(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Ryan Murphy felt like the "Anti-Christ" after the Glee "firing" furore.

Earlier this year, the co-creator of the popular American musical television series hit the headlines with news of a spin-off show starring current Glee favourites Lea Michele, Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith.

News of the trio graduating and appearing in a new programme led Chris to claim he found out about the plans via Twitter, and didn't think he'd be leaving the show so soon.

Ryan insists all three of the stars had been in talks about the spin-off, and admits he felt like the devil when the news spread.

"Twitter was bad. I was for a solid week the Anti-Christ. 'What an asshole. He's a d**k. He doesn't take care of his actors. He doesn't respect his actors.' It became a rash of bad publicity that all of us sort of had to endure," he told Deadline. "The thing that hurt me the most was to open up a website and see a headline that says, 'Lea Michele fired. Chris Colfer fired.' That would never happen. And I felt badly for them and I reached out to them."

In terms of other projects, Ryan also took the time to discuss a proposition he received from Hollywood star Will Smith. The writer had initially planned to be involved in a movie reboot of the classic musical Annie starring Will's daughter Willow, although other commitments have prevented him from doing so.

"They are doing a movie version and I loved the idea that Jay-Z was going to do the music. I met with Jay and talked to him about it. I wanted to write the script and direct it. And then American Horror got picked up," he lamented.

"Willow is a certain age and you need a script by November. I didn't think I could do it. So now she's got Emma Thompson who is 50 million times better than me. LOVE HER. I wish I could have had the time to do it. The thing that was the biggest turn on for me was Jay. We talked about how we were going to set it in Detroit. I love him and Beyonc. I think they're amazing." (C) Cover Media