{"id":424485,"date":"2026-04-30T03:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T03:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/424485\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T03:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T03:23:12","slug":"deep-water-director-tells-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/424485\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Deep Water’ Director Tells All"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Polo Lounge is packed during lunchtime in late March. A boys\u2019 club of agents chomp artisanal breadsticks, and about 15 ladies lunching after a corporate award ceremony gab into the void of a twinkling baby grand piano.
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None of them seem to realize that Renny Harlin<\/a> is sitting nearby, but they\u2019ve surely seen his movies (especially the agent bros). Exceedingly tall with Nordic good looks, Harlin is an architect of the modern action film. While critics have been tough on the Finnish director\u2019s blending of human sentiment and thrashing violence and pyrotechnics, audiences know his brand \u2013 consciously or unconsciously.
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In early days, his successful entries in the \u201cNightmare on Elm Street\u201d and \u201cDie Hard\u201d franchises propelled him to the top of every studio\u2019s wish list. The Sylvester Stallone tentpole \u201cCliffhanger\u201d and the forward-thinking female action flick \u201cThe Long Kiss Goodnight\u201d put him over the top. Movie star marriages and intermittent box office bombs tested his mettle. He\u2019s been a teenage film buyer in Cannes, a Shell Oil shill, a Steven Spielberg acolyte and, before COVID, an expat making films his way for 6 years in China.
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Above all, he\u2019s been tenacious and uncompromising in his vision for the movies. Variety sat for a wide-ranging conversation with Harlin ahead of Friday\u2019s release of his latest film \u201cDeep Water<\/a>.\u201d Here, Harlin tells us his story through his credits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master\u201d
Harlin directed his third mainstream feature in 1988, taking the reins on the fourth installment of the Freddy Krueger franchise. It was a job he barely got, and it changed everything.<\/p>\n

They refused to even think about this Finnish kid doing their franchise. The 1987 writers\u2019 strike had started, and they didn\u2019t have a script. I told them I could put together the nightmare sequences in storyboards and create the bones of the movie. They said that was ridiculous, but they ran out of time to hit their release date and had to let me do it. That was pure tenacity \u2013 and I couldn\u2019t even get an agent at that point. [New Line Cinema founder] Bob Shaye was very suspicious of me throughout the whole process. I took a very different approach from the previous directors. Freddy Krueger was so well established at that point that we couldn\u2019t really pretend he was super scary. He\u2019s the James Bond of horror, so that\u2019s how I approached it.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s funny, [Warner Bros. Pictures co-head] Mike De Luca was an assistant at the company at the time. Mike, producer Rachel Talalay and I would get together every morning and come up with lines the actors would say, and the same after lunch. When the reviews came out, they were some of the best of my career. The L.A. Times, I think, called it a \u201cKafka-esque nightmare created by Renny Harlin.\u201d The movie opened huge and the first call I got on Monday was from Steven Spielberg. I was living in a motel in Hollywood for $25 a night and he found me there. Bob Shaye invited me to see the film with him in public and he picked me up in a limo. We drove to the Pacific Theaters and there was a line around the block. Bob said, \u201cRenny, they\u2019re lining up for your movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Lost Spielberg Movie<\/p>\n

\n\tMy first meeting after \u201cElm Street\u201d was with Steven Spielberg. He told me to come to Amblin, he loved the movie. I met with him and Kathy Kennedy. He wanted to make a movie based on a book about a boy with an ability to become invisible. He explores life with this power \u2013 seeing his sister\u2019s early relationships and budding sexuality, his grandfather who is slowly dying, his parents who are having marital troubles. He sees it all. I looked at the film as a character-driven story like \u201cMy Life as a Dog,\u201d but Steven wanted to make it more like \u201cBack to the Future,\u201d an action-adventure comedy. I was so idealistic and passionate, and I told him it was not the movie I wanted to make. In retrospect, you think, \u201cHow stupid can I be?\u201d But I had to believe in my own convictions. It was suicidal, because he\u2019s a genius. I still think my version of that movie would\u2019ve been very special.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBruce Willis in \u201cDie Hard 2.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDie Hard 2\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing \u201cElm Street,\u201d Harlin went into production on the action comedy \u201cThe Adventures of Ford Fairlane\u201d with Andrew Dice Clay. Big shot Joel Silver was making the film and it would land Harlin the sequel to Bruce Willis\u2019 commercial breakout \u201cDie Hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m having lunch with Joel one day and in walks Bruce Willis. We chat and get to know each other, and an hour later Joel calls to say, \u201cBruce loves you. He wants you for \u2018Die Hard 2.\u2019\u201d I started immediately after shooting \u201cFord Fairlane\u201d and edited both at the same time. I was scared. Bruce, bless his heart, had just become a movie star from the first \u201cDie Hard.\u201d At the start of production on the sequel, he announced, \u201cI\u2019m not going to do any of that comedic shit anymore. I want this character to be serious.\u201d People came to see \u201cDie Hard\u201d because Bruce was a blue collar, sarcastic everyman. I told Silver that Bruce wasn\u2019t going to do the same John McClane and the movie would die without it. We had a big negotiation where I agreed to do as many takes as Bruce wanted his way, if I got one for me.<\/p>\n

\n\tJoel and I screened a cut on the Fox lot for Barry Diller, who was running the studio at the time. We\u2019re in a huge time crunch. The movie ends, and Barry gets up and says, \u201cThis is a very good movie. Do you have any more of the funny bits?\u201d So I have to explain to him that every joke is in there, even outtakes. If Bruce was on the phone with Demi Moore and smiled for even a moment, I shot it and put it in the movie.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCliffhanger\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Sylvester Stallone vehicle, which has a remake starring Lily James hitting theaters this year, was a watershed moment for Harlin in 1993. The project premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and would mark the biggest financial success of the director\u2019s career, earning $255 million at the global box office.<\/p>\n

