Early life
Alfredson was born in 1965 in Lidingö, Stockholms län, Sweden, [2] the son of Gunilla and comedian, writer, and director Hans "Hasse" Alfredson. Tomas was used to being treated differently from an early age. [3] "[A small] number of people were public property, and he was one of them," Alfredson said of his father. Hasse was seldom home, and Tomas was mostly raised by his mother. [3] "But I participated in [Hasse's] film productions every summer, it was probably a way for us to reach each other (...) I thought it was great fun." [4]
Alfredson would often have minor roles in the Hasseåtage series of popular films, that featured the comedy-duo of his father and Tage Danielsson – such as the role of the "Count" in The Apple War (1971), his sole line of dialogue being "Adieu, mon plaisir" ("Goodbye, my pleasure"). [4]
Directing career
Alfredson's career started at Svensk Filmindustri, where he worked as an assistant. [5] He was involved in the creation of the Swedish television channel TV4, where he worked in the entertainment department. [5] One of his successes was the Swedish adaptation of Fort Boyard, "Fångarna på Fortet". [6] Alfredson then moved on to Sveriges Television, creating television series such as Ikas TV-kalas , a children's television show starring Ika Nord, who would later appear in Alfredson's 2008 film Let the Right One In . [7] According to Nord, Alfredson was "only 25, but already extremely knowledgeable". [7] In 1994 Alfredson directed Bert, another tv production based on the Bert diaries, a popular series of teenage novels written in the diary form. [8] A feature film, Bert: The Last Virgin , based on the series was made in 1995, for which Alfredson received a Guldbagge nomination for Best Direction.
Alfredson joined the Swedish comedy group Killinggänget as a director in 1999. [9] "I saw that they were a little funnier than the others, and a little more thorough", he said. [3] His first collaboration with the group was a 1999 series of four television films, including the mockumentary Screwed in Tallinn , which depicts a group of Swedish bachelors who travel to Estonia by bus in the hopes of finding Estonian girlfriends. [4] The 2004 film Four Shades of Brown , directed by Alfredson, is Killinggänget's only feature film to date. The film intertwines four unrelated stories with a common theme of betrayal, in particular parents betraying their children. [10] The film received four Guldbagge awards, including Best Direction for Alfredson. [11]
Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist released his debut horror novel Let the Right One In in 2004. After reading the novel, Alfredson wanted to get involved in a film adaptation, and approached Lindqvist: "They[ sic ] was a crowd banging on his door to make a movie, so I was #40 or something. When we met, he knew of me and he liked what I'd done previously, and we got along together very well." [12] The film tells the story of a 12-year-old bullied boy who befriends a child vampire in early 1980s Blackeberg, Sweden. In addition to directing, Alfredson edited the film in collaboration with Dino Jonsäter. [13]
Let the Right One In premiered on 26 January 2008 at the Göteborg International Film Festival, [14] where Alfredson won the Festival's Nordic Film Prize. [15] The film went on to win additional awards, including the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival. [16] The film quickly became an international success, with the rights being sold to more than forty countries [17] before its theatrical release on 24 October 2008. [18] Domestically, the film won five Guldbagge Awards, with Alfredson receiving his second Guldbagge Award for Best Direction. [19]
International career
After finishing the work on Let the Right One In, Alfredson publicly announced that he would not make any more films in the "foreseeable future". [20] He stated that he had grown tired with the Swedish film and television industry, which he considered "drained of power, courage, and gravity." [21] While he had received several offers from Hollywood producers, he was reluctant to leave his "home, children and all the colleagues I depend on to be good." [21] However, in March 2009 he announced that he would partake in a big international film production. [22] In July 2009, Alfredson signed to direct a film adaptation of John le Carré's 1974 novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy . [23] Produced by Working Title Films' Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, [23] it premiered in September 2011 at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. [24]
In 2012, it was announced that Alfredson had acquired the rights to make a film adaptation of Astrid Lindgren's novel The Brothers Lionheart , with Alfredson planning to direct and John Ajvide Lindqvist to write the screenplay. [25]
In 2017, Alfredson directed the widely panned The Snowman . Despite the all-star cast and it being based on a book from the popular series by Jo Nesbø, the movie was mostly panned by critics and received a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. [26]
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