London, Jan 23 (IANS): Filmmaker Jon S. Baird says he wanted to make sure that the script of his latest film "Stan & Ollie" was "perfect" before he shot the movie.

In an interview to deadline.com, Baird spoke about his experience working on the film, which has been nominated for BAFTA awards.

He said: "I had the first meeting at the start of 2014. I was working with Danny Boyle on 'Babylon' and 'Stan & Ollie's screenwriter Jeff Pope approached me. It started out as a TV project, but it sort of outgrew that.

"The reason it took so long was that we wanted to get the script absolutely perfect. The final script was a million miles from where the original script started."

He added: "The person who really kick-started the script into what it became was John C. Reilly. Not by writing on it, or anything, but by coming to the table and saying, 'You know what? This needs to be more about these two guys.' John was a force in crystallising that."

"Stan & Ollie" is a comedy drama about later years of legendary Hollywood double act Laurel and Hardy. It features Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel and John C Reilly as as Oliver Hardy.