2012 is poised to be the biggest year yet in Chris Colfer’s already incredibly successful career.

On April 10, Glee will return with a fresh batch of new episodes, which all lead up to Kurt’s big high school graduation (fret not, as Insider.com first reported, Chris will be back in season four). April 21 brings the world premiere of Chris’ feature-writing debut as Struck By Lightning is unveiled at The Tribeca Film Festival while his debut novel, Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell, hits shelves on July 17.

Like I said, big year.

But that’s not all! As I discovered during my exclusive chat with Chris this afternoon, another idea that’s been banging around his brain has finally made its way to paper. So what is Chris’ next script about? And what do the final season three episodes ofGlee have in store for us? Keep reading to find out!

Insider.com: We’re less than a month away from the world premiere of Struck By Lightning — how are you feeling?
Chris Colfer: I can not wait. I’m giddy [but] terrified to see it with an audience. Recently I saw it with an audience full of my family and friends. It’s going to be quite a different audience in NY – I’m terrified of that. There’s a lot of pressure on this for me.

Insider: What were some of the reactions you got at that friends and family screening?
Chris: The best reaction I got, and I got this a lot, was, “Oh my God Chris, we’re so glad that was good! We talked in the car on the way here about what we’d say if it was bad.” That was the most honest reaction, so it was the best.

Insider: Are you working on any other movie scripts right now?
Chris: Yes. This next one is definitely a genre change for me. It’s not set in the high school world. For the first time, it’s something I had to do a lot, a lot, a lot of research for before I started working. It’s a period piece that takes place at an asylum in the early 30s. It’s interesting because while I was doing my research I met with a UCLA professor to talk about different disorders and conditions of asylums back in the day and I got so many suggestive looks on the Glee set because I would have all my books with me. People kept asking, “Chris, why are you reading books on asylums and schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder?” I think everyone thought I finally lost it when I was reading the Coping With Mental Illness book [laughs].

Insider: Sounds scary — is it a horror movie?
Chris: It’s not horror. There’s no ghosts or monsters popping out at you. It’s almost like a movie about characters after they have an experience like characters do in a horror movie. Almost like the aftermath of what a traumatic experience, a la a horror movie, would do to someone.

Insider: What inspired you to write this movie?
Chris: Honestly, I just wanted to do something really fun and something I hadn’t done before — something kind of creepy. Instead of waiting to find a script, I just thought, “I’ll write it myself.” And we have a director and producer attached already.

Insider: Will you be starring in this one as well?
Chris: I created a supporting role for myself in this one. I’m not the lead. It’s a role that people don’t write for young men, unfortunately. These types of roles are few and far between, so I thought, screw it – I’ll write it myself!

Insider: It feels like the only hurdle left for you to jump is directing — does that interest you?
Chris: It’s so funny because every one wants me to direct. I’d rather just create the characters at home in my pajamas than be on a set for 20 hours a day, coming up with shots. There are definitely a few things that I would absolutely direct – like if someone called me and said, “Do you want to direct a Candyland movie?” I’d jump at it, but directing is not my goal.

Insider: Fair enough. On another note, Glee is coming off a pretty sizable hiatus on April 10 — how excited are you for fans to see what’s coming up?
Chris: Oh, very excited. We have some great episode coming up – there’s the Whitney Houston tribute episode, a Bee Gees tribute episode and the episode where Rachel & Kurt finally audition for NYADA. We got to work with Whoopi [Goldberg] who I absolutely love more than life itself. It’s really cool because Whoopi is the reason I started performing in the first place. Sister Act came out in 1992 and it was the first movie I was obsessed with. My mom used to tell me that she’d come home from work and I’d be standing in the living room with a towel on my head saying, “I want to watch Whoopi!” Singing along with the nuns in Sister Act is the first time I’ve ever performed.

