Renny Harlin (born
Lauri Mauritz Harjola;
March 15,
1959) is a
Finnish American film director and
producer, mostly known for
action movies.
Biography
Early life
Renny Harlin was born in
Riihimäki,
Finland to a
nurse mother and a
physician father.
[Renny Harlin Biography (1959-)] His mother often took him to see films at the cinema as a child, particularly those of
Alfred Hitchcock, and he became enamored with the movies often citing
Sam Peckinpah’s
The Wild Bunch (
1969) as one of his favourites. Harlin had a video camera from a very early age and made his first short at the age of 12.
At the age of 14 he decided to became a film director after he saw
Don Siegel and
Charles Bronson in
Helsinki for the filming of
Telefon (
1977).
In 1980, Harlin was working as a commercial director for companies such as
Shell Oil while he wrote and directed the 6-minute short
Huostaanotto (a.k.a.
Custody International) which received its belated premier on Finnish television on
4 November 1979.
The following year,
1981, he was assistant
cameraman on
Läpimurto (a.k.a.
The Breakthrough), directed by
Janne Kuusi, and made a cameo appearance as a
police officer.
That same year he was also
cinematographer on two short films;
Posliinikissa directed by
Kari Paljakka,
and
Jos minä olisin aikuinen directed by
Per-Olof Strandberg.
He then made the documentary short
Hold On which won the Best Short Subject Award at the
1982 national film board awards hosted by
YLE.
Harlin started working as a buyer for a Finnish film-distribution company and while on a business trip to
L.A. he met up with aspiring film writer/producer
Markus Selin. The two Finns would become long-term friends and collaborators. They quickly set to work on the script for their first film
Born American (a.k.a.
Arctic Heat).
This was a feature length action movie about three Americans vacationing in Finland who cross the border into the
Soviet Union. It was originally supposed to star
Chuck Norris but he backed out when filming was delayed by funding problems and his son,
Mike Norris, landed the lead instead. A Finnish production, this was at that the time the most expensive film ever to have been made in Finland but it was initially banned in Finland for a very short while as the film encouraged violence and hatred towards Russians. The international success of the film allowed Harlin to get his foot in the door in
Hollywood.
Success in Hollywood
Harlin quickly moved to the
U.S. where he was initially put to work directing low-budget horror movies but commercial success was soon to follow. In
1988,
Irwin Yablans of
Empire Pictures hired him to direct
Viggo Mortensen,
Chelsea Field and
Lane Smith in the low-budget horror film
Prison filmed at a former state prison in
Rawlins, Wyoming.
That same year
Robert Shaye of
New Line Cinema, after some initial doubts, hired him to direct another low-budget horror film,
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, which became the highest grossing independent film at that time by earning $49 million in the US. Harlin cameos in the film as a student while a publicity poster for
Prison can be seen in the background of a scene in a movie theatre.
Following this success
20th Century Fox approached Harlin with
sci-fi/
horror sequel
Alien 3. After working on the trouble-prone project for a year, he left in
1990 claiming not to be satisfied with any of the multiple scripts that had been drafted and stating that he wanted to do something completely different.
The next day the studio offered him rock-and-roll comedy
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane starring stand-up comic
Andrew Dice Clay.
Studio executives were so impressed by the
dailies on this film that they offered Harlin action sequel
Die Hard 2 starring
Bruce Willis, which he set to work on immediately.
The two films were edited simultaneously and were released just one-month apart after being shipped to the theaters as "wet prints". The former flopped but the latter was another commercial success for the director. He achieved critical acclaim the following year,
1991, when he produced
Rambling Rose, through his own recently formed
Midnight Sun Pictures, for director
Martha Coolidge which won him the Best Feature award at the
1992 Independent Spirit Awards and got his star and then partner
Laura Dern a
Best Actress Oscar nomination at the
1992 Academy Awards.
1993 was a big year for Harlin,
Mario Kassar of
Carolco Pictures who had worked with him on
Rambling Rose offered him
Gale Force a film about hurricanes with
Sylvester Stallone attached to star. Harlin initially turned down the offer due to the scripts similarities to
Die Hard 2 but Kassar kept offering a bigger salary, changing the pay scale of Hollywood directors, until Harlin accepted. The films projected cost spiraled and eventually the plug was pulled but the project went on to evolve into
Cliffhanger. This film was another commercial success and is credited with reviving Stallone’s flagging career. The actor became good friends with his director, Harlin.
This same year Harlin married American actress
Geena Davis and also found time to return to his homeland to write and direct the
TV series Gladiaattorit (the Finnish version of
American Gladiators) with old friend and collaborator
Markus Selin.
