Gunnar Ryan Wiik (born September 23, 1981) is a Norwegian actor and entrepreneur. Wiik resides in Los Angeles, California.

Biography

Wiik grew up in the seaside town of

Drøbak Drøbak is a List of cities in Norway, town and the centre of the municipality of Frogn, in Viken county, Norway. The city is located along the Oslofjord, and has 13,409 inhabitants. History Drøbak and Frogn was established as a parish on its o ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. In 2007, Wiik appeared as Jason in the thriller ''

Timber Falls ''Timber Falls'' is a 2007 American horror film directed by Tony Giglio and starring Josh Randall and Brianna Brown. In Brazil it was released with the title ''Wrong Turn 2''. In Mexico it was released with the title ''Wrong Turn 3''. Plot T ...

''. In September 2009, Wiik co-founded WR Entertainment with

James F. Cardwell James F. ("Jim") Cardwell is an entertainment industry consultant. He served as president of Warner Home Video from 2002 to 2016. Since his departure from Warner Bros., Cardwell has focused on content production. He was the executive producer of th ...

Duane M. Eberlein Duane Milton Eberlein is a Certified Public Accountant in California who has served as principal financial or accounting officer for four public companies over the past 30 years. Since 1998, Eberlein has served as a member of the board of directors ...

, Alan E. Bell,

Michael Joseph Smith Michael Joseph Smith (born August 13, 1938) was an American composer and pianist born in Tiline, Kentucky. At the age of 6 years, he gave his first concert of original solo piano music in Nashville, Tennessee. After serving in the United States ...

, Øyvind Holm-Johnsen, and Steinar Larsen. On May 9, 2011, ''

Daily Variety ''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based ...

'' announced that WR Entertainment (through its subsidiary WR Films Entertainment Group) had acquired the motion-picture rights to all 83 novels in the best-selling ''Morgan Kane'' series, which had sold more than 20 million books to date. In January 2016, Wiik announced that he intended to star as the lead role in the planned ''

Morgan Kane Morgan Kane is a fictional western character and antihero, created by Kjell Hallbing under the pseudonym Louis Masterson. The Morgan Kane series has become the biggest success in modern Norwegian leisure reading literature. The 83 books in the ser ...

'' films, but later failed his audition. On January 13, 2016, WR Entertainment became a publicly traded company on the

Oslo Stock Exchange Oslo Stock Exchange ( no, Oslo Børs) (OSE: OSLO) is a stock exchange within the Nordic countries and offers Norway’s only regulated markets for securities trading today. The stock exchange offers a full product range including equities, deriv ...

Merkur Market under the name WR Entertainment ASA. Two months later, a private placement took place. In December 2016, Wiik resigned from WR in response to a group of shareholders seeking his and Chairman

's removal from the company. This process was later chronicled by WR investor Jan Henry Løken in VG's documentary ''The Ballad of Morgan Kane''. Wiik stated in a press release that he resigned because of "creative differences." Cardwell was later voted out by the shareholders at an EGM.

Litigation

In March 2017, Wiik filed a lawsuit in

Los Angeles County Superior Court The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County, which includes the city of Los Angeles. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States. The ...

against WR's CEO,

Tasmin Lucia-Khan Tasmin Lucia-Khan (born 18 July 1980) is a British film producer, television personality, news anchor and entrepreneur. In the UK, she is most known for being the face of BBC Three ''60 Seconds'', hosting ''E24'' on BBC News, and fronting the m ...

. The suit, including allegations of

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

and sexual manipulation, made international headlines. Lucia-Khan filed a series of motions to quash service and an

anti-SLAPP Strategic lawsuits against public participation (also known as SLAPP suits or intimidation lawsuits), or strategic litigation against public participation, are lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with ...

motion against Wiik. In June 2017 WR Entertainment filed a suit against Wiik for multiple counts of

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

misrepresentation In common law jurisdictions, a misrepresentation is a false or misleading '' R v Kylsant'' 931/ref> statement of fact made during negotiations by one party to another, the statement then inducing that other party to enter into a contract. The m ...

breach of fiduciary duty A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties (person or group of persons). Typically, a fiduciary prudently takes care of money or other assets for another person. One party, for exampl ...

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party ...

and

unjust enrichment In laws of equity, unjust enrichment occurs when one person is enriched at the expense of another in circumstances that the law sees as unjust. Where an individual is unjustly enriched, the law imposes an obligation upon the recipient to make res ...

. Wiik filed a cross-complaint with multiple claims of breach of contract and fraud. In July 2017, WR Entertainment obtained an

injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...

from

Oslo District Court Oslo District Court ( no, Oslo tingrett) is a district court located in Oslo, Norway. This court is based at the Oslo Courthouse in the city of Oslo. The court serves the entire city of Oslo and the court is subordinate to the Borgarting Court of ...

( no, Oslo tingrett) to freeze 18.7 million shares of stock in Wiik's name, pending outcome of WR's fraud claim filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Wiik appealed to the

Borgarting Court of Appeal The Borgarting Court of Appeal ( no, Borgarting lagmannsrett) is one of six intermediate courts of appeal in the Kingdom of Norway. The Court is located in the city of Oslo. The court has jurisdiction over the counties of Oslo and western Viken. ...

( no, Borgarting lagmannsrett). The Borgarting Court of Appeal upheld the injunction where the 18.7 million shares would be frozen until Los Angeles County Superior Court had made their ruling. In December 2017, Ryan Wiik reported a WR shareholder to the police for reckless behavior due to him posting parodic and satiric photos of Wiik. On February 13, 2018, it was announced that a settlement had been reached between Wiik, WR Entertainment, and WR's CEO Lucia-Khan, where the pending lawsuits between the parties would be dismissed, and that Wiik had agreed to return the disputed 18.7 million shares back to WR Entertainment.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wiik, Ryan Living people 1981 births People from Hamar Norwegian male film actors Expatriate male actors in the United States Norwegian expatriates in the United States