Uwe Boll

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Uwe Boll
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Uwe Boll

Uwe Boll (pronounced [ˈuːvə bɔl]), born June 22, 1965 in Wermelskirchen, Germany) is a German film director and producer of movies usually adapted from video games. Unlike most directors in the US, who receive funding from Hollywood studios, he finances his own films through his Boll KG production company. Boll holds a doctorate in literature.

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[edit] The director

In his youth, Boll produced short films on Super 8 mm film and video. He studied film direction in Munich and Vienna, and later literature, then film and marketing and management in Cologne and Siegen. Boll earned a doctorate in literature from the University of Cologne in 1995. Among his first public works are the German underground films German Fried Movie (1991), Run Amok (1992), and Barschel (1993).

Together with his friend and business partner Frank Lustig, he created the enterprise BOLU film production and rental business GmbH in 1991. Since 1998, he has been the exclusive owner and Managing Director of the enterprise. From 1994 to 2000, he was also a producer and director with TaunusFilm production GmbH and the Managing Director of TaunusFilm International GmbH in Wiesbaden.

Since 1991, Boll has been professionally active as director and a producer. Besides productions of German advertising spots for e-plus, Lucky Strike, Porsche and Pall Mall, he makes motion picture films. Since 2000, he has always directed and produced his own films. Boll's films frequently utilize financial advantages found in Vancouver, Canada; however, a large part of production takes place in Germany.

Uwe's BOLL KG company slogan declares itself the "World Market Leader in Video Game Adaptations", and has produced such movies as House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, and BloodRayne.

[edit] Financing

Boll continues to secure investors for the rights to future video-game-to-movie adaptations. His investors are mostly German. He carefully secures the rights for potential future adaptations, afterwards doing all of the actual production himself, and finishes the product.

Movies directed by Boll have not achieved the kind of box office returns one expects from a typical Hollywood film.[citation needed] The House of the Dead (budget: $12 million[1] ) broke $5.73 million on opening weekend, Alone in the Dark made over $5.1 million (budget: $20 million[2] ), and BloodRayne (budget: $25 million[3] ) topped $2.42 million.

In the DVD commentary of Alone in the Dark, Boll explains how he funds his films:

"Maybe you know it but it's not so easy to finance movies in total. And the reason I am able to do these kind of movies is I have a tax shelter fund in Germany, and if you invest in a movie in Germany you get basically fifty percent back from the Government."

Boll is able to acquire funding thanks to German tax laws that reward investments in film. The law allows investors in German-owned films to write off 100% of their investment as a tax deduction; it also allows them to invest borrowed money and write off any fees associated with the loan. The investor is then only required to pay taxes on the profits made by the movie; if the movie loses money, the investor gets a tax writeoff.

While Boll has received a lot of negative publicity regarding this funding method, he was actually one of the few directors to use the tax shelter as intended[citation needed]. His films were financed, produced, and directed by a German company, which was the initial intention behind the tax shelter: to provide incentive for investment in German entertainment properties. Regardless of the law's intention, most of these German film funds ended up funneling money to American studios to finance American blockbusters. The law merely required that the movie's copyright be owned by a German company; thus studios would "sell" a movie's rights to a German company, then immediately lease the movie back for a small fee, while the German owners would agree to very limited control. Essentially, the German company would own the movie on paper, but have no say over its production.[4] Because of this, in January 2006, as had been expected for several months, the German legislature changed the country's tax laws to eliminate the tax shelter.[5] It is not known if this will have any effect on Boll's funding as the new laws only seek to punish investors who are abusing the law for tax purposes; Boll's activities appear to be well within the legitimate usage of the tax shelter.[citation needed]

[edit] Writings

Boll has written two books, Wie man in Deutschland einen Film drehen muss (How to Make a Movie in Germany) and Die Gattung Serie und ihre Genres (Series and Their Genres), on themes of serial TV, which, according to Boll's description, "endeavors to sketch a conceptual horizon of the 'fictitious' TV serial through a generic description, derived by film-historical and statistical methods, as well as by a bibliographical evaluation. Thereby, comprehensive materials and literary bases were made available for the purpose of this research, so that they may properly describe and distinguish the series as such from other kinds, and allow for typological categorization and verification of the computational matrixes which form the basis of the various singular episodes."

