Early Life
Renny Harlin was born in Riihimäki, Finland to a nurse and a physician. His mother often took him to see films at the cinema as a child, particularly those of Alfred Hitchcock, and he became enamored with the movies often citing Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969) as one of his favourites. Harlin had a video camera from a very early age and made his first short at the age of 12. At the age of 14 he decided to become a film director after he saw Don Siegel and Charles Bronson in Helsinki for the filming of Telefon (1977).
In 1980, Harlin was working as a commercial director for companies such as Shell Oil while he wrote and directed the 6-minute short Huostaanotto (a.k.a. Custody International) which received its belated premier on Finnish television on 4 November 1979. The following year, 1981, he was assistant cameraman on Läpimurto (a.k.a. The Breakthrough), directed by Janne Kuusi, and made a cameo appearance as a police officer. That same year he was also cinematographer on two short films; Posliinikissa directed by Kari Paljakka, and Jos minä olisin aikuinen directed by Per-Olof Strandberg. He then made the documentary short Hold On which won the Best Short Subject Award at the 1982 national film board awards hosted by YLE.
Harlin started working as a buyer for a Finnish film-distribution company and while on a business trip to L.A. he met up with aspiring film writer/producer Markus Selin. The two Finns would become long-term friends and collaborators. They quickly set to work on the script for their first film Born American (a.k.a. Arctic Heat). This was a feature length action movie about three Americans vacationing in Finland who cross the border into the Soviet Union. It was originally supposed to star Chuck Norris but he backed out when filming was delayed by funding problems and his son, Mike Norris, landed the lead instead. A Finnish production, this was at that the time the most expensive film ever to have been made in Finland but it was initially banned in Finland for a very short while as the film encouraged violence and hatred towards Russians. The international success of the film allowed Harlin to get his foot in the door in Hollywood.
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