Out this Friday is Gentlemen Broncos, another quirky little film from Jared and Jerusha Hess, the married minds that brought us Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre. Mr. Hess was in D.C. recently and took the time to chat with Popscorn about their new, eccentric project.

As you can probably tell from the film’s title, Gentlemen Broncos surrounds a withdrawn adolescent named Benjamin (Michael Angarano), who splits his time between selling old-lady nightgowns with his mother (Jennifer Coolidge)and authoring oddball science fiction novellas. When Benjamin’s masterpiece, “The Yeast Lords,” is co-opted by his hero author, Chevalier, Hess takes audiences through a fun, hammed-up and awkward adventure. For inspiration for the film, Hess didn’t have to look far. “My wife has a 16-year-old cousin that lives up in Alaska and for a long time he’s been writing these really messed up science fiction and fantasy stories that have had his parents worried. And so, we kind of ran with that idea. Napoleon proved to us that there are people out there like us that do want to see a film about these characters and this part of America.”

In addition to Hess’ knack for a particular flavor of comedy audiences can readily identify, the Salt Lake City resident seems uniquely skilled at crafting vivid, almost foreign worlds and characters. “It’s just stuff that I know. From a story point of view, most of our characters tend to be underdogs. And I think that’s something I identify with in a lot of different ways. But I like seeing the stories of these people you wouldn’t normally get exposed to in film, whether it’s Napoleon or Nacho or Benjamin, in this film. It’s fun to see their creative ambitions and goals, and see them achieve whatever bizarre dream they’re going for.”

For setting the stage of Gentlemen Broncos, Jess said, “So much of it is drawn from the environment we shot it at. We filmed it in Salt Lake City, where I live now. So many of the details are informed by what exists there already. At the same time, so many of the things in film come from an autobiographical place. [For instance], I made the notebook that has the battle stag on it. We like to be very hands on with the physical side of things. When we’re writing a character, often times we come up with what they’re wearing and how their hair is before we know anything about them. Those details are very important to us, and we have a lot of fun coming up with those things. The details are a big part of telling who these people are.”

One can only imagine the conversations that lead to crafting the characters of Bronco and Brutus, both played by Sam Rockwell. Considering Rockwell’s performance in Moon, and the growing support for him to receive an Oscar, it was interesting to see him in Hess’ film. “We had Sammy in mind when we were editing the script. We thought he would do a fantastic job as Bronco. When we sent him the script he was all, ‘Hey man, who do you got playing Brutus…I’d love to do that too, man.’ He had a real fun time playing both roles. He would say, ‘I’m like a Captain Kangaroo tranny’…with his big blonde mustache and bangs. He’s extremely funny.”

It’s hard to imagine keeping the comedic rhythm considering where Hess filmed notable parts of the movie. “We shot the science fiction sequences on this island in the great Salt Lake, which is a really interesting landscape. And when we were filming there, there are these biting gnats that hatch for two weeks out of the year and it happened to be the two weeks we were shooting on this island. It was miserable. I felt bad for Sam. The bugs would go and get underneath this wig and beard. He was a real trooper.”

As for where Hess’ wacky mind imagines taking audiences next, “It’d be a lot of fun to make a Western sometime. I’ve got notebooks full of junk that I’ve written that I’ve just go to decide which idea I want to pursue for the next thing. We’re having a lot of fun making comedies right now. We try and make the films we’ve always want to see. I don’t know if I’ll ever make a sad movie about suicide; I don’t know if anyone would let me. But for now we’ll continue to make comedies. But like I said, some day I want to make Western.”