NapoleonDynamite Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Today is a day for celebration, since it seems director Kyle Newman has finally washed the Weinstein stench off him and landed another gig! The Hollywood Reporter tells us Newman will direct an adaptation of the cult comic book Emo Boy, which is described (in tone) as being like Napoleon Dynamite, Harold and Maude and Zoolander. From the Amazon description: "Poor Emo Boy- he's unpopular. Unloved. He has no family. Not only does he need to deal with things like pondering suicide and questioning his sexual identity, but on top of that he's got these emo super powers that only seem to bring destruction and disaster, causing everyone to hate him more than they already do. His first love suffers a head explosion, the football team wants him dead, and he got an F in English. No wonder he's so depressed!'

Sounds perfect for Newman, who previously helmed the geek-tastic comedy Fanboys (which is finally set to arrive in theaters on February 6), and almost directed a Revenge of the Nerds remake before that sucker was shut down. I had the pleasure of hanging with Newman and his totally hottie wife Jaime King at Comic Con this past July, and they're both incredibly geeky and very much dedicated to churning out fun flicks. King plays a pretty funny part in Fanboys, and I'm sure she'll show up in some capacity for Emo Boy. No word on production or release date, though hopefully we won't have to wait five years to see it.

This week Entertainment Weekly is "Counting Down the New Movie Classics," listing the best films made in the past 25 years. The magazine claims that all 100 are good enough to be considered alongside the usual classics (you know, like Citizen Kane, Casablanca, etc.), but I guess that's relative. I wouldn't consider #99, The Blair Witch Project, to be equated with Poltergeist III, let alone Psycho. But isn't that the fun of these lists? They fuel our excitement about cinema while also angering us that our favorites aren't higher up, or more commonly, that the films we hate most are included on any list, ever.

On the first day of the countdown, EW shows us the bottom 25, which includes such masterpieces as Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Breaking the Waves, In the Mood for Love and Full Metal Jacket. When I saw that the last of these was only at #94, I got really excited, wondering what 93 films could possibly be better. And then I was shocked to see that so-so comedies like Swingers and Waiting for Guffman and the fine but poorly aged Moonstruck placed higher. I almost didn't even see those titles, though, because I almost threw my computer when I saw that Napoleon Dynamite was just ahead of Back to the Future. Just another reason to hate Napoleon Dynamite, I guess. Even the Back to the Future sequels are better than ND, but I'm going to now assume they don't even make it on this list.

#s 75-51 will be revealed tomorrow. I wonder what kind of delights and blasphemies will meet us then.

Things certainly seem to be moving quickly for Gentlemen Broncos. Five days ago, Patrick had first broke the news on the follow-up project for Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre creator Jared Hess. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has already announced that Sam Rockwell has signed to star along side Flight of the Conchords creator Jermaine Clement for the teen comedy. The story centers on a teen fantasy novelist who has his story ripped off by his idol at a writer's camp. Michael Angarano (Lords of Dogtown) will play the teen that comes up with the fantasy story with the unfortunate title of Yeast Lords.

Rockwell will play the fictional character in the story and there will be some "book-come-to-life sequences under two guises: one in the teen's story and one in the author's story". Well, if anybody can pull it off, it would be Rockwell -- the man has a knack for playing some of the most diverse characters without breaking a sweat. If you don't believe me, take an afternoon and watch The Green Mile and then Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and tell me those are two pretty impressive ends of the spectrum.

The script was written by the husband and wife team of Jared and Jerusha Hess, and will be produced Mike White and Ben LeClair. Both White and LeClair worked with Hess before on Nacho Libre. So it looks like Patrick's prediction came true and the cast is going to be an 'indie' affair, but with the addition of Rockwell and Clement there's just a smidgen more of 'hipster' cred. Gentlemen Broncos is scheduled to start production this March and arrive in theaters some time in 2009.

Jared Hess loves exploring the nerds, geeks, freaks, outsiders, and weirdos of the world, and God bless him for that. The outcasts are always far more interesting than the cool kids. Hess kicked off his career with Napoleon Dynamite, and if you can measure a film's popularity by how often people quote its dialogue, then Napoleon is one of the most beloved films in recent years. He followed Napoleon up with the less favorably received Nacho Libre. I think the problem most people had with Nacho is that they weren't expecting it to be a kids' movie, but I kind of dug it. It was certainly an original, and had some great visuals. Now Joblo has the scoop on his next project -- Gentlemen Broncos.

From Bronco's description and lead character (a high school outcast), it seems Hess is aiming to recapture that Napoleon magic. The film will focus on "an aspiring fantasy author. He attends a fantasy convention to show off his work and finds his supposed masterpiece - Yeast Lords - ripped off by legendary novelist Ronald Chevalier, who has turned desperate for ideas." It sounds pretty funny to me, and the whole Dungeons and Dragons/Lord of the Rings fanboy world should certainly provide Hess with ample comedy ammunition. And since his mockery tends to be pretty sweet-natured, I doubt he'll alienate those fans. No word on casting, but I wouldn't expect huge names -- it seems he'll be doing Broncos as a pretty indie affair. As with his previous films, Hess will direct and co-wrote the script with his wife, Jerusha. Sweeet.

