The cat is officially out of the bag:Dundeeis just an elaborate commercial to boost American tourism to Australia. For the past few weeks, everybody has been wondering about the supposed sequel to Crocodile Dundee, starringDanny McBrideas Mick Dundee’s American son who has to go save his dad from the rough interior of the Australian outback. A website was setup, plenty of teaser trailers were released, and an all-star cast was assembled to make everyone think that the new sequel was the real deal. Now that the commercial has aired, Danny McBride explains how it all went down (under).
From the start, Danny McBride was an odd choice to star inDundeeand many on the internet voiced their concerns over the casting. Chris Hemsworth was the obvious choice by everybody, so when it was revealed that Hemsworth was actually McBride’s sidekick, people began to get very interested in this Crocodile Dundee sequel. As it turns out, Danny McBride was chosen by Chris Hemsworth to join in on the fun and be the only American actor alongside the A-list Aussie cast.
As far as Danny McBride taking part in theTourism Australia commercial, the actor noted that it was so weird, that it seemed like it would be a real project. McBride immediately agreed to jump on board. He had this to say.
“(It) seemed silly enough that it’s something that Hollywood would do, and in this day and age, to get people’s attention by doing a fake movie trailer for a fake franchise seemed like a great idea.”
Tourism Australia teamed up with the production company Droga 5 to set up the campaign that will last two years and cost nearly $30 million. That means we’re about to see a lot more of McBride and Hemsworth in furtherDundeecommercials.
Droga 5’s group strategy director Will Davie was looking into tourism booms to Australia and figured out that their biggest years coincided with the release of aCrocodile Dundee movie, which immediately had Davie reaching out to original star and rights holder, Paul Hogan. Hogan was so impressed by the idea that he gave permission to use the rights for free and even offered up his services for free. Additionally, all of theAustralian starsdid their parts for free as well.
TheSuper Bowlcommercials were all directed by Steve Rogers (notCaptain America), who is a popular commercial director, which featured cinematography by Russel Boyd, who was the director of photography on the original Crocodile Dundee from 1986. As previously mentioned, new commercials will be made within the next two years, promising to show us more of Brian Dundee’s adventures in the Australian outback to save his father. Droga 5 are clearly marketing geniuses and it will be interesting to see where they take us in theDundee"sequel." In case you missed it, you can check out the fullDundee Super Bowl commercialbelow, courtesy of the Australia YouTube channel.
