Personal details
- Birth Date: 1971-11-26
- Birth Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Professions: Second Unit Director or Assistant Director, Producer, Actor
Rob Cotterill’s been hustling in the film world since way back in ‘94. Honestly, he probably didn’t see his career taking such a wild ride, but fate threw him onto the set of Trailer Park Boys, where he crossed paths with Jason Eisener. That meeting? Kinda legendary. Next thing you know, they’re dreaming up movies together. They whipped up this bonkers fake trailer for Hobo With A Shotgun, tossed it into the SXSW Grindhouse Trailer Competition in Texas, and—boom—they actually won. Not bad for a couple of dudes just riffing ideas. While filming Hobo, the guys cooked up another bizarre gem: Treevenge, a fifteen-minute short about the absolute misery of Christmas trees (yeah, it’s as chaotic as it sounds). Turns out, people loved it. The thing picked up awards all over the place—even got a nod at Sundance in 2009. Add a couple more viral shorts like Report Card and The Number to Heaven, and suddenly the creative team behind Hobo With A Shotgun was set. Their production house, Yer Dead Productions, popped up in Halifax, chasing gnarly genre projects. All roads led to the full-length Hobo With A Shotgun, which wrecked shop at Sundance 2011 and snagged a spot on TIFF’s Top Ten Canadian films that year. Since then, Cotterill’s stuck with Yer Dead, producing wild anthology segments like Y Is For Youngbuck for ABC’s of Death and Slumber Party Alien Abduction for V/H/S/2—both premiered at major festivals. Most recently, he produced One Last Dive, which blew up online as “the scariest 1-minute movie ever.” The guy just doesn’t quit.
Hobo with a Shotgun throws you straight into this grimy, blood-soaked hellscape where a homeless guy—yeah, just your average drifter—decides he’s had enough of watching his city rot. He grabs a shotgun (as you do) and starts blasting away at the scumbags running the place: corrupt cops, psycho crime bosses, the whole lot. And the wild part? It’s all played completely straight, no winking at the camera, no, “Hey, look how retro we are.” The violence is cartoonishly over-the-top, but everyone in the movie acts like it’s just another Tuesday. The tone is wild—campy but sincere, gritty but weirdly hilarious. You’ve got buckets of gore, neon lighting, and a parade of villains so nasty you almost root for the shotgun itself. It’s like they made a grindhouse flick but refused to make fun of it, so the craziness just feels—somehow—real. Not for the faint of heart, but damn, it’s a ride.
November 26, 1971
Konidela Ram Charan
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
53 years old