\n\tMy date to Cannes was my mom, because she\u2019s always been my biggest supporter. When we walked out of the festival palais, coming down the huge stairs, there were thousands of people screaming. The film\u2019s score was blaring. They had fake snow falling on the carpet in mid-May. I had my mom in one arm and Elizabeth Taylor in the other. Sly Stallone leans past my mother and said, \u201cRenny, remember this moment. It will never get better than this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI still get goosebumps thinking about it. It reminded me of many years before, when I was a film student in Finland. I was working part-time as a marketing executive and film buyer for a Finnish distribution company. We had no money, so I went to Cannes and stayed in the red light district. I went to the very first American Film Market, which was in 1982. I bought the rights to \u201cBlood Simple\u201d and \u201cEvil Dead\u201d and we were very, very successful. The best was this amazing movie with Isabelle Huppert and Gerard Depardieu. They were both in their twenties in this smoldering, sexy movie called \u201cLoulou.\u201d I called my boss in Helsinki and told him we had to buy it. I get this great idea to bring Isabelle to Finland because, now, I\u2019m in love with her. She came for three days and I was her guide. She\u2019s the biggest emerging star out of Europe, and I go to her hotel to pick her up in the presidential suite and she answers the door out of the shower wearing a towel. I couldn\u2019t believe it was real. I was shaking like a leaf. At the end of the trip, I took her to the airport and she gave me a gift. A hand-bound leather book with empty white pages. She wrote on the first page, \u201cDear Renny, this book is for you to write down your dreams \u2013 and they will all come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMatthew Modine and Geena Davis<\/a> in \u201cCutthroat Island.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndrew Cooper \/ Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCutthroat Island\u201d
As often happens in Hollywood, Harlin\u2019s professional peak was met by a steep valley. He and former wife Geena Davis set out to make a pirate adventure for the whole family. It wound up a record-breaking flop. Made for close to $115 million, it grossed a measly $16 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou go to every movie with your highest ambition and passion, wanting to do something great. \u201cCutthroat Island\u201d became a kind of symbol for excess and failure. There have been many, many, many other movies that have much bigger flaws. But that was a heavy hit on me. I don\u2019t like filmmakers that blame marketing and distribution, but in my career I\u2019ve had many moments of being in the right place at the right time. This was the wrong place at the wrong time.<\/p>\n

\n\tOur producer, Carolco Productions, was going out of business and trying to rescue themselves. They made an output deal with MGM, which went up for sale as we were finishing the edit. They didn\u2019t want to spend a dime or take any risks. It was a Christmas release, which meant we had to pay a ton on marketing. Michael Douglas was signed to play the lead role. He dropped out right before production for personal reasons. I was left there with my then-wife Geena Davis. We were both attached to the movie and tried to get out. The part went to the great actor Matthew Modine, and all due respect to him, but he wasn\u2019t at the level of Michael Douglas. All signs said we were doomed. I spent $800,000 of my own money having the script rewritten by Marc Norman (\u201cShakespeare in Love\u201d). Some things don\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Long Kiss Goodnight\u201d
Only a year after \u201cCutthroat Island,\u201d Harlin and Davis both got a shot at redemption. Harlin took his tested action formula and mapped it over Oscar-winning Davis, propping her up as an amnesiac schoolteacher who discovers she was once an expert CIA assassin. The film got mixed reviews and wasn\u2019t profitable, but became a beloved library title on cable for decades \u2013 especially for a female-centric action thriller. <\/p>\n

\n\tThere was a bidding war for this script. New Line got it. I had proven myself, and our screenwriter Shane Black was a name. Having a female at the lead of the film was always the point, and it was ahead of its time, but it turned out to be a challenge. It\u2019s the movie that brought me the best reviews of my career. I became really good friends with Samuel L. Jackson, and we\u2019ve made four movies together. I\u2019m not sure [New Line] knew how to market \u201cLong Kiss Goodnight.\u201d We needed young men who loved action, but also women who wanted more story. It wasn\u2019t commercially successful but I\u2019m proud of it.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAaron Eckhart in \u201cDeep Water.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Magenta Light Studios<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDeep Water\u201d
Harlin\u2019s latest will hit theaters on Friday. Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley star long-haul airline pilots in a battle for survival on numerous fronts. A mispacked lithium battery sets fire to a massive jetliner, causing it to crash in exotic, shark-infested waters.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe once had smart dramas, star-driven movies and thrillers and romantic comedies. There are very few nowadays, because they\u2019re not based on IP that can break through the noise. The studios need to spend $100 million in marketing, and they only want to do that on something giant. I think I\u2019m still working because I helped define that kind of middle-ground movie. I think people enjoy watching action thrillers set in extraordinary circumstances with an emotional center. My new film \u201charkens back to that premise. It\u2019s my \u201cPoseidon Adventure,\u201d where everyone is stripped of their values and facing an ultimate test. I spent six years living in Chine making these kinds of movies, and after COVID I came back and am lucky to still have opportunity.<\/p>\n

\n\tI worked really hard on creating the biggest plane crash ever filmed. So much went into research and detail. Everything Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley do in this film \u2013 every button they push \u2013 would be exactly to the real protocols. It\u2019s also knowing that, sometimes, filming the bolts ripping out of a row of seats before it\u2019s sucked into the sky through a hole in the plane? That can be more powerful than a building exploding. Sometimes it\u2019s the splinter under the nail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Polo Lounge is packed during lunchtime in late March. A boys\u2019 club of agents chomp artisanal breadsticks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,140540,93,143294,61,60,44466],"class_list":["post-424485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-deep-water","tag-entertainment","tag-geena-davis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-renny-harlin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}