CLT-Ufa has acquired French and German rights to Crocodile Dundee In LA, the third film in the Crocodile Dundee franchise. UIP will release the film in the UK, Scandinavia and the local Australian market. Paramount Pictures has North American rights and plans to release the picture in April 2001.

Kathy Morgan International is handling international sales on the film to be directed by Simon Wincer. Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski are again in the lead roles of laid-back outback Australian Mick Dundee and American reporter Sue Charlton, but their on-screen son is yet to be cast.

The film has been financed by Silver Line Pictures on the back of these pre-sales to key territories. Lance Hool, who is producing with Paul Hogan, owns Silver Line with his brother Conrad, who will get a co-producer credit. The production company set up for the film is Bangalow Productions, and the script has been written by Hogan, Matthew Berry and Eric Abrams.

For the ten years before Titanic came along, many commentators thought the first Crocodile Dundee would stay Australia's number one film forever due to its extraordinary 1986 gross of $28.6m (A$47.7m). Crocodile Dundee II was not as successful, but did have a place in the top ten for some time.

Shooting on the third film in the franchise is set to start from August 7 with six weeks in Australia followed by five in Los Angeles. As the title indicates, much of the story is set in LA because Dundee uproots himself to accompany Charlton to the US after she is assigned to run the LA bureau of her father's newspaper. He accidentally gets caught up in a major story that she is investigating and inadvertently gets a job as an extra in a movie.

Peter Faiman directed the first film in 1986 from a script by Hogan and Ken Shadie. In 1988 the producer of that film, John Cornell, then directed the second, which was written by Paul Hogan and Brett Hogan. Those producer credits went to Cornell and Shine producer Jane Scott.