Heard of it or not the Fox Searchlight, MTV Films and Paramount Pictures film Napoleon Dynamite is having decent success making $4+ million in limited release, and now on its way to a wide release audiences will get five minutes extra.
Shot on June 22 and 23 in Preston, Idaho, the epilogue, directed by Jared Hess from a script he co-wrote with wife Jerusha, was a response to the growing success of their feature debut and the loyal devotion of their fans.
Fox Searchlight’s President of Marketing Nancy Utley said of the unprecedented move, “Fans of Napoleon Dynamite nationwide have fallen in love with the film’s anti-hero and his quirky friends. We decided to take a page out of the DVD handbook and give them something more. It has been Searchlight’s challenge in marketing Napoleon Dynamite to be as unique as the film’s loveable characters.”
From Preston, Idaho comes Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), a new kind of hero complete with a tight red ‘fro, some choice moon boots, and skills that can’t be topped. Napoleon spends his days drawing mythical beasts, duking it out with his 32-year-old brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) and avoiding his Uncle Rico (Jon Gries), a door-to-door salesman who’s mentally stuck in 1982 — the year his football team “almost won state.” But when two new friends are brought into his life — Deb (Tina Majorino), the artisan behind the “boondoggle key chain,” and Pedro (Efren Ramirez) with his sweet bike and talent with the chicks — Napoleon finds goals outside of being a star milk-tasting judge. Together the trio launches a campaign to elect Pedro for class president and make the student body’s wildest dreams come true. But if Pedro is to beat stuck-up Summer (Haylie Duff), Napoleon will have to unleash his secret weapon…
