The Snowman (2017 film)

According to Variety, the initial hope with the film to was to create a series in the vein of the Alex Cross film adaptations.[6] Screen Rant has suggested that the film was inspired by the success of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011).[7]

For a while, Martin Scorsese was attached to direct,[8] but he dropped out in 2013.[9] Tomas Alfredson was hired to direct the following year.[10] Prior to Alfredson, the studio had considered Morten Tyldum and Baltasar Kormákur, although they declined.[11] By September 2015, Michael Fassbender was in talks to star in the film,[12] and Rebecca Ferguson and Charlotte Gainsbourg were in talks to join the cast by that October and December, respectively.[13][14]

Principal photography on the film commenced on 18 January 2016 in Oslo, Norway.[15] Fassbender was spotted on set on 21 January, in the Barcode area of Oslo, shooting a scene on the tram.[16] A large scene depicting a party, which required over 300 extras, was shot in Oslo City Hall on 5 February.[17] Production moved to Rjukan on 9 February, and to Bergen on 23 February. Filming in Bergen including scenes on the mountain of Ulriken, Bryggen and the Skansen firestation. Production moved back to Oslo for the remainder of filming, in mid-March. This included scenes at Restaurant Schrøder, where Harry Hole is a regular in the novel series.[18] Filming also took place in Drammen, and on the Atlantic Ocean Road, and ended on 1 April 2016.[19]

Reshoots and additional filming took place in Norway during the spring of 2017.

In response to the negative critical reviews, Alfredson blamed the heavily-condensed pre-production and rushed filming schedule, in which 10–15 per cent of the screenplay remained unfilmed. This led to narrative problems when editing commenced:

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. 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.[20][21]

Alfredson also stated that he had a lack of time to prepare the film properly:

It happened very abruptly, suddenly we got notice that we had the money and could start the shoot in London.[20][21]

Actor Val Kilmer suffered from an enlarged tongue during filming due to recent treatment for throat cancer.[22] As such, many of his scenes were filmed without the actor visibly speaking as so to allow easier dubbing during post-production. To that end, all of Kilmer's dialogue is dubbed.[23]

The Snowman grossed $6.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $36.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $43.1 million, against a production budget of $35 million.[1]

In the United States and Canada, The Snowman was released alongside Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, Geostorm, and Only The Brave, and was expected to gross around $10 million from 1,813 theaters in its opening weekend.[26] After making $1.3 million on its first day (including $270,000 from Thursday night previews), weekend predictions were lowered to $4 million. The film went on to debut to $3.2 million, finishing 8th at the box office.[27] In its second weekend, the film dropped 64% to $1.2 million, falling to 17th place at the box office.[28] The film was then pulled from 1,291 theaters in its third week, and fell 86% to $167,685, finishing 33rd.[29]

The Snowman was panned by critics, who derided what they saw as the film's scattered and incomprehensible plot line, as well as a lack of direction for its main cast members.[4] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 7%, based on 200 reviews, with an average rating of 3.20/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A mystery that feels as mashed together and perishable as its title, The Snowman squanders its bestselling source material as well as a top-notch ensemble cast."[30] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 23 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[31] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D" on an A+ to F scale.[27]

Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a negative review, writing "There's probably a good movie or several buried in the frigid wilds of Nesbø's fiction, and with more time and cultural nuance and fewer cooks in the kitchen, it might well be realized. Watching this bungled slopsicle of a movie, it's hard not to conclude that somebody let the wrong one in."[32] Variety's Guy Lodge also called the film a disappointment, saying: "If The Snowman were merely a chilly, streamlined precis of a knottier page-turner, it could stolidly pass muster. The sad surprise here, considering how deftly Alfredson and Straughan previously navigated the far more serpentine plot machinations of a John le Carré classic [Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy], is the snowballing incoherence of proceedings."[33] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the film a "leaden, clotted, exasperating mess".[34] Alison Willmore of BuzzFeed News said that the film was "an inept misfire — the kind of entrancing train wreck that makes you long for a behind-the-scene tell-all to explain what, exactly, went so wrong."[35]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave it 3/5 stars, calling it "a serviceable, watchable thriller, with very gruesome images, coagulating around psychopathologies of father obsession and son obsession".[36] Geoffrey Macnab of The Independent also gave it 3/5 stars, saying that it was "a very slick slice of Scandinavian noir but one whose plot slaloms become increasingly preposterous."[37]