Background
Espen Sandberg was born in Sandefjord, Norway on 17 June 1971.
Espen Sandberg was born in Sandefjord, Norway on 17 June 1971.
In 1992 they both attended Stockholm Film School in Sweden, and graduated in 1994.
Later that year they served their mandatory time in the military making propaganda films for the Royal Norwegian Army. In 1995 they founded their own company. They called it Roenberg, which is their last names put together.
Early in 1996 they began directing commercials and music videos professionally in Oslo.
Their extensive and award winning work in commercials in Scandinavia led to major international commissions such as ads for Airbus, Nintendo, Coca Cola, General Electric and Nokia. Sandberg and Rønning established themselves in the American market with their spots for Capital One, Labatt"s and especially with their United States of America Today Super Bowl 2001 Viewer"s Poll-winning spot Rex for Budweiser.
Together with fellow Norwegian director, Harald Zwart, they own and run Motion Blur, a production house for commercials. Founded in 2002 it is now one of the largest and most award winning productions companies in Scandinavia.
In 2006, duo directed the French-produced comedy western Bandidas in Mexico starring Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz, it tells the tale of two very different women who become a bank robbing duo in an effort to combat a ruthless enforcer terrorising their town.
In Norway, Rønning and Sandberg best known for directing the 2008 blockbuster movie Max Manus: Manitoba of War with Aksel Hennie in the leading role, the story follows Manus (Aksel Hennie) from the Winter War against the Soviet Union, through the outbreak of World World War II and the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany until peacetime in 1945. In 2012, Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning was concerned with a new big movie about Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki expedition. The development of this new film was shown in an exhibition at the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo.
The film was released in 2012 with great reviews, Rotten Tomatoes reported that 83% of the critics gave a positive review.
In 2013, it was announced that Espen and Joachim are expected to direct the fifth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean which is slated to released in 2017 titled Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell Number Tales.