He will always be "McLovin", but at least newcomer Christopher Mintz-Plasse has found another role to follow-up his hilarious debut in Superbad. The actor told Moviehole in an interview hat he has been cast in Little Big Men alongside comedy vets Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott. This is apparently the movie formerly known as Big Brothers, which was written by Timothy Dowling (George Lucas in Love) and which was to be directed by Luke Greenfield (The Girl Next Door). According to Mintz-Plasse, though, Little Big Men will now be helmed by Wet Hot American Summer and The Ten director David Wain. The movie's plot involves two wild and crazy guys who end up sentenced to community service in the form of the Big Brothers mentoring program. Why a judge would think a couple of party boys would be suitable mentors to kids is beyond me (the program does have very strict guidelines against drug users, and I'm sure these guys are probably potheads), but it should at least make for some funny situations.

It isn't clear what kind of role Mintz-Plasse will have (the mentored kid, perhaps?), but I see him having difficulty shedding his persona as Fogel/McLovin, which was so perfect I almost found the guy funnier than Michael Cera. The actor may end up like Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder, who similarly came on the scene with a quirky, imitable character and has had trouble finding another movie that audiences accept him in (he succeeded marginally by co-starring with Will Ferrell in Blades of Glory). Interestingly enough, Heder even played a Big Brother in School for Scoundrels -- at least, his character was in the program until being let go for being too much of a loser. If Mintz-Plasse can join the ranks of Wain's usual crop of collaborators -- which spans the State/Stella/Reno 911! crowd and the Apatow/Stiller "Frat Pack" group -- then he should be able to make a decent career for himself.

Take a map of Oregon. Fold it down the middle lengthwise. Then fold it again the other way. The spot right in the middle, where the two folds intersect? That's about where you'll find Bend, a beautiful city of about 75,000 people, and home to BendFilm Festival. The fest is new (it just launched in 2004), but it's quickly picking up steam and adding to the Pacific Northwest's already vibrant independent film scene.

The lineup for the fourth BendFilm Festival, to be held Oct. 11-14, has just been announced, and it's a good one. There are 13 narratives, 17 documentaries, and a few dozen shorts in competition, many of them already favorites from other festivals, with a few premieres sprinkled in, too.

Slamdance hits American Fork and Dante's Inferno are on tap, the former from the producer of Napoleon Dynamite; the latter an animated take on the literary classic. The Insurgents depicts four radicals trying to spark a revolution in post-9/11 America. And I like the sound of Blood Car: With gas prices hovering near $40 a gallon in the near future, an environmentalist seeks an alternative fuel source -- and accidentally finds a horrible one. (Think Little Shop of Horrors. Think Soylent Green....)

The docs are even more intriguing. Red White Black & Blue tells of two American soldiers who fought the Japanese during a secret Alaskan invasion during World War II. The wonders and dangers of nature are explored in King Corn (about America's farming system), Mekong: Exploring the Mother of Waters (about the Southeast Asian river), and River Ways (about the Snake River in Washington). And triumph over disease is heralded in Ready (about cerebral palsy) and The Breast Cancer Diaries.

Oh, and Wiener Takes All: A Dogumentary is about the cutthroat world of competitive dachshund racing. That by itself is almost a reason to fly to Bend.

Passes for the festival are reasonably priced and Bend is a fantastic destination, especially in the fall. After Telluride, it might just be the most beautiful location for an American film festival. Visit the fest's website for more info.

Over at quigspot.com is a listing of what the blogger deems the "Ten Most Obnoxiously Overquoted Movies." He says in the intro: "Nothing makes a great movie suck like people quoting it day in and day out for months at a time. It's the go-to route used by individuals who aren't clever enough to come up with their own material, made worse by them thinking (thanks to the select few that laughed at their referencing) they've suddenly become the most hilarious stand-up comedian since George Carlin." I agree to some extent, but while it's true that quoting movies is not the most enlightened form of comedy, it can be a lot of fun. The key is to stick to obscure quotes -- avoid "Luke, I am your father" and "Say hello to my little friend." At a party, an obscure quote that someone else recognizes can help you recognize a kindred spirit, and snag you a new friend or even a romance. Still, there are some movies that get quoted far too frequently, and it becomes particularly hard to deal with once they're embraced by the "frat guy" crowd, as almost all of quigspot's choices are.

The ten selected overquoted films are: 10) Office Space (good call, but the boss' voice is just too much fun to do. Quoting this one simply has to be done sometimes, especially in an office setting), 9) Monty Python movies (disagree -- I don't hear Python quotes much these days), 8) Wedding Crashers (definitely getting obnoxious, especially at bars), 7) Anything with Samuel L. Jackson (Snakes on a Plane, absolutely), 6) The 40 Year-Old Virgin (maybe, but when the lines are that funny, who can argue?), 5) Anchorman (see #6, although "I'm kind of a big deal" has reached the end of the line), 4) The Austin Powers series (yup), 3) Borat (Should have been #1 -- some guy dressed as Borat at a Halloween party I attended stayed in character the entire night and almost drove me to murder), 2) Napoleon Dynamite (absolutely) and the choice for the #1 most obnoxiously overquoted movie is ... 300.

