The white trash David Spade comedy Joe Dirt is now thirteen years old, and like just about all movies, you have to imagine that someone somewhere out there is demanding a sequel. Whether or not that's actually true, however, Spade is now delivering news of a Joe Dirt 2. Screw you, Justice League and Star Wars: Episode VII, only now has the week been truly made.
Spade did an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit recently where he promoted his upcoming stand-up special on Comedy Central. Referring to himself, charmingly, as an "international stupidstar," Spade answered a slew of questions, but his most substantial answer was in regards to Joe Dirt 2, which he has actually written!
"We're putting it together now and seeing if we can keep it as funny and with the music we like for a lower budget. All the movies you hear about being made now keep running into budget problems, this and that, and it sounds boring, but it's just a new world, where they can't make those $15-30 million comedies anymore. It's either $3 million or $200 million, there's almost no in-between, so everyone's adjusting to either a summer tentpole Avengers-type movie, or learning to get down and dirty and gritty and making a smaller movie. I just don't want to burn the fans and want to make it good, so me and the other writer are combing through the sequel and trying to make it make sense and have good music and be funny within the parameters. So hopefully it will be soon, or it will be too pointless."
Adding another wrinkle to the story is that if the film gets made, it may not get made for theatrical release. Sony owns the rights to the film, and while they'll bombard us with Amazing Spider-Man movies until the sun dies, apparently they're interested in debuting Joe Dirt 2 on Crackle.com, which falls under the Sony banner. "Straight to Crackle.com" – that's a new one. Spade claims Kid Rock and Christopher Walken would be returning, provided they don't mind taking severe pay cuts.
The original film found Spade as the titular janitor who becomes an overnight sensation by recounting his Forrest Gump-like existence to a radio DJ . The film just barely justifies a sequel: the original made $30 million worldwide on a $17 million budget, and it stands to reason there was a healthy DVD life afterwards. Spade has certainly had an unusual career, and his starring vehicles were never big earners, but his last big feature, The Benchwarmers, grossed $64 million worldwide. Since then his movie work has consisted of mostly cameos and voiceovers, and his appearance in the two Grown Ups movies are the only times he's been on the big screen in the last eight years. Actually a pretty good life, when you think about it.
The whole AMA is a pretty fun read. Spade tells a couple of Chris Farley stories, addresses The Emperor's New Groove as his most beloved movie, and claims there's talk of a third Grown Ups (which should debut on the side of a bus headed into the abyss, but it won't). His special "My Fake Problems" is currently available for purchase, and hey, you should sponsor standup and give it a buy.
