Like a lot of comedies, Joe Dirt didn’t exactly make a fortune when it first hit the box office. In fact, the results were mediocre at best, but thanks to continued airings on cable and the weird rewatchability of the project, it has slowly turned into a cult classic over the years. Today, we got the best evidence of that yet when a sequel was officially announced for the first time.
According to Deadline, Joe Dirt 2 will begin production in November in Louisiana with an eye toward officially releasing on Crackle in 2015. That’s right. Joe Dirt 2 will be released on Crackle, which seems utterly bizarre until you think about it for a few minutes.
The move comes just a few weeks after longtime David Spade buddy Adam Sandler announced he would be releasing four upcoming movies exclusively on Netflix. That’s obviously a little more high profile than Crackle, but the deal likely got the ball rolling in the former SNL star’s mind, especially since Happy Madison will produce Joe Dirt 2. The project has been in-development for years, but as we know, that means nothing until the money is on the table. So, in the end, money from Crackle is better than no money at all.
Crackle is basically a television network on the Internet. The content is completely free, but it is interspersed with commercials in order to generate revenue. As far as we know, that means Joe Dirt 2 will simply get placed on the website whenever it’s finished and consumers will be free to watch it whenever they have time, provided they’re willing to sit through advertisements. It’s obviously not a perfect way to watch movies, but it’s better than a lot of alternatives.
Joe Dirt follows a dumb redneck, played by David Spade, who gets separated from his parents at the Grand Canyon. He eventually starts hanging out with a beautiful woman and Kid Rock, but he leaves it all behind to hunt down his parents and find out what happened. Christopher Walken is also involved as a janitor with truly outstanding hair.
Former Saturday Night Live writer Fred Wolf has been hired to produce and co-write alongside David Spade. No one is expecting the final product to win Academy Awards, but if it has the same balance of jokes and WTF as the first film, hardcore fans should be very pleased.
