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Vote for Pedro: Napoleon Dynamite playing Wayne Theatre

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vote for pedro napoleon dynamiteVote for Pedro, and your wildest dreams will come true, according to his campaign manager, Napoleon Dynamite.

Seriously, we need to poll-test this before November. Hard to imagine this one won’t work with voters.

In the meantime, the student election at the heart of “Napoleon Dynamite” will play on the big screen at the Wayne Theatre on Friday night at 8 p.m.

(Admission is pay what you will. Concessions, including popcorn, beer, cider and mixed drinks, available.)

Part of the Cult Movie Series at the Wayne, “Napoleon Dynamite” stars Jon Heder as the title character, a teen in Idaho struggling to fit in, for what are obvious reasons. (He’s a goofball in a family of bigger goofballs.)

One of the highlights of my reporter life was getting the chance for a brief one-on-one interview with Aaron Ruell, who played Napoleon’s older brother, Kip. Kip, fans of the movie will remember, thought himself a future cagefighter, his only limitations being frighteningly slow reflexes and any degree of muscle tone.

He also sported a ‘70s porn ‘stache, and Ruell explained to me that he and writer-director Jared Hess tested the look by tweaking the ‘stache and having Ruell go out in public to see how people reacted to him when they saw him.

When the reaction was along the lines of, Is that guy a child molester?, they had the look.

(That’s not at all politically correct, so don’t test that one with the voters.)

Ruell in that interview, and Hess and Heder in others, made it clear that no one associated with the movie thought it would become any kind of commercial success.

With a budget of $400,000, “Napoleon Dynamite” drew more than $46 million at the box office.

Which would buy a lot of steak, or at the least a delicious bass.

(Vote for Pedro. Wildest dreams and all that.)

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