‘I could have pocketed $17million’: The man behind Agro, Jamie Dunn, reveals he almost made a movie about the famous Australian puppet
Back in the eighties and nineties, Australian children tuned in every weekday morning to watch Agro’s Cartoon Connection.
And now the man who voiced the puppet from 1982, Jamie Dunn, has revealed how he missed out on starring in a big budget movie about Agro.
‘I could have pocketed $17million!’ The man behind Agro, Jamie Dunn (right), 69, revealed to news.com.au on Friday how he almost starred in a movie that would have earned him $17million. Pictured in November
Jamie explained how he met with Village Roadshow owner John Kirby to discuss a movie idea, wrote a script and paid a writer $10,000 to turn it into the first draft of a screenplay.
However, when the writer had taken out copyright, Jamie decided to write a completely new script of his own to eliminate any legal issues.
He then met with John to discuss a few scenes for the movie he had in mind, only to be told that it all sounded too expensive.
‘John Kirby said, “This isn’t going to cost any more than $19million, is it?”‘ Jamie recalled. ‘I thought to myself, “I can make this for $2million easily. I could pocket $17million”.’
‘My $17million profit just disappeared!’ After writing his own script and discussing a few scenes with John Kirby from Village Roadshow, the movie was deemed too expensive
‘I just didn’t get there [with the script] and in the meantime things change. So my $17million profit just disappeared,’ Jamie added with a laugh.
While he may have lost out on starring in a movie, Jamie is set to cash in with his upcoming adults-only stage show tour, Agro Up Late with Jamie Dunn.
Jamie will reveal secrets from the Australian entertainment industry at the Perth Comedy Festival on April 24, followed by the Sydney Comedy Festival on April 25 and 26.
‘Grab your Samboy Chips, Troll Dolls, Tazo’s and your favourite Goosebumps book – 90’s nostalgia is back, and it’s bringing along Australia’s naughtiest puppet!’ a promo for the show reads.
Beloved puppet: Back in the eighties and nineties, Australian children tuned in every weekday morning to watch Agro’s Cartoon Connection. Agro is pictured with Peking Duk at the 2019 ARIA Awards
‘After 30 years in the business, Agro is out of the bag, back together with the ‘baldman under the table’, Jamie Dunn, for an all-live, adults-only trip down memory lane.’
Over the nine seasons of Agro’s Cartoon Connection, co-hosts Ann-Maree Biggar, Terasa Livingstone, Holly Brisley and Michael ‘Gibbo’ Gibson appeared alongside the acid-tongued puppet.
Jamie was also a radio host on Brisbane’s B105 until 2005, and now appears on 98.9FM.
After Cartoon Connection, Ann-Maree worked on The Great Outdoors, In Melbourne Tonight, Good Morning Australia and 9AM with David & Kim.
On the road: While he may have lost out on starring in a movie, Jamie is set to cash in with his adults-only stage show tour, Agro Up Late with Jamie Dunn, in Perth and Sydney this coming April