His new film, "Extract," is no exception: It's about a factory owner, Joel (Jason Bateman), who must deal with a host of employee problems as well as a chilly wife.

Of course, Joel's solutions aren't exactly the stuff of Solomon, but such is the way of comedy.

Bateman understands Judge's motivations.

"He likes to keep everything very middle-of-the-road common people, small town, small problems, relatable, blue-collar," said the actor, who called Judge "a ninja of comedy." "And those people, they run extract factories; they make drywall. I mean, it's the stuff that we all need often goes unnoticed; he likes to write about those people, and I'm glad he does."

"Extract," which also stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, J.K. Simmons and a long-haired and heavily bearded Ben Affleck, opens Friday. Judge talked to CNN about his subject matter and his cast. The following is an edited version of the interview.

CNN: Where did this idea come from? I'd read that you worked in a factory before.

Mike Judge: Yeah, it kind of came from all over the place. I've worked many jobs, and I did work in a factory a couple times -- a place that made guitar amps, and then I worked in a place in Albuquerque [New Mexico], where I grew up, that stuffed those snack boxes with Fritos and candy bars and stuff.

CNN: Casting for the film, how did that come together? Did you have a set idea in your head?

Judge: When I first wrote the first draft, I wasn't thinking about anybody in particular and, then I saw "Arrested Development" years later. I['d] put the script on the shelf and thought Jason Bateman would be perfect, so I did a rewrite thinking about him but no one in particular for the other characters. I just wrote it and then just did kind of the normal casting process.

But then, we were reading people for the character of [Joel's friend] Dean, and my casting director comes in one day and said, "Ben Affleck is interesting." And I thought, "Really, I've never met the guy." And I [also] thought, "Yeah, but he's like strapping, handsome leading-man guy."

Then I started thinking about it, and I love him when he's a character actor like in "Dazed and Confused" or "Shakespeare in Love," and then I met him, and he just got it. He had this take on him based on a guy he went to high school with. We did a read-through the script, and him and Jason just killing me, I just thought it was just really funny. You know, he was willing to get out of his leading man look and grow a beard. It was really fun.

CNN: It was fun to see him do that. It was a different dynamic.

Judge: Yeah. I think Ben, actually, I think he enjoyed being this character. I think he hasn't gotten to do something like that in a while.

In fact, we had a big break [during shooting]. ... And he has one scene in the factory, so he had like maybe two or three weeks between the bulk of it and that last scene in it. I got the sense he was really happy to come back and put on his "Dean" get-up and get back into that character. He was just really fun.

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