Renny Harlin
Renny Harlin has enjoyed a career that has spanned over two decades and seen him move from commercials to documentaries to feature films.
I caught up with him to talk about his new movie Five Days of War, his successful career and what lies ahead.
- Five Days of War is coming to DVD this summer here in the UK so for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet can you tell me a bit about it?
Well it’s a movie the deal with the war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008, the war is seen from the point of view of some war journalists, and for me it’s a very realistic and emotional story of a war that technically take place anywhere - these wars tale place everywhere whether that be in the Middle East, Africa or South America and now Libya.
War journalists usually go quite unnoticed there but they go to the front lines and risk their lives to bring us these stories and I wanted to tell that story and to shed light on this particular war that didn’t get that much attention when it took place.
- The screenplay was penned by Mikko Alanne so what was it about the script that interested you in the project?
Actually that script didn’t exist when I got involved I got involved when there was a blue print for the movie.
But what interested me was that I felt that I was at a point in my career where I needed to do something that was more real and so when I got familiar with this issue and these events I got very passionate about it and it was me who brought Mikko into the project - he is a writer and a very good friend of mine.
Together we did a lot or research and then he penned the script and that was how the story was born.
- Before filming what type of research did you do into the event - did you meet up with war journalists that were there at the time?
Yes. We went to Georgia and we spent a lot of time talking to people there as well as meeting several journalists who were there during the war - they were from several different counties Germany, French and British.
We then talked to a lot of people who were on the ground who went through this and were refugees, there were thousands of people who lost there homes during the war. So we talked to these people as well as politicians and the military as well as reading reports - so we just tried to gather as much information as possible and try to place most of the details in the movie.
Of course a lot of it, and the characters, are fictional but a lot of the characters are composite characters of real, existing journalists and a lot of the events in the move are based on what happened.
- The film brings together a great cast of Rupert Friend, Andy Garcia and Val Kilmer so can you tell me about the casting process.
Well we started trying to find our leading man, that’s Rupert’s character; and I have always liked him. I wanted to find somebody who was not an American superstar and who would bring all that baggage with them so Rupert is an excellent actor and the right fit for this guy.
Then for Rupert’s cameraman I interview a lot of people in Los Angeles and it was just a coincidence that Rupert mentioned he had a friend called Richard Coyle who he thought would be perfect for the cameraman.
I wasn’t familiar with Richard’s work but I looked at his reel and really liked him - I had totally been thinking about someone American - but with Richard that turned out to be a great stroke of luck and with Richard and Rupert being friends there was this great chemistry in their scenes.
Andy Garcia was almost like a fluke - we were talking about how much Andy Garcia looks so much like the real President of Georgia and wouldn’t it be great if he would play him.
So we went to Andy and he knew about the war and was very interested in these issues and we very quickly made a deal with him.
Val Kilmer I had worked with before and we were friends so I went to Val for another journalist part - and that happened very quickly as well.
But then I went through a lot of actresses for the female lead - she is a Georgian character but I wanted to use a western actress - I really wanted to find someone who would feel real as a Georgian girl and I thought that Emmanuelle would be a good fit and I met with her and she was very passionate about it.
Everybody who did the movie did it for the right reasons - it wasn’t a big budget movie or luxurious conditions it was really roughing it in a country that was recovering from a war; we filmed only a year after the war took place. It was a rough and emotional journey for everyone.
- Five Days of War, in terms of scale, looks like a large movie with armies and tanks and destroyed towns so how did you find the shoot and what were the difficulties that you faced?
Our budget was only $12 million, which is only miniscule for a movie of his scale, but we planned the movie very carefully, we used some local crew; but there wasn’t a big infrastructure so we ended up bringing in people from surrounding countries and Eastern Europe. There were seventeen languages spoken on the set so there were lots of translators and it was really a very unusual situation.
We were able to get the Georgian military to co-operate for a fairly low cost so instead of using CGI we were able to use real tanks, we had scenes with 50 or 60 tanks in one scene, as well as real helicopters and real soldiers - so that saved a lot of money.
It was a fast shoot - it was less than fifty days - we just planned it carefully and did it economically and miraculously we were able to do it.
But it was a team effort none of the usual luxuries of a movie were there so everything that we did and every penny we spent ended up on the screen.
- The end of the film sees you feature survivors of the war talking about people that they lost what did you decide to include them? And how willing were they to participate?
It was really a result of me having dealt with the refugees, spent time with them and listened to their stories - which to me were extremely moving.
I felt that they had the right to get their voices heard in this movie and so I just asked if they were willing to come and tell their stories - dozens and dozens of them wanted to come and be recorded; a lot than what is in the movie.
We put a few of them at the end of the movie so they had a voice but also to make people realise that this is real and not make believe and in all these wars the atrocities are beyond your imagination.
It was a very emotional time; it was our last day of shooting, given that most of the crew didn’t understand what they were saying you felt it so there were many big strong men who were in tears.
- You have enjoyed a career that has spanned thirty years and you have a great body of work. But one of those early works was A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 so how did that movie change your career?
It was a real struggle for me to get that job I had very little experience and they were sceptical about hiring me but somehow with my tenacity I was able to get that job.
I put all of my imagination into it and all of my dreams and nightmares - I really affected the screenplay a lot with my ideas.
