MARGIE’S KEEN FOR TAKE TWO
IT’S close to the perfect pitch – and now some of our greatest players are keen to have a shot at getting Crick- adile Dundee back on the scoreboard.
Legendary Aussie cricket captain Greg Chappell, his former wicketkeeper Rod Marsh and fast bowler Dennis Lillee all invested in Paul Hogan’s original 1986 Crocodile Dundee film.
The trio were all involved in World Series Cricket, developing a close association with broadcaster Channel 9, where Hogan was one of the network’s biggest stars.
It was a canny spend – the film had a budget of $ 7 million and went on to take $ 300 million worldwide.
And in the wake of the frenzy sparked by this week’s starstudded parody trailer for a Dundee reboot shown during the US NFL Super Bowl for a Tourism Australia advertising campaign, Chappell is keen to get the franchise back into play.
“It was a very successful movie, we did well – royalties that rolled through for quite a few years – so if I could find another one of the same ilk, I would be very happy to get involved,” Chappell said of the reboot talk.
“Not that I knew much about movies but you had a fair idea just with Hoges and the way he was regarded in Australia at the time that the worst you’d do would be to get your money back.
“I saw the original script and when you read the script you couldn’t help but think it was going to have appeal.”