Richard Simmons made very clear this week that he doesn't approve of Pauly Shore making a movie about him/his life -- but Pauly thinks he'll win the guy over ... eventually.

The actor touched down at the Salt Lake City Int'l Airport Thursday, where he's in town for the Sundance Film Festival that's going down this weekend in neighboring Park City. Right off the bat, photogs on hand were ready to pepper him with questions about this film of his.

Of course, the big one being ... do you think it's right to proceed with this Richard Simmons biopic -- even though the man himself hasn't given his blessing ... explicitly so.

Check out Pauly's take here, 'cause he touches on a few different things. For starters, he thinks RS might be singing this tune today ... but could well be feeling completely different about it by tomorrow. More importantly, though, he thinks intention is everything with this.

From Pauly's view, he's not coming from a vindictive place -- and he vows to do Richard justice in his portrayal of him. He also says straight up ... build it, and they'll come!

Pauly goes on to explain that he genuinely believes once Richard can see this new short film of his -- on which the forthcoming biopic will be based -- RS will come around to seeing his things his way, basically suggesting the work will be good ... and it'll be done right by Rich.

Bottom line for Pauly here ... people love Richard, and they also love him -- and he says folks are itching to see both of them make a comeback in a big way.

His question is ... what's wrong with giving the people what they want?!?

Time will tell if Richard does, in fact, warm up to the idea. For now, he's very much anti-this.