THE SHOOTER / HIDDEN ASSASSIN (Ted Kotcheff, 1995)

[Jox]

Australian VHS

[Jox]

Ted Kotcheff holds a 3 hours masterclass this Thursday November 24th in Hawthorne, Australia
(moderated by director Mark Hartley)
http://monsterfest.com.au/2016/program/ ... -kotcheff/
https://www.facebook.com/events/332657863755765/

[Jox]

Ted Kotcheff completed his memoirs to come out soon.

Will THE SHOOTER / HIDDEN ASSASSIN be mentioned?
Hard to believe it was being filmed 22 years ago, and that was the last real theatrical release for Dolph in many territories...

With six decades in show business, legendary director Ted Kotcheff looks back on his life

Born to immigrant parents and raised in the slums of Toronto during the Depression, Ted Kotcheff learned storytelling on the streets before taking a stagehand job at CBC Television. Discovering his skills with actors and production, Kotcheff went on to direct some of the greatest films of the freewheeling 1970s, including The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Wake in Fright, and North Dallas Forty. After directing the 1980s blockbusters First Blood and Weekend at Bernie’s, Kotcheff helped produce the groundbreaking TV show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. During his career, he was declared a Communist by the U.S. government, banned from the Royal Albert Hall in London, and coped with assassination threats on one of his lead actors.

With his seminal films enjoying a critical renaissance, including praise from Martin Scorsese and Nick Cave, Kotcheff now turns the lens on himself. Witty and fearless, Director’s Cut is not just a memoir, but also a close-up on life and craft, with stories of his long friendship with Mordecai Richler and working with stars like Sylvester Stallone, James Mason, Gregory Peck, Ingmar Bergman, Gene Hackman, Jane Fonda, and Richard Dreyfuss, as well as advice on how to survive the slings and arrows of Hollywood.

Ted's book will be published March 14th
http://ecwpress.com/products/directors- ... 7377080713
https://www.amazon.com/Directors-Cut-My ... 1770413618

“It is a fascinating, startling thing to look over the films Ted has made and realize that he never met a genre he couldn’t conquer. He deserves to be considered as only a very few are: Spielberg and . . . the mind goes blank, because no one other than Steven has successfully ventured into such different terrain, created such a varied body of work, much like his idol Billy Wilder. Ted gave me a shot at the life I wanted; he handed me the greatest role I ever imagined, he set my life on a course that I had only dreamed of, I adored and adore him. I only regret we worked on only one film instead of ten.”

— Richard Dreyfuss, Academy Award winning actor

“I love the book. Clear, concise, full of fun and deceptively brilliant: in among the show business anecdotes is buried a real procedural on the art of directing.”

— George Segal, Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe winning actor

[Jox]

The first Prague Intl. Film Festival earlier this summer drew Hollywood heavies such as Meryl Streep and Dennis Hopper. Two weeks later Mia Farrow watched movies at the nearby Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival. So did director Ted Kotcheff, who lensed the Dolph Lundgren political actioner “The Shooter” here.

Kotcheff describes the local crews as “young and willing” while noting a few production problems: “costume departments are not particularly strong” and “they couldn’t get the right vehicles on the right day,” as well as woes carrying over from the old state-supported system, so “you can’t fire anybody.”

But he also cites “production values that are incredible, rights to shoot that are amazing,” first-rate local facilities like the Ytamp Studios, a small studio on the outskirts of Prague and “the best gaffers I’ve ever worked with.” Kotcheff says that in general, the crew “worked their asses off. So it’s hard to fault people when they give you everything they’ve got.”

http://variety.com/1995/scene/markets-f ... -99129644/

[Jox]

Rare Czech theatrical poster and lobby cards

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[ShawnWatson]

I liked his cameo in Weekend at Bernies.

