Editorial Staff
After the success of Tourism Australia’s faux “Dundee” movie campaign, filmmakers and tourism operators are rallying to get a real “Crocodile Dundee” sequel off the ground.
Disappointed that recent teasers for what was seemingly a new “Dundee” movie – featuring Danny McBride and Chris Hemsworth, among others – was merely part of an ad campaign, the NT News has launched an online petition to try and convince Paul Hogan and the powers-that-be to make a new instalment of the classic franchise.
A spokesperson for Screen Territory said they were aware of the trailers but had not been approached by anyone about making the film a reality.
Paul Hogan, however, told The Today Show’s Richard Wilkins that he has no interest in reviving Crocodile Dundee.
“The first one was the most successful independent film ever made. The second one did huge business, but the third one sort of died. I thought the third one was flogging a dead horse so I don’t think I will be pushing for a fourth one,” he said.
Co-star of the fake commercial, Chris Hemsworth, said he wouldn’t go anywhere near a remake or reboot of such an iconic film.
“I love this pitch with the sort of reversals of the roles and it makes it a bit fresher and unique,” he said of the advertising campaign in which Hemsworth’s Wally Junior acts as tour guide for Dundee’s American-born son Bryan (Danny McBride).
But, he added, “I wouldn’t want to touch the iconic Paul Hogan version”. Nonetheless, he admitted, “certainly, we joked about making it”.
Hemsworth said there has been a lot of interest from folks in seeing the movie actually come to fruition – and it did get him thinking.
“We just had so much fun shooting the commercial all around Australia, and a lot of improv and off-the-cuff sort of stuff, and then talked about, ‘could this be a movie, what do we think’,” he said. “And the enthusiasm’s making us think, ‘Maybe we should do something’.”
So far the NT News-led #bringbackdundee campaign has attracted almost 3500 signatures.
