20 Things You Somehow Missed In Napoleon Dynamite
11. Cattle Tardiness
While it's a long-held adage that movie makers should never work with children and animals, the Napoleon Dynamite crew found themselves in an odd complication with the latter. It fell on Sean Covel to solve the issue. He remembered a call he got from set while at the production office:
“Listen […] We’re running out of daylight. It’s the scene were Lyle’s with the cow and he’s waiting for the bus […] thing is the cow is late for work – which is a strange thing to hear […] if we don’t get a cow here in the next thirty minutes we’re not going to be able to shoot the scene […] and I’m like crap, how am I going to get a cow to show up on set in 30 minutes?”
Covel managed to use his local knowledge to call a random number. The farmer on the other end was enraged until Covel mentioned the movie (a source of fascination among locals). The farmer's mood soon changed. He provided Caroline, a grand champion show cow, who met the movie's cattle requirements. Caroline was on set 20 minutes later.