Vermont's fictional and utterly zany state troopers are headed to Canada in Super Troopers 2, the planned sequel to the 2001 cult comedy film.
At least, that's what the film's director and co-star Jay Chandrasekhar seemed to unintentionally reveal in an interview with NPR's Tamara Keith on Weekend Edition.
Chandrasekhar says he and the rest of the Broken Lizard comedy team have already written 16 drafts of the script for the sequel to their modern cult classic and there are plans for live bears and a rocket launcher. He says it took 21 drafts to get the original Super Troopers just right.
"We write every single bit out and make sure that when we show up on set, we are 100 percent sure it is going to be funny," says Chandrasekhar. "We don't leave anything to chance."
And there's a lot of pressure to get it right, because fans are rabid about the first one, which featured a lot of gags, a little male frontal nudity and a plot about a drug-smuggling ring along the Vermont-Canada border.
"We just want to make sure that this movie is somewhere close to as good as the first," Chandrasekhar says. "That's our hope."
The stoner comedy premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, and its signature moment where a trooper keeps sneaking the word "meow" into the conversation during a traffic stop, has permeated the culture.
Professional baseball player Gio Gonzalez just last month got in on the joke during an interview with the MLB network.
Famous fans or not, getting Super Troopers 2 filmed wasn't a sure thing. Fox Searchlight Pictures agreed to distribute the film in the U.S. and Canada, but only if the Broken Lizard team could come up with the funds to film it.
They turned to crowdfunding site Indiegogo and managed to raise more than $2 million in just 24 hours. The campaign is meow up to more than $3.5 million.
"This campaign is as much about perception and demonstration of the fan base as anything," Chandrasekhar says. "The more money we make, the bigger the film can be; the bigger the cameo stars can be."
But keeping the fans happy was also a big consideration as they decided to go the crowdfunding route. Past crowdfunded films have generated controversy with fans funding movies, but then having to go out to buy a ticket to see it.
"We're trying to make people who actually donate feel like they weren't taken advantage of," he says.
So tickets to the film are among the "pledge premiums" offered for those who donate to the cause of Super Troopers 2. There are some other shall we say, more creative, offerings — like being the godfather to the children of $100,000 donors and an "indecent proposal" for $25 million.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