[edit] Criticism

When adapting a video game into a movie, Boll will often change the plot, setting, and anything else that he deems necessary. The majority of professional movie critics have panned Boll's movies[6] [7] [8] [9] As of October 25, 2006, all three of Boll's video game adaptations appeared on the Internet Movie Database's Bottom 100 films list.

However, some creators of video game properties have responded to any moves by Boll with disgust. When rumors appeared that Uwe Boll expressed interest in a Metal Gear Solid movie, and claimed to have been given a script to read, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima responded in his audioblog HIDECHAN, "Absolutely not! I don't know why Uwe Boll is even talking about this kind of thing. We've never talked to him. It's impossible that we'd ever do a movie with him."[10]

Despite such reservations, Boll keeps upbeat on his projects. He has described his upcoming film Dungeon Siege as "a very dark, epic picture in the tradition of the Sergio Leone Westerns."[11]

[edit] Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Since the release of House of the Dead, some critics of Uwe Boll have congregated on the IMDb website. Boll has himself criticised the website's forums on the DVD commentary for Alone in the Dark. As part of the website's service, moviegoers are invited to rate movies on a scale of one to ten. His film BloodRayne received thousands of negative votes even before it was released, causing some concern over the fairness of this service.

[edit] House of the Dead

Although the movie is described as being a prequel to the events in the game, fans of the series sometimes claim[citation needed] that Boll strayed too far from the source material (to the extent of calling it "shack of the dead"[citation needed]), as the movie seems only vaguely related to the actual game series aside from brief clips of the original game edited between scenes and action shots throughout the film and a subtle reference at the end of the movie, in which two men dressed similarly to the game series' main characters arrive to rescue the film's two surviving characters.

[edit] Alone in the Dark

Alone in the Dark departed from the video game's survival-horror style (the original game was set in Louisiana in the beginning of the 20th century, and featured a detective trapped in a haunted Victorian house) to a more action-oriented one (the movie is set in a modern/sci-fi megalopolis, and features a detective armed with assault rifles).

Blair Erickson, a writer of a treatment for Alone in the Dark, has written a critical account of his experience working with Boll. It includes allegations that Boll retrieved ideas from prior movies, and wanted to add elements to the story that were not to the tone of the source material and, as quoted by many fans "would have had a more positive impact on more people." Blair's script was not chosen (in fact he refused to let Boll use it), so Uwe went with another script. Uwe claimed that he chose to not use Erickson's script, citing reasons such as it having "not enough car chases."[12]

One oft-cited review of Alone in the Dark, by Rob Vaux, sarcastically states that the movie should make all other "bad" movie directors feel better in comparison: "It's okay," they'll tell themselves, "I didn't make Alone in the Dark."[13] On the DVD commentary of Alone in the Dark, Boll describes the film's ending as "Lynchian."[14]

[edit] BloodRayne

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Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie makes several departures from the original plot and characters of the game series. Billed as a prequel, the movie's events have the following contradictions with the game's events.

  • Rayne (the heroine of the games and film) kills her father, Kagan, at the end of the movie, this occurring in 1723 according to the official movie site. In the game BloodRayne 2, Rayne battles her father in a modern setting. The second game, which takes place after the first (which was itself set in 1932), seems to be set somewhere around the year 2000.[citation needed]
  • The movie ends with the total destruction of the Brimstone society. This Brimstone society is introduced in the first game in 1935 to a young Rayne.
  • Rayne is born in America in 1916, according to the game. In the movie Boll creates a European Rayne born in the 1700s.

Allegedly, Boll attempted to have the in-game character model for Rayne altered so that in future games she would more closely resemble Kristanna Loken, the actress who plays her in Boll's movie.[citation needed] Also, the DVD edition of the film is bundled with the PC version of BloodRayne 2 in an apparent effort to boost sales.[15] Boll blames the poor commercial performance of the movie on the distribution company, Romar, and has filed a lawsuit against them.[16] In the DVD commentary for BloodRayne, both Boll and Loken say that they would like to make a sequel.