Movies I'm guilty of quoting? 1) Wayne's World -- whenever anybody orders Chinese food, I can't resist throwing in "I'll have the cream of sum yung guy." I'm also a fan of "If Benjamin were an ice cream flavor, he'd be pralines and dick." 2) The Naked Gun series. Endless possibilities really, but my favorite is "Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes." 3) Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski -- literally every line of both is gold. Which movies do you love to quote? And which movies do you think get quoted too frequently?

Even if the film festival guides hadn't reminded me that the low-key indie comedy American Fork came from one of the Napoleon Dynamite producers ... I think I might have figured it out on my own. That's not to say that the films are all that similar, really, but that they both feature main characters who are grown-ups on the exterior and trapped in a state of perpetually unpleasant adolescence beneath the surface. Not particularly deep beneath the surface, either.

First-time screenwriter Hubbel Palmer stars as Tracy Orbison, a 6-foot-4-inch massive mound of a young man, and one who has only a few minor things going for him. Tracy seems to enjoy his dead-end job at the local supermarket, and he's got a mother and a sister who genuinely seem to care for the guy, but beyond that Tracy is as insecure, immature and rudderless as a guy can possibly be. The clueless yet strangely ingratiating misfit bounces from hobby to hobby and from acquaintance to acquaintance, desperately looking for something (and someone) to share his time with. Failing that, the guy simply loves to jot away in his journal.

One of Tracy's more recent obsessions is that of acting: He tries to befriend a local actor, a jackass who turns out to be as arrogant as he is insincere -- and Tracy greets the eventual disappointment with a sigh known only to the frequently disappointed. Then he tries to befriend a teenager who just started working at the supermarket -- but the kid's sleazy friends abuse Tracy's good nature in a really terrible way. And then come some seriously unpleasant accusations that have Tracy ducking into alleys, afraid to even show his face in his own neighborhood.

According to Advertising Age Magazine, we will soon be subjected to a Burger King movie. I know what you're thinking. When I read this article, I thought I'd woken up in the wrong universe this morning. But it is apparently true. The fast food company is working with the advertisement firm Crispin Porter & Bogusky on the project, which has a partially written script but no director, cast or studio. No plot was given either, but the firm says it will take place in an apartment above a Burger King and will be a cross between Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State, Raising Victor Vargas and What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, intentionally avoiding the kind of dumb comedy featured in another fast-food-advertisement of a movie, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. The budget will be under $10 million and the movie will not feature any name stars (as if any would do this).

The thing that worked for Harold & Kumar is that it was dumb, and people could enjoy it because it didn't take itself seriously. A somewhat serious movie marketed by Burger King seems way too ridiculous for anybody to accept. Perhaps the restaurant chain could do well to remember a little disaster called Mac and Me, which was a blatant advertisement for McDonalds that horribly ripped off E.T. and featured such serious subjects as a handicapped child and a broken home. It had the awful stench of old guys in suits who think they know what is necessary to make a hit but who actually have no clue. This Burger King thing stinks pretty similarly. These are the people who have been giving us one of the creepiest commercial campaigns ever to hit television (and no, the king mascot will not appear in the movie).

So, I say good luck to Burger King in blowing a hunk of money on something that will probably fail. Once in awhile I encourage stupid businessmen to learn the hard way. 

[via Hollywood Wiretap]

Contrary to what you may be thinking after reading the title of this post, I am not talking about a film festival here. No sir, this is a straight-up, fun-loving, knee-slapping, Idaho-style festival, complete with all kinds of Napoleon Dynamite-related activities. From July 4 through July 8, folks visiting Preston, Idaho (where Napoleon Dynamite was filmed) have the chance to participate in a number of events.

Some of the activities featured are:

• A Napoleon Dynamite parade through the town of Preston.
• A Napoleon Dynamite tour with a map locating several places in which filming took place.
• Oohh, how about a special performance from The Happy Hands Club in the Preston high school auditorium?
• Think you have mad Tetherball skills? How about signing up for the Tetherball tournament?
• Folks can also check out a tater tot eating contest and a football throwing contest too.
• Finally, the festival wraps up with a Napoleon Dynamite look-a-like/moonboot dance contest.

Probably the funniest part about this festival is that, as far as I can tell, at no point do they screen the actual film they're celebrating. You'd think that would be a pre-requisite to the whole thing, right? If any of our loyal Cinematical readers was able to check out the Napoleon Dynamite festival in Preston, Idaho, do drop us a comment and let us know how it was. Personally, it looks pretty damn sweeet!

 [via The Movie Blog]