Insider: In addition to Whoopi, you also have Lindsay Lohan coming on the show — what do you think about her going from subject of Glee mocking to a guest star?
Chris: There seems to be a pattern with Glee – first we insult you, then we hire you. We did the same thing with John Stamos. If you’ve been insulted by our show, expect a phone call [laughs]. I think it’s funny. A lot of people have strong opinions about it, but I think the fact Lindsay Lohan is judging a show choir competition is pretty damn funny.

[Insider]

Award-winning actor Chris Colfer will appear in the high-profile Auditorium Speaker Series at 2012 ALA Annual Conference from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 23 in the Convention Center.

Best known for his starring role as ‘Kurt Hummel’ in the critically acclaimed Golden Globe^® and SAG award-winning comedy “Glee,“ Colfer has authored his first children’s book, “The Land of Stories,” due to be released on July 17, 2012 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. A fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairytales, “The Land of Stories” tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner Bailey.  Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, Alex and Conner leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic, where they come face-to-face with the characters they grew up reading about.

In other book-related pursuits, Colfer recently adapted “The Little Leftover Witch,” a pilot for the Disney Channel based on the children’s book of the same name by Florence Laughlin.

Colfer will next be seen starring in the independent film “Struck By Lightning,” which he also wrote and produced.  Brian Dannelly (“Saved”) directs the coming-of-age comedy which also stars Allison Janney, Christina Hendricks, Dermot Mulroney and Sarah Hyland.

Colfer’s performance as ‘Kurt Hummel’ has earned him a Golden Globe^®, two Emmy^® nominations, a SAG nomination and inclusion in the 2011 TIME 100, Time Magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Colfer appears courtesy of his publisher, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Gleeks already know that Chris Colfer can take us to magical places with his voice, and now he’s using words and pictures to create a fantasy world in his upcoming children’s book The Land of Stories, illustrated by Brandon Dorman. Kurt fans who’ve been anxiously awaiting the book, originally slated for an Aug. 7 release, won’t have to wait as long as they’d thought. A rep for Little Brown said, “Chris’s writing talents, his efficiency with deadlines, and the eagerness from his fans has all combined to allow us to move the date up to July 17th!”

Described as a “modern-day fairy tale,” the book will focus on twins Alex and Conner, who leave the real world behind and find themselves in a land where they come face-to-face with the fairy-tale characters — witches, goblins, trolls — they’ve always read about. Colfer says the book’s illustrator “made every detail come to life. He went above and beyond the crayon and colored pencil drawings I used to make of it as a kid.” Check out the very first peek at the cover of The Land of Stories below!

[Entertainment Weekly]

Can you talk a bit about the bullying storyline in the show and can you talk about your own experience with it growing up?

Well, yes.  I absolutely have had firsthand experience. I was bullied a lot in junior high and high school. In fact, I was bullied so much in junior high, I had to be homeschooled for a little bit. It’s funny because — like, when I stated that I was bullied in high school, I didn’t realise it was like a confession, like a big thing. It turned into this huge thing. And I thought everybody was bullied in high school.

What advice would you give someone going through it?
My biggest advice, I think, would be to a kid, if they’re struggling, to get help for it. Like, I mean, I think the problem is teachers and faculty members at schools these days, they’re all about disciplining kids, they’re all about punishing them and shaking their finger at them, and they forget to remind the kids that they’re there to help them too. So I think it’s more responsibility for people who are witnessing it every day rather than someone who’s being bullied or are bullied. Because when you’re in this scenario, it’s hard to avoid and hard to escape it. You kind of need help.

So, did you go back to school after you were homeschooled?
Yes, I did. Yes, I went to high school, yeah.

And then things were okay?
They were okay, but, I mean, like — I mean, that’s kind of my mindset. Like, when you go to school, you get bullied. That’s what I always thought because that’s how it was for me.

Did you get some kind of emotional letters from — or contact from fans talking about the storyline?
Oh, yeah, yeah. Thousands and thousands, yeah, absolutely. If I open up my Twitter or my Facebook right now, I could print out, like, seven or eight for you right here. I think all kids need to see is someone like them. They just need someone going through the same thing they’re going through and they just feel so much better about themselves.

