BILLY BOB THORNTON - BILLY BOB FURIOUS WITH MOVIE-MAKER OVER TERRIBLE FILM

BILLY BOB THORNTON wanted to murder director ROBBY HENSON on the set of THE BADGE after a furious row over the film-maker's incompetence.

The actor hated working on the 2002 straight-to-cable flop, initially because he disagreed with Henson's pledge to turn what he deemed to be a comedy script into a thriller.

Thornton insists he was further infuriated by Henson's inability to command his crew, work behind a camera and exercise general directorial duties.

Their bitter rift reached its climax when Thornton demanded an impromptu meeting with the movie-maker - and threatened to kill him.

He recalls, "It ended up on cable, thank f**king God. I read the script... I thought it was terrific... hilarious. The director obviously didn't think that he'd written a comedy.

"The first time I met with him I thought, 'This guy's a freak.' He was nervous, sweating, weird and I thought, 'Well, he's a little highly strung, but that could make for something interesting.'

"I get out there and I pride myself on my decisions and I couldn't f**king believe I was there. Literally, at the end of the first week, I had to call the guy out. I had to call the guy over and say, 'Listen, come here you son of a bitch. You might f**k me up really good forever... 'cos I'm in this God damn thing.'

"I said, 'First of all you don't know how to operate a set, you don't know what a camera is, you don't know anything about movie directing. Second of all, you wrote a f**king thing that I thought was a comedy and you're trying to make this into a thriller. It ain't a thriller. You're an a**hole, I'd like to f**king kill you but I'm gonna finish this piece of s**t.'"