When the movie opened and turned out to be a huge hit for those days - it also got very good reviews which was unusual for a sequel, it changed everything overnight - the first call that I got was from Steven Spielberg and he invited me to go and meet him and talk about projects and all the others followed.
- You began your career in commercials as well as TV and shots so how did that help with you film career?
It helped a lot. Initially I went to film school but in those days it was really arty and pretentious and anything commercial was like a curse world - also I was very badly funded so I didn’t have money to do anything.
So after sitting there for half a year I felt that this was going nowhere and I felt that I had to do something on my own and I broke into commercials.
I felt that it was a fantastic film school for me because learning to tell in 30 second why some lady like a certain type of butter when they are cooking and telling that story in 30 second you really have to figure out what your shots are and who you are going to tell that story - every commercial to me was a new challenge and it helped me learn about story-telling. TV and documentaries followed and I feel that it really prepared me for movies.
- Over the years you have made blockbuster like Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger and now a more hard hitting film like Five Days of War so how do you go about choosing your projects?
When I started I just wanted to be on a movie and make movies, I liked the idea of telling stories through this medium. Then as I got more opportunities I tried to choose things more wisely and to do something that I would enjoy to watch myself.
Obviously over the years in Hollywood, whether you are an actor or a director, you have your ups and downs and you sometimes you make a movie with all the best intentions but it just doesn’t work out.
Sometimes you end up making things for all the wrong reasons - you are impatient to go to work you love to work, and someone comes to you with a proposal and you take even if the screenplay is not great; making a good movie from a good script is hard but making a good movie from a bad script is impossible.
Some projects I am really proud of and some I am not so happy with by now with Five Days of War I really tried to get into something that was close to me - I don’t expect it to be as successful as Die Hard 2 but it will get people talking, thinking and reach people.
- You have never been pigeoned holed as a filmmaker so do you like jumping between different genres of film?
I really do. That’s what happens in Hollywood - there are comedy director, action directors, horror directors - I really enjoy jumping around and in the future I really would love to do a romantic comedy.
I want to make movies that I would like to see, and that can be in any genre, now I have been in the business for 25 years I definitely want to be more selective and when I go to the set in a morning I want to feel that I’m doing something that I really care about.
- Finally what's next for you?
I have a big sea adventure in the works that I hope, if all goes as planned, will start shooting at the end of the summer or early fall. It’s a modern day seas adventure that I have a really really good script for and I have high hopes that we will be able to sign off in the next few weeks.
Five Days of War is out on DVD now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Renny Harlin has enjoyed a career that has spanned over two decades and seen him move from commercials to documentaries to feature films.
I caught up with him to talk about his new movie Five Days of War, his successful career and what lies ahead.
- Five Days of War is coming to DVD this summer here in the UK so for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet can you tell me a bit about it?
Well it’s a movie the deal with the war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008, the war is seen from the point of view of some war journalists, and for me it’s a very realistic and emotional story of a war that technically take place anywhere - these wars tale place everywhere whether that be in the Middle East, Africa or South America and now Libya.
War journalists usually go quite unnoticed there but they go to the front lines and risk their lives to bring us these stories and I wanted to tell that story and to shed light on this particular war that didn’t get that much attention when it took place.
- The screenplay was penned by Mikko Alanne so what was it about the script that interested you in the project?
Actually that script didn’t exist when I got involved I got involved when there was a blue print for the movie.
But what interested me was that I felt that I was at a point in my career where I needed to do something that was more real and so when I got familiar with this issue and these events I got very passionate about it and it was me who brought Mikko into the project - he is a writer and a very good friend of mine.
Together we did a lot or research and then he penned the script and that was how the story was born.
- Before filming what type of research did you do into the event - did you meet up with war journalists that were there at the time?
Yes. We went to Georgia and we spent a lot of time talking to people there as well as meeting several journalists who were there during the war - they were from several different counties Germany, French and British.
We then talked to a lot of people who were on the ground who went through this and were refugees, there were thousands of people who lost there homes during the war. So we talked to these people as well as politicians and the military as well as reading reports - so we just tried to gather as much information as possible and try to place most of the details in the movie.
Of course a lot of it, and the characters, are fictional but a lot of the characters are composite characters of real, existing journalists and a lot of the events in the move are based on what happened.
- The film brings together a great cast of Rupert Friend, Andy Garcia and Val Kilmer so can you tell me about the casting process.
Well we started trying to find our leading man, that’s Rupert’s character; and I have always liked him. I wanted to find somebody who was not an American superstar and who would bring all that baggage with them so Rupert is an excellent actor and the right fit for this guy.
Then for Rupert’s cameraman I interview a lot of people in Los Angeles and it was just a coincidence that Rupert mentioned he had a friend called Richard Coyle who he thought would be perfect for the cameraman.
I wasn’t familiar with Richard’s work but I looked at his reel and really liked him - I had totally been thinking about someone American - but with Richard that turned out to be a great stroke of luck and with Richard and Rupert being friends there was this great chemistry in their scenes.
Andy Garcia was almost like a fluke - we were talking about how much Andy Garcia looks so much like the real President of Georgia and wouldn’t it be great if he would play him.
So we went to Andy and he knew about the war and was very interested in these issues and we very quickly made a deal with him.
Val Kilmer I had worked with before and we were friends so I went to Val for another journalist part - and that happened very quickly as well.