Profile of Renny Harlin on Famous Like Me

Renny Harlin (born Lauri Mauritz Harjola on March 15, 1959 in Riihimäki, Finland) is a film director and producer mostly known for action movies.

Harlin moved to the U.S. in the mid 1980s and initially started directing low-budget films. Harlin gained attention after directing A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, which proved to be a success. His next film, the Andrew Dice Clay film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane failed at the box office, but Harlin achieved financial success with Die Hard 2.

He revived the career of Sylvester Stallone with the 1993 hit "Cliffhanger" but 1995's infamous Cutthroat Island proved to be such a box-office flop that the company that produced it, Carolco, went out of business soon afterwards. Harlin was set to direct the film Alien³ and worked on it for over a year but later backed out due to dissatisfaction with the script.

Harlin married actress Geena Davis in 1993 and, interestingly, he cast her as the lead in some of his films, including Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight. They were later divorced in 1998 and in interviews Davis has been critical of the effect her relationship with Harlin had on her career (and the universally negative reviews on Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight lend credence to this). It was Stallone who helped Harlin out by giving him the film "Driven" but this also proved to be a box office turkey, basically because Stallone's script is depressingly cliché-ridden and unrealistic.

The film Exorcist: The Beginning, the prequel to the Exorcist film series, was initially directed by Paul Schrader. Reportedly, the studio was dissatisfied with the resulting film: a brooding and psychological look at exorcism that lacked the blatantly horrific scenes of the first movie. Schrader was fired and the film was totally re-shot by Harlin, ostensibly to create a version of the film closer to traditional horror movie expectations. Following fan pressure Schrader's film was released on DVD and received better fan critical response than Harlin's version.

His style is fast-paced and rhytmically engaging. His better action films Long Kiss Goodnight, Cliffhanger and Die Hard 2: Die Harder showcase a visual and technical talent greatly above average Hollywood action directors.

He is now attached to a number of movies including the comic book adaptations The Covenant and Full Moon Fever, the viking adventure The Northman and the action film Run.

Filmography

• A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 (1988)
• Prison (1988)
• Die Hard 2 (1990)
• The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)
• Cliffhanger (1993)
• Cutthroat Island (1995)
• The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
• Deep Blue Sea (1999)
• Driven (2001)
• Mindhunters (2004)
• Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

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