The Russell Crowe of crocs to star in sequel to international thriller
WORLD famous Territory croc Smaug will be back on the big screen as the unofficial star of an international box office cult thriller
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WORLD famous NT croc Smaug will be back on the big screen next month as the unofficial star of an international box office cult thriller.
The five-metre croc is arguably the Territory’s biggest film star, having starred in more than 100 documentaries and a swag of films.
This year Smaug sunk his teeth into his biggest role yet in the sequel to Black Water — a thriller based on several true crocodile attacks that have happened in the NT.
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The sequel Black Water: Abyss, directed by Andrew Traucki, is a survival thriller about four friends on a caving trip who get trapped on the banks of an underground lake during a storm.
But the rising waters are the least of their worries once they realise they’re not alone and faced with a hungry, vicious croc played by Smaug.
The film, featuring Jessica McNamee from The Meg and Luke Mitchell from Agents of S.H. I. E. L. D, will be officially released on September 23.
Smaug’s owner Adam Britton, who is a zoologist and croc specialist, said this role was a big step up for the 60-year-old croc after having a brief cameo in the original film in 2007.’
“He’s becoming quite the star now, I should probably start putting a few extra dollars on his appearance fee or at least ask for a couple of chooks on his celebrity rider,” Mr Britton said.
“He’s so used to film crews now, and we’ve trained him to respond in certain ways to certain signals to reproduce certain behaviours which are natural.”
Smaug got his first big break on David Attenborough’s Life in Cold Blood series more than a decade ago.
Mr Britton said he consulted on the latest film to ensure Smaug’s attack scenes were as realistic as possible.
“The croc in this move is very aggressive, so we had Smaug stalking, striking, and death rolling,” he said.
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“There were a few scenes that had to be dialled back to be more realistic. For example, they wanted the croc chasing the people on to land in one scene, which just doesn’t happen, so we put them on an island instead which made more sense.
“I think movies like this are scarier the more realistic they are.
“You don’t want an audience to get distracted midway through thinking there’s no way a croc would behave like that.”
Originally published as The Russell Crowe of crocs to star in sequel to international thriller