Burt Reynolds The Cave Man

(CBS)  With close to 300 television shows and more than 60 movies to his credit, Burt Reynolds is nothing less than a megastar. And this weekend he'll add one more movie to his resume with the comedy, "Without a Paddle."

In it, he plays an eccentric old mountain man who stands between three childhood friends, and their hunt for a long forgotten treasure.

Reynolds told The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler the film is about "three young men who have decided some day when they become grown-ups to go and find D.B. Cooper, who jumped out of a plane with a million bucks."

An endearing part of this movie is not only that it's funny, but that the 30-something characters are at a time in their lives when they reassess what's really important to them. "Without a Paddle" is sort of like a wink back to "Deliverance," which Reynolds has said "changed his life."

"This is a comedy, and certainly 'Deliverance' wasn't," Reynolds clarified, but pointed out it that "Paddle" appealed to him on many different levels.

"I could hide behind something," he said, adding tongue-in-cheek, "For some reason you get a lot more credit for acting when you have all that stuff on you. And the other thing that appealed to me was going to New Zealand."

Besides having a good time at the shooting location, Reynolds said he got along great with the co-stars, Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Sheppard.

"The love was very mutual," Reynolds said.

Many of the characters Reynolds has played over the years have left an indelible mark on American film history. Playing a word association game he said the following about characters he has played in the past:

The hypermasculine Lewis Medlock from "Deliverance" - "When you think of Lewis, you think of taking chances and, by God, life is not worth living unless you are on the edge of death."

Jack Horner from "Boogie Nights," a role that garnered him an Oscar nomination – "I turned that picture down six times because I didn't want to be a part of anything like that. But I thought if I can make this guy in the most despicable business in the world, kind of get into humanity, I thought the only way to do that was to make a family out of that group."

A chewing gum fan, Reynolds did not leave The Early Show set empty-handed, Syler treated him to a bucket of Bazooka gum. It was not completely full; some of the crew had taken some to chew.

"This is a great crew. I notice they're all chewing," Reynolds said.

"Without a Paddle" opens Friday, Aug. 20.