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John Cleese Will Star In A Movie About Australia's Great Emu War

John Cleese Will Star In A Movie About Australia's Great Emu War

Aussie comedians Monty Franklin and Jim Jefferies and Flight of the Conchords​' Rhys Darby will also star in the film.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Australia's Great Emu War is one of our country's biggest military disappointments.

The story behind the 1932 war is absolutely outrageous and deserves to be told more in Aussie schools.

However, if you want to see it told on the big screen then you will absolutely be getting what you asked for.

A movie is being be made about The Great Emu War of 1932 and it has already brought in the big guns (metaphorically speaking).

Hilarious comedian and TV star John Cleese has signed on for the project, along with Aussie comedians Monty Franklin and Jim Jefferies and Flight of the Conchords' Rhys Darby.

Yaniv Raz has been recruited to direct the epic story and he's excited to dive into one of the strangest stories in Australian military history.

Alamy

"I'm grateful that our wise emu overlords have seen fit to allow me the opportunity to blend satire with slapstick and tell a poignant story about humanity's war against nature," said Raz in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

"I couldn't be more delighted to helm a picture that is simultaneously so entertaining, meaningful, and relevant."

Franklin was inspired to make a movie about the 1932 war after talking about it in his stand-up routine.

Filming is expected to kick off in Western Australia next year and, before you worry, no emus will be killed during production.

THR reports the animals will be produced 'from a combination of in-camera effects, CGI and puppetry'.

If you're unfamiliar with The Great Emu War then please allow us to enlighten you on one of Australia's most bizarre conflicts.

The Land Newspaper/Australian Government

The year was 1932 and emus were casually 'running amok' in the Campion district of Western Australia. They had the perfect breeding ground for their numbers to flourish as they went inland after mating and lapped up the open farm fields.

Naturally, you can't have loads of flightless birds running around anywhere and so soldiers were tasked with getting rid of them.

Because they were given guns to eradicate loads of emus, many people dubbed this battle The Great Emu War.

The plan was essentially to use 10,000 rounds of ammunition to just mercilessly spray at groups of emus.

However, this plan failed miserably.

While troops were able to kill a few birds here and there, they weren't able to pick off enough to be satisfied.

Pickering Brook Heritage

A few days into the battle, they tallied the numbers: 2,500 bullets had been used and only 50 emus had been killed.

The troops and guns were pulled back on November 8 after local media labelled the battle a defeat.

Farmers and locals complained that their crops were again being destroyed, so, as a result, a second offensive was launched on November 12.

After nearly a month, soldiers had killed around 100 emus per week and the final tally was close to 1,000. An additional 2,500 emus were believed to have died after being injured by gunfire.

But the mission was again aborted on December 10 after they realised that it was going to be nearly impossible to kill them all.

The outcome to this day remains a failure.

Featured Image Credit: dpa/Alamy Live News

Topics: Australia