Production
Who attempted to raise funding the film?
Wake in Fright
A film version of "Wake in Fright", based on the 1961 novel by Kenneth Cook, was linked with the actor Dirk Bogarde and the director Joseph Losey as early as 1963. Morris West later secured the film rights and tried, unsuccessfully, to raise funding for the film's production. The rights were eventually bought by NLT and Group W. and Canadian director Ted Kotcheff was recruited to direct the film. At the time of production, Kotcheff had directed two films, "Tiara Tahiti" (1962) and "Two Men Sharing" (1969). After "Wake in Fright", Kotcheff would continue to have a successful career as a director. His later films included "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" (1973), "Fun with Dick and Jane" (1977), "First Blood" (1982) and "Weekend at Bernie's" (1988). The shooting of "Wake in Fright" began in Australia in January 1970 at Broken Hill, New South Wales (the area which had inspired Cook for the setting of his novel), with interiors shot the next month at Ajax Studios in the Sydney beach-side suburb of Bondi. It was the last film to feature the veteran character actor Chips Rafferty, who died of a heart attack prior to "Wake in Fright"s release, and the first film with Jack Thompson, the future Australian cinema star, among its cast members. Coincidentally, Rafferty (real name John William Pilbean Goffage) had been born in Broken Hill, the film's stand-in for "The Yabba", in 1909.