci-fi. Sci-fi seems to take another bent somewhere. To some people out here, this would be sci-fi. I think everybody has their own subjective interpretation of what science fiction is. When I think of "2001: A Space Odyssey," or something like that, I don't necessarily think that is sci-fi, as much as I would like say "Star Trek." I wouldn't want people to think that if you like "Star Trek," you wouldn't like this. I think there's elements of all this that's cool.

How was it to serve as director and actor?.

I just sort of stand there and try not to laugh most of the time. As long as my space costume looked good, I didn't have much of a character to get into. But I did discover that when other actors are there, I would have to show them what I wanted out of them. That would require acting or pretending that we're saying these things because this situation exists.

I think I feel as though I've been directing for a long time, anyway. We've done a lot of music videos where somebody says, "Here's what we're going to do." Even in the way The Flaming Lips have made their records--going back to the early '90s--little by little, it's become more of my, not necessarily "responsibility," but there's an area of what we do that's about me, about my vision. Then, as a group, we're going to work on that together. Here's the best way you can judge it: If someone said, "This movie sucks. Who do I talk to to get my money back?," you'd point to me. "It's Wayne's problem." "This record sucks. Why'd you make a record that sucks?" Steven would say, "Point to Wayne. It's his deal." When the whole thing goes really good, I would definitely say it's a big collaborative effort of a bunch of people's talents and skills all coming together. I take it as a big responsibility even though, no matter what you're doing, someone has to lead the thing. For better or for worse. So, the idea of directing, I don't think you could be a director if you weren't already a director in some way. You wouldn't want to do it. It's a horrible job. There's too much to do, too many questions people need answered. In a way, little by little, I became a director even before I started to make this movie.

Where did you film it?

Most of it, I did just right here in my house. My wife and I live in the front part of the house. There are rooms in the back part of the house that were always just weird storage, or empty or the band would use the rooms. I think there's five or six scenes where we reused bits in my house. As the years went by, I was able to acquire this big workshed in my backyard because I bought the house behind me as well. Little by little, I bought the houses around me so I was able to get more and more space. When I say, "I shot it in my house and in my backyard," that may be a little bit different than your backyard. Quite a bit of it was done right here, but there was a couple locations around Oklahoma City. There was an old abandoned cement factory. There's an old grain elevator place that I would sneak into and film quite a bit. Just dumb, strange, dilapidated sort of locations.

I see it becoming a midnight cult film, along the lines of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Would you agree?

I say it is already. That's exactly the audience you want to bring this thing into the world with. It's perfect for the Independent Film Channel at 2 o'clock in the morning when you can't sleep. I would never pretend it would compete with the new Pixar film out there. I don't really want to. It's my trip. It's not meant to be a mainstream, big-budget thing anyway.