Tommy Wirkola

Tommy Wirkola (born 6 December 1979) 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.

Career

Wirkola is of Sami-Finnish ancestry.

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

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.

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.

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. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $76.6 million worldwide.

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.