Napoleon Dynamite Was Originally a UFO Movie

IO9.com-- Napoleon Dynamite, paranormal investigator? The husband-wife team behind the strange slice-of-life comedy reveal that the original idea for Napoleon Dynamite involved a very different plot, with crop circles, an alien conspiracy, and Napoleon fleeing from government agents.

After a screening for their upcoming film Gentlemen Broncos, Jared and Jerusha Hess, co-writers of both Gentlemen Broncos and Napoleon Dynamite (Jared also directed both films) answered audience questions and gave a little background about the movie. During the session, Jerusha mentioned that, if Jared had his way, Napoleon Dynamite would have been about crop circles and UFOs.

Later, during an interview with the pair, we asked them to elaborate on this more science fiction Napoleon Dynamite:

Jared: I don't know, it just involved Napoleon researching crop circle crap and weird extraterrestrial —

Jerusha: Paranormal —

Jared: — stuff going down in the farming community. I don't know. It didn't get much further than that. She [Jerusha] stopped it right away.

Jerusha: There are a couple of white Bronco scenes, where he [Napoleon] was being chased by some government officials.

Jared: Yeah, it was bad. It was bad. But we didn't pursue it. We kept it —

Jerusha: Jared was so focused on the story for Napoleon, when really it was just the character that was so entertaining. And I kept saying "Jared, we don't need the story. Let's show a little glimpse of his life."