Tommy Wirkola

Tommy Wirkola
Born	(1979-12-06) 6 December 1979 (age 45) Alta, Norway
Education	Bond University
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter, producer, actor

Tommy Wirkola (born 6 December 1979) ^[1] is a Norwegian filmmaker. He is known for his film work in hybrid thrillers that combine horror, action and satire, including Dead Snow (2009) and Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014), which were both selected for the Sundance Film Festival. ^[2]

Career

Wirkola is of Sami-Finnish ancestry. ^[3]

His first film was 2007's Kill Buljo , which he co-wrote with Stig Frode Henriksen. ^[4] They later collaborated on the 2009 horror comedy Dead Snow , ^[5] the 2010 mockumentary Kurt Josef Wagle and the Legend of the Fjord Witch, ^[6] and the 2014 sequel to Dead Snow, Red vs. Dead . ^{[7] [8]}

In 2012 Wirkola directed & produced the television comedy series Hellfjord . Consisting of seven thirty minute episodes, the series is about an Oslo police officer who is banished to a small village after accidentally killing his police horse. ^[9]

Wirkola's first English-language, large-budget film, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters , was released in 2013 to mainly negative reviews. Starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, the film was nevertheless a financial success, grossing $226.3 million worldwide on a budget of $50 million. ^{[10] [11]}

What Happened to Monday , a science fiction film starring Noomi Rapace and Willem Dafoe, and the dark comedy The Trip , also starring Rapace, were released in 2017 and 2021 respectively.

Wirkola's next film, Violent Night, a dark comedy starring David Harbour as a vigilante Santa Claus, was released in December 2022. ^[12] The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $76.6 million worldwide. ^[13]

Wirkola co-directed the 2024 animated musical sex comedy Spermageddon , a dual narrative focusing on both a teenage couple having sex for the first time and Simen the Semen and his friends in a quest for the Egg. ^[14] The Hollywood Reporter stated that the film seemed "destined for cult status." ^[15]

In May 2024, it was announced that Wirkola had signed with Columbia Pictures to develop a survival thriller titled Beneath the Storm, with Phoebe Dynevor cast in the lead role. ^[16] That August, principal photography began in Australia, with Whitney Peak and Djimon Hounsou joining the cast. ^[17] In March 2025, the film was renamed Shiver . ^[18]

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Editor
2006	Remake	Yes	No	No
2007	Kill Buljo	Yes	Yes	Yes
2009	Dead Snow	Yes	Yes	No
2010	Kurt Josef Wagle and the Legend of the Fjord Witch [19]	Yes	Yes	Yes
2013	Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters	Yes	Yes	No
2014	Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead	Yes	Yes	No
2017	What Happened to Monday	Yes	No	No
2021	The Trip	Yes	Yes	No
2022	Violent Night	Yes	No	No
2024	Spermageddon	Yes [a]	Yes	No
2026	Shiver	Yes	Yes	No
	Violent Night 2	Yes	No	No

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role
2006	Remake	Attendant 2
2007	Kill Buljo	Sid Wisløff
2009	Dead Snow	Dying Zombie
	Tomme Tønner	Gjørme-Knut
2013	Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters	Deputy #4

Accolades

Year	Work	Awards	Category	Result
2009	Dead Snow	Toronto After Dark Film Festival Audience Awards	Best Feature Film	Winner
		Scream Awards	Best Horror Movie	Nominee
			Best Foreign Movie	Nominee
2010		Kosmorama Kanon Award	Best Innovation	Nominee
2014	Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Horror Movie	Nominee
	Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead	Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival Choice Awards	Audience Award for Feature Film	Winner
			Best Director	Winner
		Fantasia International Film Festival	Best International Film	Nominee
		Fantastic Fest Gutbuster Comedy Features Awards	Best Picture	Winner
			Best Screenplay	Winner
		Sitges Film Festival	Best Screenplay	Winner
		Toronto After Dark Film Festival Audience Awards	Best Feature Film	Winner
			Best Film to Watch with a Crowd	Winner
2017	What Happened to Monday	Locarno Film Festival	Variety Piazza Grande Award	Nominee

Notes

1. Co-directed with Rasmus A. Sivertsen

References

1. "Nå hopper Wirkola av". DN.no. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
2. Fouché, Gwladys (2 February 2009). "Dead Snow cashes in on the vogue for film Nazis, with added snow". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 28 March 2025.
3. Kautto, Hanne (5 September 2012). "Pihla Viitalalla iso rooli Hollywood-leffassa". yle.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 8 April 2024.
4. Kill Buljo – Dimension Extreme Archived 14 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
5. "DØD SNØ – crossingEurope". Crossingeurope.at. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
6. Juan of the Dead (26 February 2010). "The Director Of DEAD SNOW And KILL BULJO Takes The Piss Out Of First-Person Horror With KURT JOSEF WAGLE AND THE LEGEND OF THE FJORD WITCH". Twitchfilm.net. Archived from the original on 1 March 2010. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
7. "Director Tommy Wirkola Talks HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS and DEAD SNOW". Collider. 20 November 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
8. Kevin Melrose (12 February 2013). "Wirkola Plans Dead Snow Sequel". Spinoff.comicbookresources.com. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
9. "Hellfjord". fantasticfest.com. 26 February 2010. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
10. "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters". Box Office Mojo . IMDb. Archived from the original on 19 August 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
11. New Scribe to Sweeten 'Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters'
12. McCall, Kevin (14 September 2022). "David Harbour's Holiday Flick 'Violent Night' to Screen at NYCC". Collider. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
13. "Violent Night (2022)". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved 5 April 2023.
14. Del Don, Muriel (19 June 2024). "Review: Spermageddon". Cineuropa. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
15. Mintzer, Jordan (14 June 2024). "'Spermageddon' Review: Outrageously Raunchy Animated Feature Seems Destined for Cult Status". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
16. Grobar, Matt (13 May 2024). "Phoebe Dynevor to Star In Shark Thriller For Sony; Tommy Wirkola Directing". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 3 August 2025.
17. Gajewski, Ryan (14 August 2024). "Phoebe Dynevor Shark Thriller From Tommy Wirkola Gets Title and Summer 2025 Release". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 3 August 2025.
18. Pedersen, Erik; Tapp, Tom (24 March 2025). "Sony's Shark Thriller Starring Phoebe Dynevor Surfaces With New Title & Year-Later Release Date; 'Street Fighter' Off Schedule". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 3 August 2025.
19. Turek, Ryan (26 February 2010). "Dead Snow Director Returns With Fjord Witch". ShockTillYouDrop. Archived from the original on 14 August 2012. Retrieved 3 March 2014.

External links

• Tommy Wirkola at IMDb