Spade Warns ‘Joe Dirt 2’ May Be Coming
David Spade’s 2001 redneck comedy may get sequel treatment, but only if audiences are lucky
It’s news that somebody’s bound to have been waiting for: David Spade may be preparing a sequel to his 2001 opus “Joe Dirt.”
That pseudo-comic eventuality may come to pass sooner than you might think, Spade revealed over the weekend talking up his latest venture, “The Benchwarmers,” with reporters. The revelation came amidst discussion of the upcoming return of “The Showbiz Show with David Spade,” the “SNL” vet’s Comedy Central show.
“I’m just doing the show for a while, might do another ‘Joe Dirt’ movie in the summer,” Spade says. “That’s about it. The show is really starting and that’s what I have to do, like my day-to-day job.”
But wait. Does that mean that a “Joe Dirt” sequel is just something that Spade and the Happy Madison production team could just throw together at the last second? Probably. But the script has been in the works for some time, at the urging of Happy Madison’s patron saint.
“We wrote it, because Sandler thinks it’s funny,” Spade explains.
Spade adds, “I like the new ‘Joe Dirt.’ We read it. It’s funny and Adam likes it. If it falls into place it will and it’ll be fun to do… ‘Electric Dirtaloo.'”
If “Electric Dirtaloo” actually makes it into production this summer, it will be an impressive comeback for a vehicle that attracted minimal critical (91 percent rotten on RottenTomatoes) or audience ($27 million) support when it was released.
Like so many true classics, “Joe Dirt” has only found its niche in secondary markets.
“I go on the road and I hear more about that than anything,” Spade explains. “That’s how you get feedback… Not everybody’s asking about ‘Lost and Found.'”
The secret to the success of “Joe Dirt,” it seems, is Wal-Mart. Spade says that a Sony DVD rep told him that “Dirt” has been one of the studio’s most prolific sellers at the ubiquitous retailer.
“I asked the DVD guy, ‘What does that mean?’ He goes, ‘Well, it came out and sold a lot the first month and then it never dropped. It just sold the same for the year.’ So that makes everyone think…” Spade says. “But maybe they just don’t believe it the first time, so you got to get them in theaters. That’s the tough part, because they seem to do well on video, which is a big market, but you want them to do well in the theater, because that’s all people know.”
“The Benchwarmers,” which co-stars Jon Heder (“Napoleon Dynamite”) and Rob Schneider, opens on Friday, April 7.
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