Put another sequel in the theater, mate

Crocodile Dundee goes to la-la land

"Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles," the third Dundee film, opens in theaters Friday. "I got me to come back because I can," actor Paul Hogan says. "I own the franchise"

From Sherri Sylvester
CNN Showbiz Today Reports

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Fifteen years ago, Paul Hogan was merely that friendly guy on the Australian tourism ads who offered to put "another shrimp on the barbie" for us. Then came "Crocodile Dundee," and suddenly Hogan was a phenomenon. The 1986 movie grossed $360 million and spawned a 1988 sequel, "Crocodile Dundee II."

Following the success of the Dundee films, Hogan made a handful of other movies but soon went into semi-retirement, enjoying family life with wife Linda Kozlowski (whom he met on the first Dundee film) and their children. But now he's back, this time in "Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles."

"I got me to come back because I can," he says. "I own the franchise."

The new film, opening in the United States on Friday, sets the familiar fish-out-of-water plot in the glittery environs of L.A., where Dundee has followed his American-born wife (played, as in the first two movies, by Kozlowski).

Choosing a city for the latest "Crocodile" was easy, Hogan says.

Hogan and his real-life wife, Linda Kozlowski, reprise their roles as Mick Dundee and Sue Charleton in the glittery environs of Los Angeles

"L.A.'s become the culture capital of the world, you know -- music, entertainment, fashion, speech, and other wonderful things like drive-by shootings and road rage all come from L.A.," he says. "Crocodile Dundee in Seoul, (South) Korea, would be a tough one because we don't know enough about the place."

Kozlowski almost didn't come for the trip.

"I had sort of mentally left the business," she says. "I just was not happy with the quality of the work I was getting, (and) I would rather not work than do schlock."

In the latest "Crocodile," Hogan and Kozlowski share screen time with Serge Cockburn, who plays the couple's 9-year-old son who accompanies his parents to the wilds of L.A.

A case of art imitating life? Perhaps.

When Hogan had the idea for the new film, Kozlowski was pregnant with their second child. That boy turned 2 while they were filming "Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles."

'Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles' - official site

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