Bucking the trend

After the runaway success of his first feature, 2004's "Napoleon Dynamite," Jared Hess could have gone Hollywood.

The months that followed included offers for Hess to write and direct television series, big feature films, commercials and music videos.

He also could have gone to Hollywood, permanently.

"There certainly were those kinds of opportunities for me," the 30-year-old writer/director/producer said simply.

But instead, Hess chose to remain in Utah. He still lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Jerusha, and their two young children.

That's also allowed him to have an even closer working relationship with his wife, whom he calls "my target audience and my best editor."

(Jerusha Hess has been credited as co-screenwriter on her husband's two post-"Napoleon Dynamite" films — 2006's "Nacho Libre" and "Gentlemen Broncos," his newest big-screen venture.)

"By that, he means that I'm just about the only person who can tell him no or tell him when he's gone too far," she said.

Staying in Utah also allowed the Hesses to stay close to home and family.

"Being near our family and our roots keeps us humble and keeps us grounded," Jerusha Hess said. The Hesses, who both attended Brigham Young University, are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The couple also has a habit of starting and finishing each other's thoughts and sentences, as they did during joint interviews to promote "Gentlemen Broncos," which opens in local theaters today.

The offbeat comedy follows a would-be science fiction novelist, Benjamin Purvis (Michael Angarano), whose manuscript, "Yeast Lords," is plagiarized by a considerably more successful writer, best-selling author Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement, of "Flight of the Conchords" fame).

The idea behind "Gentlemen Broncos" has been kicking around since "Peluca," the original 2003 short that inspired "Napoleon Dynamite."

And concepts from "Broncos" were actually born from Hess's love for lurid science-fiction art and imagery.

"There's something that was so grotesque yet appealing about it," he recalled.

The resulting project allowed Hess to play with "bigger and better toys," according to his wife.

"Jared has been wanting to direct action scenes for a while now," she said, while Hess smiled sheepishly.

Scenes in "Gentlemen Broncos" re-create both Benjamin and Ronald's versions of "Yeast Lords," and they feature Sam Rockwell as very different takes on the same character.

"This part of the film sort of took on its own life and just got weirder and weirder," she said.