``Napoleon Dynamite'' Makes History! For the First Time Ever, New Footage Produced for Wide Expansion; It's the Wedding of the Century -- But Who the Heck Is Getting Married?

HOLLYWOOD--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 20, 2004--On July 23, Fox Searchlight, MTV Films and Paramount Pictures will make cinematic history when they attach a five-minute epilogue to the feature film NAPOLEON DYNAMITE for its wide expansion. The epilogue offers a peek into the future of Napoleon and his friends. It's the wedding of the century, but whose is it? Napoleon? Kip? Uncle Rico? Tina?

Shot on June 22 and 23 in Preston, Idaho, the epilogue, directed by Jared Hess from a script he co-wrote with wife Jerusha, was a response to the growing success of their feature debut and the loyal devotion of their fans. NAPOLEON DYNAMITE will expand wide to over 350 screens across the country and the epilogue will be attached to each print.

“Over 25,000 people are competing to become President of the Napoleon Dynamite Fan Club on our website and over 1,000 fans have seen the film three times or more. We're thrilled with the enthusiastic response the film has received.”

Fox Searchlight's President of Marketing Nancy Utley said of the unprecedented move, "Fans of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE nationwide have fallen in love with the film's anti-hero and his quirky friends. We decided to take a page out of the DVD handbook and give them something more. It has been Searchlight's challenge in marketing NAPOLEON DYNAMITE to be as unique as the film's loveable characters."

"NAPOLEON DYNAMITE fans are extremely devoted," said Fox Searchlight President Peter Rice. "Over 25,000 people are competing to become President of the Napoleon Dynamite Fan Club on our website and over 1,000 fans have seen the film three times or more. We're thrilled with the enthusiastic response the film has received."

The film's official website is located at www.foxsearchlight.com/napoleondynamite.

Earning more than $4 million since its limited release on June 11, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE marks the directorial debut of 24-year-old Jared Hess, who wrote the film with his 23-year-old wife Jerusha Hess, an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University (BYU). A favorite at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival where it premiered, the film also opened the 2004 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival and went on to win that festival's coveted award for Best Feature Film.

From Preston, Idaho comes Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), a new kind of hero complete with a tight red 'fro, some choice moon boots, and skills that can't be topped. Napoleon spends his days drawing mythical beasts, duking it out with his 32-year-old brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) and avoiding his Uncle Rico (Jon Gries), a door-to-door salesman who's mentally stuck in 1982 -- the year his football team "almost won state." But when two new friends are brought into his life -- Deb (Tina Majorino), the artisan behind the "boondoggle key chain," and Pedro (Efren Ramirez) with his sweet bike and talent with the chicks -- Napoleon finds goals outside of being a star milk-tasting judge. Together the trio launches a campaign to elect Pedro for class president and make the student body's wildest dreams come true. But if Pedro is to beat stuck-up Summer (Haylie Duff), Napoleon will have to unleash his secret weapon...

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE was shot in Jared Hess' hometown of Preston, Idaho using an amalgamation of experienced and first-time actors. Included in the cast are: BYU students Jon Heder and Aaron Ruell in their feature film debuts, Jon Gries (JACKPOT, THE RUNDOWN), Efren Ramirez (who has appeared in series like "ER" and "Judging Amy" and in the features RACE and MISSING PIECES), Tina Majorino (WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN, WATERWORLD), Diedrich Bader (OFFICE SPACE, THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES), Haylie Duff (I LOVE YOUR WORK, DREAMS IN THE ATTIC) and Shondrella Avery (of the television series "One on One" and the comedy troupe Girls Behaving Badly).

Fox Searchlight is a filmmaker-oriented company that focuses on distinctive films helmed by world-class auteurs and exciting newcomers. It has its own marketing and distribution operations, and its films are distributed internationally by Twentieth Century Fox. Fox Searchlight Pictures is a unit of Fox Filmed Entertainment, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group.

Since MTV Films' inception in 1996, they have worked with Paramount Pictures on many successful and varied films including "Beavis and Butthead," "Kings of Comedy," "Jackass," "Election," "Better Luck Tomorrow" and "Save the Last Dance," to name a few. MTV Films is the feature film development and production unit of MTV. MTV Films is operated by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International Inc. (NYSE: VIA) (NYSE: VIA.B), owns and operates the following television programming services -- MTV: Music Television, MTV2, MTVU, VH1, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, TV LAND, Spike TV, CMT, Comedy Central and The Digital Suite From MTV Networks, a package of nine U.S. digital services, all of which are trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks also has licensing agreements, joint ventures, and syndication deals whereby all of its programming services can be seen worldwide.

Paramount Pictures is part of the entertainment operations of Viacom, Inc., one of the world's largest entertainment and media companies and a leader in the production, promotion and distribution of entertainment, news, sports and music.