The stars of ’00s cult hit Napoleon Dynamite have said the film wouldn’t have been as popular if it was released today.
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The film’s lead, Jon Heder, as well as co-stars Efren Ramirez (Pedro), and Jon Gries (Uncle Rico) spoke to Indiewire during an ongoing Napoleon Dynamite Live show that the trio have been touring since 2018.
Released in 2004, Napoleon Dynamite was an unlikely independent hit, telling the offbeat story of misfits living in a small town. Napoleon’s climactic dance, catchphrases, and “Vote For Pedro” t-shirts have all become memes in the following years. Despite this success, the actors believe the film wouldn’t have been the success it was in the modern Hollywood ecosystem.
Gries remarked: “If it were released today, Napoleon Dynamite might not have survived. Theatre owners kept it in theatres. It was six, eight, 10 weeks before the film finally caught fire. I don’t think they’d do that now”. Ramirez went further, commenting: “It might go straight to streaming”.
Heder described how touched he is by people’s affection for the movie over 20 years on, saying: “People tell us they truly love this film… They grew up on it.
“With the tour, we get a lot of the same questions, and we’re telling a lot of the same stories — but you have a new audience every time, and that keeps it fresh for us. If this was a cruddy movie we weren’t proud of, it would be a cash grab. But we really love this movie”.
Despite this affection, a sequel for the film has never made it to production. Heder has reprised the role for a commercial with Ramirez, and the cast came back for a short-lived animated series in 2012. There were rumours of a sequel to the film in 2016, with Heder saying: “It could happen. I feel that the stories of Napoleon aren’t complete”, although nothing came to fruition.
The closest thing to a sequel would be a virtual reunion in 2020, as part of a charity livestream that raised money for The Hunger Project.
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