Later career in Hollywood
Returning to Hollywood, Harlin and his new wife formed a production company known as
The Forge. Through this company Harlin produced comedy film
Speechless for director
Ron Underwood which got star Davis a
1995 Golden Globe nomination.
In 1995, Harlin set to work on a
pirate movie called
Cutthroat Island with
Michael Douglas attached to star. Harlin convinced producer
Mario Kassar that, despite being known for light-weight comedy roles, Davis was perfect for the female love interest in this action blockbuster. After Kassar agreed Harlin set about beefing up Davis’ role until Douglas left the production giving her the lead. The $92 million production, in which Harlin cameos as a pirate, went on to be a major critical and commercial failure entering the
Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest loss of money for a studio ever. That studio,
Carolco Pictures, went bankrupt as a result.
Undeterred Harlin returned to
New Line Cinema in
1996 for his next production and action/thriller called
The Long Kiss Goodnight starring Davis and
Samuel L. Jackson.
This was another commercial failure that effectively ended Davis' movie career.
The couple went on to executive produce the
HBO TV movie Mistrial but the marriage was virtually over.
Harlin and Davis were finally divorced in 1998. That same year, looking for a summer blockbuster for 1999,
Warner Bros. re-teamed Harlin with Jackson for the shark movie
Deep Blue Sea. The film, in which Harlin cameos, was mistakenly thought to be a comedy by some and was not the box office hit the studio had wanted. It did, however, make a respectable $73 million domestically and $164 million worldwide.
Harlin went on to produce the comedy
Blast from the Past through both The Forge and Midnight Sun Pictures for director
Hugh Wilson.
The following year, 2000, he returned to TV appearing in a couple of episodes of old friend
Markus Selin's Finnish
series Susi rajalla and directing the
pilot episode for
Fox Television's
T.R.A.X. which was not picked-up.
At this relative low point in his career, in
2001, it was old friend
Sylvester Stallone, who helped Harlin out by bringing him on board as producer and director of race-car movie
Driven in which he also cameos, however the final product was a yet another critical and commercial failure.
Harlin's next project was to be a movie adaptation of Ray Bradbury short story
A Sound of Thunder but he was fired because he made a creative decision that made
Ray Bradbury very unhappy (and this film's producers decided to support
Ray Bradbury).
[Harlin Fired From THUNDER?]
Harlin picked up the reins on slasher movie
Mindhunters when original director
Peter Howitt dropped out and spent a long time editing and re-editing this thriller but the release was delayed by studio conflicts. He then went on to re-shoot a more traditional horror version of
Exorcist: The Beginning when the studio were unhappy with the psychological drama cut from director
Paul Schrader.
Due to the delays with
Mindhunters both films ended up being released in
2004 and both were moderate successes.
In
2006, Harlin re-teamed with old friend and collaborator Markus Selin to direct a biopic of Finnish President and General of the Cavalry
Gustaf Mannerheim, but the budget projection spiraled and the project was put on hold. Instead Harlin made yet another foray into low-budget horror with
The Covenant, which was another moderate commercial success. In 2007 the Mannerheim film project temporarily moved on, and Harlin returned to Finland. Production began in 2008 with
Mikko Nousiainen starring as Mannerheim. However, 30% of the funding was cut by one of the financiers with reference to the current
global economic recession, and the delay over winter meant that the time window for shooting the winter scenes during the spring of 2009 passed. The project has an uncertain future, but Harlin remains confident.
Harlin directed the
WWE Studios action movie
12 Rounds, starring
John Cena, which was his first film collaboration with
20th Century Fox since 1990's
Die Hard 2. It was released
March 27,
2009.
Despite Harlin's string of failures since the mid-1990s, he is still ranked as one of the top-grossing directors of all time, with his movies having produced a combined U.S. domestic gross of $506,528,628 as of June, 2009,
[[1] US domestic box office data] which places him 71st on the list of highest grossing directors (based on U.S. domestic gross revenue alone).
[Directors gross revenue figures based on U.S. release]
Future projects
He currently has three films in production or pre-production; He is currently shooting a film
Georgia in the country of
Georgia about the 2008 war between Georgia and
Russia over the Georgian region of
South Ossetia. Filming began in the beginning of October 2009, and will end mid-November.
The film will tell the story of the
President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and the events during the
War in South Ossetia (2008). In the film Saakashvili is played by Cuban-American Hollywood actor
Andy Garcia.
In pre-production is an adaption of the comic-book series
Brodie's Law, and a Finnish film project
Mannerheim based on the life of Marshal of Finland, Baron
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim.
Projects outside film industry
Harlin has been involved in few projects outside the film industry. In the 1990s Harlin was involved in establishing the
Planet Hollywood restaurant in Helsinki. At the same time he was one of the new owners of the
Planet FunFun indoor amusement park in
Kerava (previously known as Fanfaari). Both the restaurant and amusement park were short-lived ventures, lasting only a few years before they were closed.
Filmography
