A statue of Sherriff Will Teasle, from First Blood, has been erected in Hope.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Rambo: First Blood Tourism

In celebration of the famous First Blood film, the small community where the movie was shot is honoring its actors with a new statue.

First Blood, a 1982 action film starring Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, was filmed in Hope and since then, the town has celebrated the movie with Rambo Day.

A statue of the late Emmy-award-winner Brian Dennehy, who played the county sheriff and the film’s main antagonist Will Teasle, was erected outside of Hope’s Memorial Hall on Wallace Street, Oct. 8. It is the second statue that has been placed in the community to honour the film.

The first was one of John Rambo himself and met Stallone’s approval.

READ MORE: Actor Sylvester Stallone approves of Rambo statue erected in small B.C. town

To celebrate the movie’s 40th anniversary, the town is holding a multi-day event that wraps up tomorrow, Oct. 10.

Celebrities starring in the film have flocked to the community in celebration. Celebrity guests including Patrick Stack, who played Lt. Clinton Morgan, Stephen Cheng who played the Vietnam commander who triggered Rambo’s trauma and the family of Dennehy, who joined the community for the statue’s unveiling.

READ MORE: Celebrities travelling to rural B.C. town to celebrate Rambo film

A small film crew accompanying Dennehy's family will create a documentary about the event.

In a typical year, the visitor centre will see between 10,000 to 15,000 people visiting Hope because of First Blood.

“It was really the birthplace of Hollywood North,” said Tracy Paynter, with the Hope Visitor Centre, in a previous interview with iNFOnews.

“So many movies after that, people started looking at British Columbia… and from there it really snowballed into what is now a billion-dollar industry in this province."

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