It doesn't yet have the profile of a Netflix or an Amazon, but Sony's online streaming platform Crackle has also been quietly producing its own content for some time. It's home to Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee and its first film was Extraction with Danny Glover last year. Now it has the dubious honour of producing the first ever straight-to-digital sequel. David Spade is looking to Crackle for his belated follow-up to 2001's **Joe Dirt{
The original Joe Dirt is a comedy that sees the titular drifter on the road, ostensibly looking for his parents but gradually adopting a new family of similar misfits. It's basically a lot like The Outlaw Josey Wales but without the shooting or the excellence. It is, shall we say, not greatly loved. with a current rating of 11% at Rotten Tomatoes. The film was a reasonable hit at the box office, however, and its RT audience score is actually 76% (meaning 76% of respondents have said they'd like to see it). So hey, what do critics know?
Spade has been keen to return to the property for ages, attempting to get an animated series going on TBS in 2010. That didn't work, so Spade is particularly pleased to finally have more Dirt up and running. "I'm beyond stoked," he says. "I've been sleeping in this wig for years, and it will be nice to wear it in the daytime again."
Joe Dirt 2 will pick up where the original left off. Crackle's general manager Eric Berger reveals that Joe Dirt "has been a longtime viewer favorite, ranking among the most viewed movies in our library, and we decided to produce and distribute the sequel as a feature for fans everywhere."
Fred Wolf will once again co-write and this time also direct. The film will be produced by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison productions, themselves moving into the digital-premiere arena with a recent four-picture Netflix deal.
Production on Joe Dirt 2 begins in November for a 2015 debut. Since Crackle disappeared from UK devices earlier this year, however, Joe Dirt lovers in this country may have to wait for ye olde disc.