PARK CITY — "Napoleon Dynamite" has really blown up — in the best possible sense — for its 24-year-old writer-director, Jared Hess, of Draper.
Hess' movie, which is in the dramatic competition of the Sundance Film Festival, has been purchased for theatrical distribution by Fox Searchlight Pictures. The independent-film arm of Twentieth Century Fox paid $3 million for the offbeat comedy.
Hess said that he and the film's producers are "thrilled."
"We couldn't be happier," he said, observing that Searchlight "has a proven track record of handling unique films like this. I think they're going to take care of 'Napoleon Dynamite' in the way it should be and get it to the audience that deserves to see it."
Fox Searchlight has become a distribution giant for Sundance films. At last year's festival, the company acquired the art-house hit "Thirteen," and this year the company also signed a joint deal with Miramax Pictures for the rights to the comedy "Garden State."
"Napoleon Dynamite" centers on the title character (Jon Heder), an Idaho high school outcast who uses his special skills to help his friends, including an unpopular pal running for student-body president. Based on early word of mouth, the film became one of the hot tickets, and all of the scheduled screenings sold out before the festival even began.
Also, the movie received solid reviews from critics in attendance. Online film reviewer Jeffrey Wells likened its comic sensibilities to those of the Coen brothers, who also got their start at the festival back in 1983 with the thriller "Blood Simple."
All that was enough for Fox Searchlight president Peter Rice, who said he and other officials "adored this remarkably assured film debut for its originality, innovation and joyfulness. Rice also called the film "a true crowd-pleaser that had the audience laughing throughout," and added that studio officials are hoping "this will be the first of many projects between Searchlight and (Hess)."
Hess dropped out of Brigham Young University to make the film. "Napoleon Dynamite" is an expanded version of a short film, "Peluca," that Hess had in last year's Slamdance Film Festival, which runs concurrently with Sundance in Park City.
Based on positive responses at Slamdance, BYU classmate Jeremy Coon was able to secure funding for a feature film version of the tale. According to Hess, one of his goals going into the festival was to secure distribution outside of the state, perhaps with a locally operated distributor, such as HaleStorm Entertainment or Excel Entertainment.
"I have the utmost admiration for what (Excel and HaleStorm) have been able to do," Hess said. "But my movie isn't specifically directed to an LDS audience, and I think that the film has a really good shot of catching on with a lot of audiences — not just here."
Fox Searchlight officials have not determined the film's theatrical release date at this point, but it may come to theaters before the end of the year.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com