After appearing in numerous films with members of his family, Marlon Wayans is ready to contribute more to the game, as well as branch out on his own -- again. Along with brothers Keenen Ivory and Shawn and nephews Damien and Craig, the New York City native produced and co-wrote the comedy film 'Dance Flick.'

Directed by Damien, the film is a spoof of dance movies such as 'Save the Last Dance,' 'Stomp the Yard' and 'High School Musical.' Starring in the film are Shoshana Bush, Essence Atkins, Chelsea Makela, Brennan Hillard and most of the Wayans clan.

Marlon will also be seen this summer as Ripcord in the action film 'GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra,' opposite Channing Tatum, Dennis Quaid and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.

Marlon recently spoke to Black Voices about working with his family, keeping the laugh meter up and his upcoming projects.

Is a lot of fun working with family?

Marlon Wayans: I'm happy to do what I love and do it with who I love, which is a blessing. You can't ask God for nothing else and nothing more. I can't be mad. He's been very nice to me and my family. Thank you, God.

Who came up with the concept of spoofing dance films?

MW: I think Shawn, Craig and Damien originally came up with the idea for it. Shawn would usually call you up at 3 a.m. with some crazy idea and, once again, he did that. Shawn is really funny and extremely talented, and he comes up with great ideas, and we all executed together. I would work on characters and situations, and Keenan puts it all together. The nephews came in, and we let them really bake. We walked them around the kitchen, but we taught them how to bake.

How challenging it is when there are that many cooks in the kitchen and the story has to be put together?

MW: I think it was harder on Damien because you're taking so many opinions and most of them are coming from your uncles. The oldest uncle wins, and that was Keenan. I usually defer to Ivory all the time, because he's my older brother and we trust his taste. We are all at the level now where we talk as partners and we have a conversation of what's right and what's wrong. There's no dictatorship. It's a democracy with us. There's just a lot of Democrats in office.

You play art teacher Mr. Moody in the film. Who were you channeling?

MW: I think I channeled my acting teacher, Mr. Moody. I did parts of him. He's a wonderful acting teacher and one of the better ones I've had in my life. I loved how he spoke in Eastern standard speech. Then we stepped it up a notch by adding the dignity part when he does slave role speech. It was a funny take on the character, but it's not Mr. Moody.

It seemed as if you were also poking fun at Laurence Fishburne's character from 'Higher Learning.'

MW: It's sort of Laurence Fishburne. It's when a guy takes himself too serious, like when he went from Larry to Laurence.

How was it taking direction from your nephew as opposed to your older brother Keenan?

MW: I often tell my nephew to shut the hell up, and with Keenan I say, "Yes Sir." I'm just kidding. Actually, it was fine because they both have similar eyes. We all look at it and talk about how funny scenes can be if certain changes are done. You take all the input that you can. With Ivory, he's known us since we were babies, so I always know what he wants from me. With Damien being younger, he did an amazing job. He's talented and he has it, and so does little Damon. I've watched him flourish, watched him audition after audition and coming in kicked behind. Nothing was given to these guys. They earned it. Craig worked with us on 'Scary Movie.' He worked with us on 'White Chicks' and on 'Scary Movie 2.' He's in this movie as well, and he wrote and produced this with us. Those guys are stepping into their own, and I'm proud of them. I'm glad I could be a part of it.

When you are spoofing this film and the jokes are on characters and friends that you that know, do you worry about their reaction?

MW: Yes. All the people that can't kick our ass are the ones we are spoofing. If you notice, we picked the dancers. We knew we could knock one or two of them out. There's really no concern. You think about what's ripe and what's funny, and you worry about the other stuff later. Channing Tatum, who did 'Step Up' and is in 'G.I Joe' is one of my best friends. I love the kid. When I was doing 'G.I Joe' and we were doing 'Dance Flick' at the same time, he would come into my trailer and laugh at the stuff we were doing, knowing we were making fun of him. He was a good sport about it. My brothers came up with a joke about Brandy (Norwood), and I was like, "She's a friend." I tried to politic to get it out, but I had to go along with the joke.

Speaking of 'G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra,' did you get into shape for it?

MW: I sure did. I gained 30 pounds for the role. I came in and read with Rachel Nichols, who plays Scarlett. I wanted to be Snake Eyes, but that part was taken.

Were you a fan of the cartoon series?

MW: Of course. I watched the cartoon series religiously. We didn't get the dolls because we needed to put food on the table, and that won over anything.

What differences are there between you playing Ripcord and what we saw on the cartoon series?

MW: The main thing is that the character is black in the film. I've played a drug addict in 'Requiem for a Dream,' a thief in 'The Ladykillers' and a white girl in 'White Chicks,' so I can play any part. Rachel Nichols is also my romantic interest in the film, which wasn't part of the cartoon series.

What's the story on the 'The Year of Living Biblically'?

MW: We haven't filmed that yet, but we're hoping to hire Mike Wilson, who wrote 'Shark Tales' and 'Ice Age.' He's a wonderful writer and is really funny. I'm also producing this film, which is based on a best-selling book by A.J. Jacobs, with my manager Lisa Bloom and my producing partner Rick Alvarez. It's about a guy who's like the character you love to hate, not really the best guy spiritually and he gets into a situation where he has to live according to the commandments of the Bible. He changes his ways. It's a real funny script that we are writing, and it's about an emotion. I want to do a movie that audiences can respond to. As you get older and mature, from 'Scary Movie' to 'White Chicks' to 'Little Man,' slowly but surely we are maturing and adding that emotional grounding to it as well and still get that fire octane jokes.

How do keep the laugh meter from slipping when you do these spoof films?

MW: It's going to go down sometimes. As long as it doesn't go down for the whole movie. You need a low. At a point, you tire out from laughing. If you ever watched Richard Pryor concerts and Eddie Murphy's 'Raw,' I laughed so hard I got tired from laughing. You want to throw so much out there so that they keep coming back for more. Then they can rent it, then buy it, own it and always watch it like classics.