[Jox]

THE SHOOTER is on Amazon Prime in the UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shooter-Dolph- ... 078ZKBGFD/

[savagesketch]

Latest episode is up in which Travis Bow of the Reel Comic Heroes Podcast joins me to chat this relatively unseen thriller from 1995! Enjoy!

https://imustbreakthispodcast.wordpress ... e-shooter/

Please feel free to rate and review the show on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever else you subscribe! Also, please continue spreading the word! Stay tuned, next month is SILENT TRIGGER!

[Jox]

It's a shame you couldn't review the extended cut which is how it was meant to be seen before Miramax cut out 15 minutes and replaced the original score by the club scene house song at the end... Director Ted Kotcheff was not even aware (or forgot) that a shorter version had been cut and released. His 104 minutes version offers spends a bit more time with the characters and offers more insight and details about their backgrounds and relationships.

The last time I watched the film, I thought it held up much better than it did when it originally came out. There are some issues with it (and likely too many rewrites) and of course it's not staying with you like say, MEN OF WAR or SILENT TRIGGER but it was valiant effort and departure from Dolph who was then looking to play more regular, insightful and talkative roles since MOW and JM. This was also the period when he was part of the NYC theater ensemble "Group of Eight" with whom he did small plays off off-Broadway.

Dolph had announced the project (as THE SHOOTER) at Cannes in May 1994. At the time it was set to take place in Paris, which makes me think much of the inspiration came from Harrison Ford / Roman Polanski's FRANTIC (1988).

Dutch-born and France-based actress Maruschka Detmers didn't have much of a name in America (MAMBO KINGS, 1992) but she was big in Europe since her debut with Jean-Luc Godard in FIRST NAME CARMEN (1983), DEVIL IN THE FLESH (1986), LE BRASIER (1991) or her romantic drama DEUX with Gerard Depardieu, she had also been the lead of Menahem Golan's HANNA'S WAR (1988).

Detmers had not made one action film before and did most of the stunts herself, it was an interesting twist to make her the action star and Dolph more character driven.

Spanish actress Assumpta Serna (BORGIA, THE FENCING MASTER) was also another notable name that you wouldn't necessarily associate with a Dolph Lundgren vehicle.

All that gave it a good team of French, Spanish, Czech and other financiers. It was one of the first international co-productions shot in Prague after IMMORTAL, BELOVED and around the same time or right before as the first MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.

The main producer was Silvio Muraglia who then made SILENT TRIGGER as well some of the same crew including composer Stefano Mainetti, which tells you by the difference of his two scores that even at the time the focus was to make a 60's/70's espionnage thriller... Referring to some of your discussions on the episode, I don't think there was even any thinking in terms of "vilain", that was not the kind of movie they set out to make.

[Jox]

Finnish VHS

[Jox]

Taiwanese or HK Laserdisc

[Jox]

Reposting the original trailer (not the recut from Miramax)





And for who haven't seen it, here is... the longer version of the movie (15 min more than US cut)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35iImxFdDaI

[Mosquito]

Nice, thanks for the link!

[Jox]

I've been advise that the longer version is the one available on Amazon Prime UK
www.amazon.co.uk/Shooter-Dolph-Lundgren/dp/B078ZL6SJX/

[alex.sp89]

Another decent movie from Dolph Lundgren that was chopped by US Distributor Company Dimension Films for pacing reasons !!! Only this short version (89 minutes) entitled HIDDEN ASSASSIN has been released on blu ray couple of years ago !!! Everyone would be happy to get the full uncut version (104 minutes) entitled THE SHOOTER on BD !!! The German blu ray uncut version is basically VHS quality !!!

Recently I watched this movie uncut on some channel, it was in HD quality, 100 minutes long in PAL SPEED UP( which is equal to 104 minutes in NTSC). According to the distributor film company, at the beginning titles, the transfer was made by DARO Film Distribution !!! DARO already released Best of the Best 1-V 3 years ago on UK blu ray !!! Job was decent, in PAL also !!! I think soon we'll get THE SHOOTER from them on blu ray too