From Weekend at Bernie’s to First Blood and Law & Order: SVU, the legendary director recounts his journey and wide-ranging career in this intimate memoir.

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. 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 US 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. Director’s Cut is not just a memoir, but 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, Ingrid Bergman, Gene Hackman, Jane Fonda, and Richard Dreyfuss, as well as advice on how to survive the slings and arrows of Hollywood.

“As he explains why music matters, how Gene Hackman gets into character, and how shooting a nighttime kangaroo slaughter resulted in a change in Australian hunting policy, Kotcheff’s love of the whole process of filmmaking shines through.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)