Australian movie revival: classic movies remade and reinvented and what could be next

AS calls for a new Crocodile Dundee film grow, here are the other classic Aussie flicks that have been remade, rebooted and reinvented for a new generation.

AS calls for a new Crocodile Dundee film gather momentum, it’s worth noting that revivals of Australian cinema classics are very much in vogue.

Mindful of their proven box office power and nostalgia value, producers have reimagined, reinvented, remade and rebooted some classics of the Australian screen in recent years.

Here are the flicks that have come back — and a look at some other contenders, like Crocodile Dundee, that are also ripe for a revival.

RELATED: Fans demand #BringBackDundee

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

A remake of the eerie 1975 film that spooked audiences in Australia and across the world will be shown on Foxtel’s Showcase this year starring Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer as school headmistress Mrs Hester Appleyard.

WOLF CREEK

Wolf Creek, starring the horrifying John Jarratt, continues to shock viewers. The 2005 horror tale loosely based on real life events etched its place in Aussie movie folklore and earned itself a 2016 TV series that has evolved into a second series, also starring Jarratt as maniac killer Mick Taylor.

ROMPER STOMPER

The confronting 1992 film about a neo-Nazi gang from Melbourne led by Russell Crowe’s character Hando helped to launch the Oscar winner’s career. It was continued with a six-part series released last month starring David Wenham and described as “shockingly honest”

CROCODILE DUNDEE

Calls are growing louder from fans and celebrities around the world for another instalment of Crocodile Dundee after a spoof trailer was revealed to be a clever Tourism Australia advertisement.

According to Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason, the original Dundee movie “remains the most successful Aussie movie at the local box office, and most likely our biggest hit

internationally too, although more recent films like Mad Max: Fury Road, Babe and Happy Feet have come close to taking that global crown.

Mason believes “That’s why it’s not a coincidence Chris Hemsworth is the face of Tourism Australia — our screen industry is the most effective calling card our country has internationally. Our screens stories show the world our landscapes, our people, our culture and of course our creativity.”

You can see how fantastic a new Dundee movie could be by watching this teasing trailer.

And make it a reality by voting here:

MAD MAX

The original dystopian Mad Max movies, directed by George Miller and starring Mel Gibson as vengeful cop Max Rockatansky attracted a cult status.

Miller only added to that with Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Charlize Theron, as it won six Oscars at the 2016 awards.

MURIEL’S WEDDING

The 1994 comedy with Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths, which focuses on Muriel’s obsession with having a glamorous wedding (Married at First Sight anyone?) earned US$57.5 million (A$73.17million) worldwide and sold plenty of Aussie charm in the process.

Last year it debuted as a Sydney Theatre Company musical led by Maggie McKenna as Muriel.

CHOPPER

A true Australian classic, 2000’s Chopper with Eric Bana putting in the performance of his career as Mark “Chopper” Read, brought the infamous criminal’s story to life.

Now Channel Nine has a new take on the ‘colourful’ Read.

WAKE IN FRIGHT

The 1971 psychological thriller — hailed by Martin Scorsese as a masterpiece — about a young Sydney schoolteacher who loses himself after being stranded in a tough outback is an Aussie cult classic hard to turn away from.

So much so Channel 10 committed to a miniseries which aired last year.

STRICTLY BALLROOM

The 1992 romantic comedy written and directed by Baz Luhrmann was based on a stage play he originally performed with the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in 1984.

It was turned into a musical in 2011 that has played to audiences across the world.

THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT

The 1984 comedy-drama that followed a pair of drag queens and a transsexual, played by Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce and Terence Stamp, on a journey across the outback is another Australian classic.

It was transformed into a musical in 2006 and continues to tour today.

PUBERTY BLUES

The 1981 film about the lives of two teenage surfie girls Debbie and Sue from the southern suburbs of Sydney is another endearing quintessential Australia film.

Channel Ten transformed it into a successful TV series between 2012 and 2014.

STORM BOY

This 1976 movie about a lonely boy who befriends orphaned pelicans while living in a coastal wilderness with his reclusive father was seen as another example of Australian New Wave cinema from the 1970s alongside the likes of Mad Max and Wake In Fright.

A remake starring Geoffrey Rush is due to be released later this year.

THE UNMADE CLASSICS

Despite the sheer number of revived Australian cinema classics, there are a number of our film favourites that still await a second go:

THE CASTLE

One of the most beloved and quoted of Australian films starring the unusual Kerrigan family made great waves at home but wasn’t as successful overseas.

Either way it is hard to believe someone hasn’t had another crack at it over the last two decades.

MOULIN ROUGE!

Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 Oscar winner about young poet Christian (played by Ewan McGregor) who falls in love with the star of the rique Moulin Rouge in Paris, Satine (Nicole Kidman) could lend itself to a musical reinvention at the very least.

GALLIPOLI

The 1981 movie directed by Peter Weir and starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee is arguably Australia’s greatest war movie. Covering the perils of the Anzacs during the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, it is a stirring tribute to Australia’s fighting spirit and a warning on the tragedy of war. Channel Nine aired a Gallipoli miniseries in 2015 on the 100th Anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign, but it didn’t feature the story of Archy Hamilton and Frank Dunne.

TWO HANDS

An Aussie film starring Heath Ledger, Rose Byrne and Bryan Brown is hard to beat in the superstar stakes. This 1999 flick about a young man Pando (Ledger) in debt to a local Sydney gangster set both Ledger and Byrne on a path to Hollywood. Could a remake do the same for Australia’s next generation?

YOUNG EINSTEIN

This 1988 comedy starred Yahoo Serious in a fictional account of Albert Einstein’s life featured the great scientist as the son of a Tasmanian apple farmer and followed him as he split the atom and invented rock n’ roll. It was very successful in Australia but was poorly received in the US. Time for another crack at the American market?