Renny Harlin
Renny Harlin
Renny Harlinis a Finnish film director, producer and screenwriter. His films include A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Deep Blue Sea...
NationalityFinnish
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth15 March 1959
CityRiihimaki, Finland
CountryFinland
learned seconds
What I learned most was how to tell a story in 15 seconds or 30 seconds or 60 seconds - to have some kind of goal of what to try to do and make it happen in that time.
continued follow mind obviously system works
I've continued to always keep in mind having a healthy does of that in Hollywood, now that I am part of the system and obviously have to follow the way the system works - you still have to have that crazy determination.
industrial job motor script shell wrote
My very, very first professional job was when I was 19 years old - I got a job doing an educational industrial film on Shell Motor Oil's oil products. I really put my heart into it - I wrote a script for it, I did a lot of research.
giving-up challenges healthy
You just never give up, no matter how hard the challenges are, and observe this world with a healthy dose of criticism and don't just follow the herd like somebody else might do.
years film
I was making films when I was about 12 years old - Super-8 films.
agency advertising euthanasia
I went out to some advertising agencies and asked if I could do anything.
powerful hero intelligent
I feel like I learned very early on that your heroes are only as powerful as your villains. And I'm attracted to intelligent villains.
dream government years
There were a lot of people dreaming about making films, and they would finance maybe 6 films a year. Because they were funded by the government, the films sort-of had to deal with serious social issues - and, as a result, nobody went to see those films.
talking people smoking
This was in '79. I got pretty restless there, sitting around with a lot of people sitting around smoking cigarettes and talking about films, but nobody really doing anything.
paper able film
I did some film reviews for small papers in Finland and things like that to be able to keep living here.
finland
I loved movies and went to see every movie I could in Finland.
dollars actors littles
Eventually, in '84, we made a film for a little over a million dollars - with American actors that was shot in English - that was shown in Finland A little action film called Born American.
mistake live-in-the-moment trying
Just live in the moment and not be afraid to try things out and make mistakes.
government foundation film
A government institution called the Finnish Film Foundation funds filmmaking there, and I wrote several screenplays but never got any money. They were sent back to me, and they said that they were too commercial for them.