Renny Harlin Quotes

• 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.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Money, Uncategorized

  Tags in Back, Too

• Several times we were stranded in strange places without any money and with our credit cards cancelled – trapped in a hotel that we couldn’t check out of because we had no money to check out.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Money, Uncategorized

  Tags in Without, Strange

• Eventually I did that, but it took a lot of twists and turns, and there were a year or two there where I was living with no money at all – no home, no car, no nothing. I was living in somebody’s garage in Los Angeles at that point – for a year.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Money, Uncategorized

  Tags in Home, Nothing

• 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.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Over, Little, Made

• I decided that, somehow, I had to get out of there and go to Hollywood. I had never been to America.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in America

  Tags in Hollywood, Dedicated

• Ford Fairlane was one of those movies that was so much fun to make that it was bound not to be a big hit.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Movies

  Tags in Fun, Big

• I became a real Shell Motor Oil expert, and I did this 25-minute film. It turned out really well and, as a result, they offered me more work and lots of commercials to direct.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Read, Did, Film

• Actually, it was first a movie called Gale Force, which was a hurricane movie. That script never came together, and then the same deal was replaced with Cliffhanger.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Together, Same, Actually

• At that point, the movie was called Wild Force. Everything fell apart, eventually – our financing completely fell apart – and we were never able to make that film.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Everything, Able, Point

• I went out to some advertising agencies and asked if I could do anything.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Anything, Asked, Agency

• I learned a lot about how to shoot and how to put together sequences.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Together, Learned, Put

• I loved cutting together simple commercials about margarine or soft drinks – all kinds of silly products – but I tried to make the commercials different.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Simple, Different, Together

• I was making films when I was about 12 years old – Super-8 films.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Old, Films, Making

• In Finland, getting a university degree is the first thing that you expect your kids to do.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Kid, Getting, Expect

• I did some film reviews for small papers in Finland and things like that to be able to keep living here.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Small, Living

• I loved movies and went to see every movie I could in Finland.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Movies

  Tags in Loved

• 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.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Crazy, Mind

• I think the reason why we were able to actually get it made was that we were so extremely naive – we had no experience at all here. We didn’t even know that you were supposed to have an agent. We didn’t even have a lawyer. We didn’t know one soul.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Soul

  Tags in Made

• It proved to be pretty impossible to get funds for a feature film in Finland. It’s still small, but the film industry was miniscule at that point in the early ’80s.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Small, Still, Pretty

• 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.

  Renny Harlin

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Government, Serious, Making

Renny Harlin (25)

Birth:	15th March, 1959
Nationality:	Finnish
Profession:	Director, Producer

About

Renny Harlin is a Finnish-American film director and producer. He is best known for A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Deep Blue Sea. His film Cutthroat Island was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest box office flop of all time.

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Births

• 1942 - Shere Hite
• 1939 - Richard Serra
• 1755 - Marie Antoinette
• 1936 - Rose Bird
• 1914 - Ray Walston

Deaths

• 2000 - Robert Edmond Cormier
• 1970 - Richard Cardinal Cushing
• 2004 - Theo van Gogh
• 1975 - Pier Paolo Pasolini
• 1963 - Ngo Dinh Diem