Six years after making “A Very Long Engagement,” French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who is best known for his internationally acclaimed 2001 film “Amelie,” returns to the big screen with “Micmacs” (“Micmacs à tire-larigot.”) The film tells the story of a video store clerk named Basil (Dany Boon) who, along with group of eccentric new friends, designs a vengeful plan to destroy two weapons manufacture companies responsible for the death of his father and a drive-by shooting that left a bullet lodged in his head.

During an interview with EXTRA at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas in March, Jeunet, whose other feature films include “Delicatessen,” “The City of Lost Children” and “Alien: Resurrection,” talked about what he has been doing for the last six years and why he considers himself a controlling filmmaker.

“Micmacs” is currently playing at the Landmark Century Cinema, 2828 N. Clark St. and CineArts in Evanston, 1715 Maple Ave.

EXTRA: Your last film was the incredible “A Very Long Engagement” in 2004. Can you talk to me about the past six years, your work on “Life of Pi” (a film Jeunet left due to budgetary reasons in 2007), and how “Micmacs” came about?
Jean-Pierre Jeunet: I didn’t rest. I worked very hard on “Life of Pi”. I wrote the script. I made the whole storyboard. We did location scouting in India. We did a lot of research. It was complicated. But it turned out to be too expensive so I couldn’t make it. I was starving to make a film, so I made “Micmacs.”

That must have been a hard movie to let go.
Yes, but [director] Ang Lee (“Brokeback Mountain”) is supposed to work on it now, so good luck Mr. Ang Lee. I don’t know if they found ...