And you were named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.
I was, yeah. That must be an incredible thing. Yes, absolutely. I mean, even though I have the magazine framed in my house, it’s still hard to believe that actually happened, yeah.

How conscious are you off being a role model? I mean, is that something that actually influences what you do or don’t do?
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, there are definitely situations that I definitely avoid because I know that I’m a role model and if I get seen, you know, doing this or doing that, it would take credibility away from me. It would also take credibility away from the character, unfortunately. So if I do anything stupid, it would reflect on Kurt as well. But, yeah, I definitely take it very seriously, and I hope that anyone who would be in my situation and would have this powerful material that that they’re portraying on a television show, I would hope they would take it as seriously.

You are also writing books for children. What are they going to be about?
Well, they’re completely different from anything I would do, because people kind of think Chris Colfer, oh, it must be books about bullying or something like that. But, no, I’m doing a middle grade reader fantasy series. And I just finished the first one in September, and it gets released August next year. I’m very, very impatient for it to be released and I can’t wait. It was one of the most fun I’ve ever had doing something.

What would you think is the biggest thing you’ve learned from being famous?
You can’t please everyone, so don’t try. It’s impossible to please everyone. There’s always going to be someone that wants to bring you down.

I think Kurt is having the most sweet and most romantic relationship in the show. Is it going to be that sweet in the future?
I hope not. I mean, it’s — I really — I love the relationship, but, oh, my God. It needs something. It needs some kind of drama or something, otherwise — I mean, you can only say I love you so many times. But they’ve been in such this, like, puppy-dog-love state for so long that when this new character Sebastian comes in and kind of stirs things up, I loved it. Kurt was horrified that someone was trying to steal his boyfriend, but, like, I was jumping.

So are you more thick-skinned these days? Because as you were saying, you’ve learned not to try and please everyone.
Yeah, I mean, I think now I’m kind of like — I’m kind of like a grizzly bear. Like, I do still feel the sting of the bee, but it doesn’t hurt quite as much anymore. So how are you feeling about the Glee graduation? I’m looking forward to it. I think I was looking forward to my real graduation in high school more than this fake one. But, yeah, I’m excited to see what happens to him, where he goes.

Would you like to stay with “Glee,” or is there a bit of you that’s kind of itching to go and explore those other kind of opportunities coming your way?
Well, I put so much stuff on my plate where right now I’m getting to do both. I’m getting to branch out and do all the things that I’ve always wanted to do while staying on “Glee.” So I hope I can just have the best of both worlds, but, I mean, I’m fine with whatever happens.

What about celebrities on the show – who stands out in your mind as kind of the most exciting guest star or the most surprising guest star?
Well, I love Gwyneth. I was so intimidated by her at first because I didn’t know what to expect, because she’s kind of Hollywood royalty. And then she couldn’t have been nicer or any sweeter. We had a great, great time with her. And of course, I love Kristin Chenoweth and, oh, gosh, and John Stamos was so — was such a nice guy. We’ve really lucked out. We haven’t really had a guest star that we didn’t like. And Idina Menzel, she’s great, she’s fantastic.

You’ve done so many songs in “Glee.” Is there still one song you would like do?
Yeah, there are a couple. I mean, I haven’t really gotten to do so much high soprano, operatic-type songs, like all of “Phantom of the Opera” or “Evita,” so I’d love to do something like that where I really get to sing really high, because I’ve got voice for it. I want to do it. But ever since I did I’m the Greatest Star and I got to do the whole scaffolding, acrobatic stuff and swords, it’s like I don’t want to just stand there and sing. I have to be doing something and singing otherwise I get bored.

[source]

A short article in this week’s Publisher’s Weekly has confirmed that The Land of Stories will be released in Brazil – likely in 2012! Read the article here.