The Ballad of Joe Dirte will continue.  Crackle announced today that production will begin next month on Joe Dirt 2, a sequel to the 2001 comedy starring David Spade as a trailer trash bumpkin who sets out in search of his parents, who abandoned him when he was a child during a trip to the Grand Canyon.  Spade reprises his role in the follow-up, which is the first ever made-for-digital sequel to a feature film.  As much as I want to hate this idea (and believe me, I do), I can’t deny that I kind of like Joe Dirt.  It’s incredibly stupid, yes, but it came on the heels of Adam Sandler’s Big Daddy and The Waterboy, and I was still firmly on Team Happy Madison at the time of its release.  Also, space peanuts.  More after the jump.

Happy Madison also returns to produce Joe Dirt 2, and Joe Dirt co-writer and SNL alum Fred Wolf will direct in anticipation of a 2015 release.  This comes on the heels of the news that Sandler is gearing up to make four feature films exclusively for Netflix, as the Happy Madison empire appears to be moving into the digital medium following near-universal scorn for its theatrical output over the past few years.

Watch the original trailer for Joe Dirt below, followed by the full press release.

Culver City, CA (October 10, 2014) – Crackle is poised to make history with the announcement today that production will begin next month on “Joe Dirt 2,” the first ever made-for-digital sequel to a major motion picture. David Spade returns in the eponymous role as “Joe Dirt,” re-teaming with Fred Wolf to co-write and executive produce the sequel to the Columbia Pictures cult favorite. Wolf will also direct. “Joe Dirt 2” will be produced by Happy Madison Productions. Production begins mid-November on location in Louisiana—the backdrop of the Baton Rouge based original feature film. The feature is scheduled to be released in 2015 on Crackle and all Crackle platforms.

The long-awaited sequel to the Columbia Pictures cult favorite comedy will pick-up where the first film left off, following the comedic misadventures of the mullet-clad, lovable redneck “Joe Dirt.”

“I'm beyond stoked that ‘Joe Dirt’ will finally hit the screens again on Crackle,” said David Spade. “I've been sleeping in this wig for years and it will be nice to wear it in the daytime again.”

“David Spade had a fresh and unique vision for ‘Joe Dirt 2’ that he could have brought anywhere and we couldn’t be happier that he brought it to Crackle for a first-of-its-kind, worldwide release,” said Eric Berger, Crackle GM and Sony EVP of Digital Networks. “The original film has been a longtime viewer favorite, ranking among the most viewed in our library, and we decided to produce and distribute the sequel as a feature for fans everywhere.”

joe-dirt-poster