Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

The Snowman director Tomas Alfredson reveals why the film didn't work

The Swedish filmmaker addressed the negative reviews heaped upon his crime thriller adaptation

Jacob Stolworthy
Tuesday 17 October 2017 08:29 BST
Comments
The Snowman - Trailer 2

The director of new crime thriller The Snowman has waded in on why his film received such negative reviews.

Tomas Alfredson's adaptation of the Jo Nesbø novel received a negative critical response upon its release in UK cinemas last Friday (13 October) amassing a lacklustre Rotten Tomatoes score of just 21%.

Addressing the criticism, Alfredson - whose credits include Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Swedish horror Let the Right One In - revealed that there were big gaps left in the story because he never got to shoot everything he had envisioned.

“Our shoot time in Norway was way too short. We didn’t get the whole story with us and when we started cutting we discovered that a lot was missing,” the filmmaker told NRK (the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation).

“It’s like when you’re making a big jigsaw puzzle and a few pieces are missing so you don’t see the whole picture.”

He went on to claim that the film's production was rushed, adding: “It happened very abruptly - suddenly we got notice that we had the money and could start the shoot in London.”

One criticism Alfredson had no time for, however, was the incorrect geography featured in the film.

“It’s not a documentary about the geography of Norway," he argued. "I wanted to make a fictive thriller. So even if not everything is geographically correct, I don’t give a shit.”

The Snowman stars Michael Fassbender as a detective on the hunt for a serial killer. It reached number three in the UK box office behind The Lego Ninjago Movie and Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 which fell to two after just one week at the top spot.

The film - which co-stars Rebecca Ferguson, JK Simmons, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Toby Jones - was originally slated ot be directed by Martin Scorsese who remained on board as producer when Alfredson took over.

The Snowman is in cinemas now.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in