Ilya Viktorovich Naishuller (born November 19, 1983)[1] is a film director and a musician. He is known for directing action films Hardcore Henry (2015) and Nobody (2021). He is the founder of film production company Versus Pictures and the indie rock band Biting Elbows.

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Ilya Naishuller
Naishuller at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015
Born	(1983-11-19) November 19, 1983 (age 38) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Occupation	Filmmaker Musician
Years active	2008–present
Notable work	Nobody Hardcore Henry Co-founder of Biting Elbows
Spouse	Darya Charusha ​ (m. 2010)​
Musical career
Genres	Rock
Instrument(s)	Vocals Guitar
Musical artist

Life

Naishuller was born in Moscow, the son of a surgeon mother and a businessman father of Jewish background.[2] From the ages of seven to fourteen he lived in London and attended private school.[3][4]

He studied at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts and met several filmmakers he would collaborate with later. Naishuller left school to pursue music. In 2008, he founded the rock band Biting Elbows as lead singer and guitarist. In 2011, he appeared the EP Dope Fiend Massacre and released the debut album Biting Elbows.

In 2013, Naishuller directed and starred in Bad Motherfucker – the music video for a Biting Elbows' hit single. Shot entirely in POV, Bad Mother Fucker became a viral online hit with over 150 million cumulative views[5] The video caught the attention of Hollywood agents, actors and directors and was praised by Darren Aronofsky.[4]

In 2015 Naishuller directed an independent feature Hardcore, later renamed Hardcore Henry. It starred Sharlto Copley and Tim Roth and was produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Inga Vainshtein Smith and Ekaterina Kononenko. Naishuller is also credited as screenwriter, director, producer and acted in the film as well. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2015, and won People's Choice Award. It was released theatrically by STXfilms on April 8, 2016. It went on to gross $14.3 million USD, in the US.[6][7] Simultaneously Naishuller and writers, Brain Philipson and Will Stewart, released the comic book titled 'Hardcore Akan #1', the origin story for Hardcore Henry.[8]

The music video "Kolshchik" that Naishuller directed for the Russian rock band Leningrad won the Berlin Music Video Awards in 2017, while taking the first place for the "Best Concept" category. [9]

In 2021, Naishuller directed Nobody, an American action film written by Derek Kolstad. The Universal Pictures film stars Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Aleksey Serebryakov, RZA and Christopher Lloyd. The film premiered right as the COVID blocked theatrical window reopened, and achieved #1 at the US Box Office in the opening weekend.

Filmography

Music videos

Film

Other works

References

External links

• Official Website for Biting Elbows
• Ilya Naishuller at IMDb

На других языках

[de] Ilja Wiktorowitsch Naischuller

[ru] Найшуллер, Илья Викторович