Crocodile Dundee (1986) Australian Version?

[SpaceBlackKnight]

For the first Crocodile Dundee, producer Rimfire Films leased theatrical distribution to Hoyts in Australia, while Paramount got US distribution rights and Fox obtaining international. Unlike the Australian theatrical release, Paramount trimmed down some bits (to get to New York sooner) and redubbed certain lines to better suit American terminology.

Fox released this same US cut overseas (including New Zealand), but here's where things get confusing as to the extent Fox were involved. CBS/Fox Video not only released the US cut on video overseas, but they also had video rights in Australia (on lease from Rimfire) and those releases were of the original Australian cut. Fox lost overseas distribution rights sometime in 2000 and ironically, those were acquired by Paramount (hence the R2/3/5 PAL DVDs and overseas BDs having Paramount branding on them and being identical to the US versions). Fox on the other hand, still had video rights in Australia (carried over from the CBS/Fox arrangement) and put out a DVD of Australian cut in 2006. This release was unfortunately quite shite, being a 4:3 letterbox master (from what looks like a release print) with a mono fold down (a double insult when the CBS/Fox Aussie VHS, despite being pan and scan, was from the same master with stereo audio!)

The Aussie DVDs of both entries are long OOP, which means Fox's remaining rights expired and clearly don't have anymore involvement with the first CD. Good news is, Australian distribution rights now reside with Rimfire Films and they seemed to be looking for someone to find pre-print materials and fund a restoration. However, the OCN and IP to the Australian cut went missing long ago and all they were able to find were two 35mm release prints (both not complete as one is missing 2 mins of footage due to various trims and damaged frames, the other copy missing some reels) and a 35mm copy of the Fox international version (donated from a New Zealand archive). It was thought Fox had all the elements to that version, but turned out they only have an IP of the US/International cut and a betacam master of the Aussie cut.

It's speculated the pre-print elements (including the OCN) of the Aussie version were sent to Hoyts and had ether misplaced or discarded them all at some point. However, Hoyts sent Paramount a combined print to do their own editing from and may still have this element in their archives.