Renny Harlin Talks Moving To China

In our recent discussion about China’s emerging dominance in the movie industry, we noted that this would probably be a good thing for manly movies.  Speaking of that, Renny Harlin is already ahead of us. Here is what the Cliffhanger director has said in a new THR interview;

Do you expect to see more people like you moving to Beijing to take advantage of the opportunities here?

In a way, I’m sort of surprised more people haven’t come over already. At the same time, I realize that it’s not as easy as one might think. It really takes commitment, because it’s an entirely different world and culture. The last thing to do is to come here with a really arrogant Hollywood attitude — like, we know everything, give us your money and we’ll show you how it’s done. You have to be humble and you have to bend and blend in and sacrifice your LA lifestyle.

Were the lifestyle adjustments hard for you in any way?

I don’t have any special attachment to Los Angeles. I had been there for about 25 years. The big difference is that I come from Europe, so Hollywood was a dreamland for me, but once I settled in there, some of that glory faded away and then it was just a place. There are some great things — good weather and beautiful places like Malibu — but there’s also traffic and polluted air and hundreds of square acres of really ugly architecture. To me, Beijing and China was exciting and different. The culture, history, architecture, food and everything else all felt like an exciting, welcome change.

People who are doing really well in Hollywood would say, why would I leave? I’m doing well and I have a great life. And those people who aren’t doing quite so well need to prove that they’ve done some impressive work and that they have something to offer, otherwise China isn’t interested.

You can read the full interview here.  I wonder, will Renny Harlin ever return to his 1990’s glory?