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Canadian filmmaker Ted Kotcheff, known for his work on movies like Rambo: First Blood and Weekend at Bernie's, has died. He was 94 years old.

Per The Globe and Mail, Kotcheff's death was confirmed by his family, though additional details about his passing were not disclosed.

Kotcheff got his career in show business started with work with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This included work on shows like General Motors Theatre, Encounter, and First Performance. He then relocated to the UK where he took up similar work for ABC Weekend TV. He would also delve into directing a sthe helmer of the original 1964 West End production of the musical Maggie May.

Kotcheff's first feature film as director was for the 1962 British movie Tiara Tahiti. He'd follow this up with other films like Life at the Top, Two Gentlemen Sharing, and The Human Voice, as well as TV remakes of The Desperate Hours and Of Mice and Men.

Ted Kotcheff, the Canadian filmmaker who introduced moviegoers to Sylvester Stallone’s traumatized Vietnam War veteran John Rambo with “First Blood” and helmed comedies like “Weekend at Bernie’s,” “Fun With Dick and Jane” and “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” died Thursday. He was 94.

His death was confirmed by his family to Canadian publication The Globe and Mail.

After beginning his career in Canadian television and working in the U.K. industry, Kotcheff broke through, first with the Australian thriller “Wake in Fright,” then with his 1974 feature “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” a Canada-produced adaptation of Mordechai Richler’s 1959 coming-of-age novel starring then-rising star Richard Dreyfuss. The film took home the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and earned an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay (for Richler and Lionel Chetwynd), launching Kotcheff’s career in the American film industry. In later years, Kotcheff worked in the Dick Wolf...

Stars: Patricia Gozzi, Dean Stockwell, Melvyn Douglas, Gunnel Lindblom, Leslie Sands, Murray Evans, Sylvia Kay, Peter Sallis, Ellen Pollock | Written by Stanley Mann | Directed by John Guillermin

John Guillermin, the London-born director of the classic disaster film The Towering Inferno directed this moving drama set in France called Rapture in 1965. I am familiar with some of Guillermin’s catalogue, from the aforementioned Towering Inferno to his ’76 version of King Kong to his 60’s war film The Blue Max. I hadn’t seen this though, so it was a treat to see that Masters of Cinema, Eureka’s brilliant line of classic titles, was putting a new version of the film out.

The first thing that struck me upon watching the film was the cinematography. It is just beautiful, and with the new transfer it looks even better than I can imagine it did when it was released those many years ago.

Stars: Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay, Jack Thompson, Peter Whittle, Al Thomas, John Meillon, John Armstrong | Written by Evan Jones | Directed by Ted Kotcheff

John Grant (Gary Bond) is a bonded school teacher who finds himself teaching in the outback. When travelling back to Sydney he stays overnight in the mining town of Bundanyabba where the lure of gambling and alcohol soon traps him in a nightmare. Seemingly trapped in his own hell Grant clings to the hopes of Sydney while his life spirals to a point so low that the only escape may be the one bullet he has left in his rifle.

At the start of Wake in Fright John Grant is an educated man who looks at his current situation as a form of slavery to the system, being a bonded teacher means that he has to work wherever he is put, and the...

From the press release:

Are you ready for a spine-chilling global avalanche of Indian zombies, Israeli oldboys, vengeance-crazed Vikings, Swedish mesmerists, Irish telekinesis, Argentine undead, Aussie bone-crushers, murderous Mormons and Chilean assassins?

Film4 FrightFest 2013, returning for its 4teenth year, has unveiled its biggest line-up in history. From Thurs 22 August to Monday 26 August, the UK’s leading event for genre fans will be at the Empire Cinema in London’s Leicester Square to present 51 films on three screens. Empire 1 will house the main event while the Discovery strands will play in Empires 2 & 4. The new FrightFest Xtra strand, also in Screen 2, will allow fans to catch up with sold-out performances of the most popular attractions.

This year there are eleven countries representing five continents with a record-breaking thirty-three UK or European premieres and ten world premieres.

The world premieres include our opening night attraction The Dead 2: India from the Ford Brothers,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, which present contemporary and classic films at their unique restaurant/theaters, have delved into the DVD business- and retro movie lovers can thank their lucky stars. One of the most prominent of the Drafthouse releases is Wake in Fright, a 1971 Australian film classic by Ted Kotcheff, a Canadian born director who had never previously set foot Down Under prior to making this movie. Based on the novel by Kenneth Cook, Wake in Fright is unknown to many film scholars who pride themselves on being acquainted with worthwhile, little-seen films. (I must shamefully admit that I fall into this category myself, having never even heard of the film prior to reviewing the Blu-ray release). Based on the title, I assumed this was a suspense thriller or a horror film. It is neither. In fact, it is virtually impossible to pigeon-hole this movie into a specific genre.

Director Ted Kotcheff Talks Wake in Fright, fully-restored and on Blu-ray now!

Alongside Mad Max and Walkabout, Wake in Fright is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal films in the development of modern Australian cinema. Directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring Donald Pleasence, this thriller tells the nightmarish story of a schoolteacher's (Gary Bond) descent into personal demoralization at the hands of drunken, deranged derelicts while stranded in a small town in outback Australia. Believed to be lost for decades and virtually unseen in America until now, Wake in Fright returns fully-restored in stunning HD in what the New York Observer says "may be the greatest Australian film ever made."

