We so, so, so, so wanted the Crocodile Dundee sequel with Danny McBride to be real, but alas, it is all a clever marketing ruse. We started getting trailers for Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home last month. Then two weeks ago, rumors started swirling that the movie was a fake. Film journalists started reporting that they had not been contacted by Hollywood PR agents about the movie and haven’t received any promotional clips, photos or information about the Dundee movie. Australia’s federal government film agency, Screen Australia, did not list Dundee as in pre-production, production or post-production taking place in their country. During Super Bowl 52, the final trailer for Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home arrived and it was revealed that it was all a marketing campaign for Australia’s tourism board.
The sequel to the 1986 classic, was supposed to star Chris Hemsworth, Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie, Russell Crowe, Isla Fisher, Ruby Rose, and Liam Hemsworth. McBride told Business Insider that he was “offered the campaign last fall and that the plan was always to do the promotion as a fake Dundee movie that would culminate with a reveal during the Super Bowl that it all was just a commercial for Australian tourism.”
“It wasn’t like I was looking to do a Super Bowl commercial, but I just thought the concept of this was just too funny to see what people’s reaction would be like,” McBride said. “I just sat back and watched the whole thing unfold.” “My sister was pissed off,” McBride said. “She texted me, ‘What’s up?’ and I’m like ‘With what?’ and she’s like, ‘This Dundee movie, you didn’t tell me about this!’ And I was just like, ‘I’ll talk to you about it later.'”
McBride did a week-long shoot for the faux film last Thanksgiving. “I thought, personally, with the current state of movies, people for sure would assume, like, ‘What a terrible idea for a movie,’” McBride said. “And there were definitely people who thought that, but there were also people who were into the idea. I thought for a second, ‘Maybe I was too harsh, this would be a cool movie.'”