Renny Harlin was born on 15 March 1959 and is a Finnish film director, producer, and screenwriter who has made his career in Hollywood, Europe, and China.
22 Facts About Renny Harlin
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Renny Harlin's father was Oiva Harjola, a chief physician at Riihimaki Hospital, and his mother was Liisa Koskiluoma, a nurse.
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Renny Harlin has a half-brother, Veli-Pekka Harjola, who competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics in sprint canoeing.
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Renny Harlin moved to Los Angeles and got a job from Irwin Yablans, who offered him a script of Prison to film.
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Renny Harlin was attached to the project for a little over a year, but he left due to creative differences with the producers.
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Renny Harlin achieved critical acclaim the following year when he produced Rambling Rose through his own Midnight Sun Pictures for director Martha Coolidge.
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Renny Harlin's career suffered a blow with the pirate adventure film Cutthroat Island in 1995, which starred Renny Harlin's then-wife, Geena Davis.
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Renny Harlin wanted to direct a movie based on Formula One, but unable to secure the rights, he instead produced the film Driven in 2001, based on the American Champ Car series.
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Renny Harlin took over directing the action mystery film Mindhunters when the original director Peter Howitt dropped out, but the release was delayed by studio conflicts.
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Renny Harlin went on to re-shoot a more traditional horror version of Exorcist: The Beginning, after the studio was unhappy with the version cut by director Paul Schrader, which was more of a psychological drama.
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Renny Harlin directed the WWE Studios action movie 12 Rounds, starring John Cena.
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In 2009, Renny Harlin directed an independent war film in Georgia.
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Renny Harlin next directed the 2013 film Devil's Pass, set in Russia's Ural Mountains and loosely based on the Dyatlov Pass incident in 1959, when nine experienced hikers were found dead.
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Renny Harlin then directed The Legend of Hercules, which opened in theatres on 10 January 2014.
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Renny Harlin directed the 2016 action comedy film Skiptrace, which starred Jackie Chan alongside Johnny Knoxville and Fan Bingbing.
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Renny Harlin then directed the 2018 film Legend of the Ancient Sword for Alibaba Pictures, based on a Chinese role-playing video game.
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In 1999, Renny Harlin began developing the action-comedy Nosebleed at New Line Cinema, starring Jackie Chan as a window washer who foils a terrorist attack to destroy the World Trade Center.
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In 2006, Renny Harlin collaborated with Markus Selin to direct a biopic of the Finnish President and Marshal of Finland Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, but budget constraints put the project on hold.
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In 2007 the Mannerheim film project resumed temporarily and Renny Harlin returned to Finland.
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Renny Harlin was married to actress Geena Davis from 1993 to 1998.
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Since September 2021, Renny Harlin has been married to fitness athlete and school teacher Johanna Renny Harlin nee Kokkila.
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Renny Harlin lived in the United States from the mid-1980s until 2014, when he moved to China.