Wake in Fright is now available on Blu-ray and DVD. To celebrate this home release, we caught up with director Ted Kotcheff to chat about the film's revival and its near destruction. Ted is a luminary in the field of action cinema,...

A schoolteacher gets waylaid in the Australian outback and takes a journey into the heart of darkness in Wake in Fright, a revered and groundbreaking thriller that for 40 years lived only in the memory of its initial viewers. But following its miraculous recovery and restoration, the "lost" film made a triumphant return to screens nationwide this fall. Now it will make its home entertainment debut when Drafthouse Films releases it on high-definition Blu-ray and DVD on January 15, 2013.

Alongside Mad Max and Walkabout, Wake in Fright is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal films of modern Australian cinema. Author Neil Rattigan, in his book about the New Australian Cinema, Images of Australia, called it "a cinematic trip into hell. ... No other Australian film offers such a savage indictment of a great number of cherished cultural perceptions."

Directed by Ted Kotcheff (First Blood, North Dallas Forty, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz...

Watch 3 new clips from the Wake in Fright thriller brought to the screen again by Drafthouse FIlms. The Australian landmark thriller helmed by Ted Kotcheff (known for his work on the classic Sylvester Stallone starrer Rambo: First Blood), opens in theaters on November 5th (New York), Los Angeles on October 19th and nationally from October to November. The film made its debut at Cannes in 1971 and is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal films in the development of modern Australian cinema. Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay and Jack Thompson star in the film tells the story of a British schoolteacher’s descent into personal demoralization at the hands of drunken, deranged derelicts while stranded in a small town in outback Australia. Virtually unseen in the United States and renowned in its home country after years of neglect, Wake in Fright is ripe for rediscovery and returns to cinemas,...

Watch 3 new clips from the Wake in Fright thriller brought to the screen again by Drafthouse FIlms. The Australian landmark thriller helmed by Ted Kotcheff (known for his work on the classic Sylvester Stallone starrer Rambo: First Blood), opens in theaters on November 5th (New York), Los Angeles on October 19th and nationally from October to November. The film made its debut at Cannes in 1971 and is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal films in the development of modern Australian cinema. Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay and Jack Thompson star in the film tells the story of a British schoolteacher’s descent into personal demoralization at the hands of drunken, deranged derelicts while stranded in a small town in outback Australia. Virtually unseen in the United States and renowned in its home country after years of neglect, Wake in Fright is ripe for rediscovery and returns to cinemas,...

Following the trailer from last month, Drafthouse Films has released three clips from the newly-restored version of Wake in Fright, director Ted Kotcheff's 1971 Australian film that was thought to be lost forever. The studio recently unearthed the original negatives and have restored this thriller to its original glory, debuting in New York October 5 and in Los Angeles October 19. Take a look at these scenes from the long-lost classic, starring Gary Bond and Donald Pleasence.

Wake In Flight - Could Be Worse

Wake In Flight - Drink It Down

Wake In Flight - On the Train

Wake in Fright comes to theaters October 5th, 2012 and stars Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay, Jack Thompson, Peter Whittle, Al Thomas, John Meillon. The film is directed by Ted Kotcheff.

Down & Outback: Lost Australian Classic a Moody Nightmare

Long considered a lost classic, spurring a decade long search for the film’s negative (which ended finally in 2004 when it was found in a box marked for destruction in Pittsburgh), Ted Kotcheff’s Wake In Fright is getting a much deserved re-release after enjoying a recent spat of revitalized festival circuit glory. While the film’s been listed among a selection of titles referred to as Ozploitation, thanks to the 2008 documentary Not Quite Hollywood, Kotcheff’s film is more Ozploration than it is an exploitative mechanism. That’s not to say it isn’t without some sensational, notorious sequences, but clearly this is cinema that is more on par with contemporary auteurs that explored the Outback to more celebratory effect like Weir, Schepisi, and fellow Brit, Nicolas Roeg.

A bonded school teacher, John Grant (Gary Bond), stationed in Tiboondi, the...

Drafthouse Films has released the first trailer for the newly-restored version of Wake in Fright, director Ted Kotcheff's 1971 classic that was thought to be lost forever. Gary Bond stars as a British teacher who is tormented by the locals in a small Australian outback town, with a memorable turn by Donald Pleasence as an alcoholic doctor. The film has never been released on VHS or DVD in the United States, but it will make its glorious return to theaters, opening in New York City October 5 and in Los Angeles October 19, with a national roll-out to follow. Take a look at this harrowing drama.

Wake In Fright - Trailer

Alongside Mad Max and Walkabout, Wake in Fright is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal films in the development of modern Australian cinema. Combining the backwoods horror of Deliverance and the gritty nihilism of Straw Dogs, the film tells the...

Drafthouse Films, the film distribution arm of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema announced today their acquisition of North American rights to classic Australian thriller Wake in Fright. Alongside Mad Max and Walkabout, Wake in Fright is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal films in the development of modern Australian cinema.

Directed by Ted Kotcheff (First Blood), the film tells the story of a British schoolteacher's descent into personal demoralization at the hands of drunken, deranged derelicts while stranded in a small town in outback Australia.

Virtually unseen in the United States and renowned in its home country after years of neglect, Wake in Fright is ripe for rediscovery and returns to cinemas beginning with engagements at Film Forum in New York City on October 5th, The NuArt in Los Angeles on October 19th and expanding to additional markets before a home video and VOD release in Q1 of 2013.

Wake in Fright...