On October 2, 2006, Boll revealed that BloodRayne II: Deliverance is gearing up for a January 2007 start date, with Loken back on board as Rayne. He also mentions the possibility of a third movie. [17]

[edit] Response to criticism

Boll has responded to his critics in a number of ways:

  • Uwe Boll's comment on the IMDb:
"...guys writing all the Internet bullshit about me and sitting in their houses where mommy pays for everything."
  • Boll stated that video gamers develop a personal relationship with a game, playing it for hours and creating a story "in their head." Creating a movie based on a game, he reasons, is like creating a movie based on a good book. Therefore, according to Boll, it is impossible to create a movie to satisfy the original fans. (Source: Boll's commentary on the Alone in the Dark DVD).
  • In the Alone in the Dark commentary:
"Fans are always totally flipping out and I understand that the fan of a video game has his own agenda in his head and has his ideas about what is a good movie and what is a bad movie."
  • In response to criticisms from web sites like Ain't It Cool News and IMDb, Boll makes the argument that the Internet audiences who criticize his movies are simply a very vocal minority who wish to discredit his works.
  • Referring to film nudity, Boll stated in the Alone in the Dark DVD commentary: "What is disappointment, disappointment for all the fans is that Tara Reid is not losing her bra but this is a typical prude U.S. thing. The actresses are not willing to play nudity normally and it's very disappointing for us Europeans and for the U.S. audience, I think. Good that Kristanna Loken in BloodRayne is fully naked."
  • Referring to specific critics who negatively review his work, Boll has said, "[Ain't It Cool News reviewers] Harry and Quint are retards."[18]
  • Boll criticizes the game companies themselves for providing zero support once the movie license is sold. He cites the cross-promotion and support comic book-based properties adapted for the screen get, whereas video game companies often "sell off the licence and then forget about it."[19] He states that this is the reason video game adaptations are not well received by critics and audiences.
  • Referring to House of the Dead, Boll said:
    "I think I made a perfect House of the Dead movie, because it really shows how the game is. It's a lot of fun, it's over-the-top action." [19]

[edit] Critic boxing matches

Recently, Boll made a challenge to his critics to "put up or shut up". In June 2006, his production company issued a press release stating that Boll would challenge his five harshest critics each to a 10 round boxing match. Invitations were also open to film directors Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. To be eligible, the critic must have written two extremely negative reviews of Boll, in print or on the Web, in 2005. Footage from the fights will be included on the DVD of his upcoming film Postal.[20] On June 20, 2006, Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka stated on Something Awful that he has been invited by Boll to be the first contestant. Only after that Kyanka reviewed Alone in the Dark. [21] The online gambling site GoldenPalace.com decided to sponsor this event, dubbing it "Raging Boll". The list of five critics to step into the ring with Boll was drawn up in late August 2006, and featured Kyanka, Rue Morgue magazine writer Chris Alexander, webmaster of Cinecutre Carlos Palencia Jimenez-Arguello, Ain't it Cool News writer Jeff Sneider and Chance Minter, amateur boxer and website critic. [22][23]

[edit] Outcome

Boll fought all five contestants, winning all five bouts decisively. The first took place on September 5, 2006 in Málaga, Spain against Carlos Palencia with the rest on September 23, 2006 at the Plaza of Nations in Vancouver.


[edit] Opponents' opinions of Boll

Lowtax made the following post on Somethingawful.com following his match:

   
“

Okay I am done drinking, and I'd like to post some more info before I forget it:

1) There was an actual real critic who sparred with Uwe Boll a few nights ago, who was a real amateur boxer. Uwe refused to fight the guy in the ring; obviously he only wanted people with no boxing experience. Anyway, when Uwe was sparring with the dude, the critic / amateur had to quit sparring because Uwe "was taking it too seriously" and really trying to beat the shit out of the guy. So he just said fuck it and left.

2) Apparently when we were in another room, Uwe declared he was going to beat the crap out of all of us and try to "win by knockout." You know, like kinda the OPPOSITE of "this is all a PR stunt we will have fun my movies don't suck" that he was saying before.

3) Like I mentioned before, Uwe said we would get training, boxing equipment, and lessons beforehand. None of us received any of this, which didn't quite worry us at the time since he kept saying it was just a PR stunt and he wasn't really going to box for real for serious blah blah blah. NEVER trust a German. Three of the guys didn't even have cups to protect their balls; the only reason I had a cup was because my wife bought me one.

4) The dude after me [Sneider] was throwing up and had an EMT by his side for about an hour. He eventually had to have an oxygen mask on. The dude after him was all bloodied up and looked like crap. They too made the mistake of believing Uwe Boll when he said it was just a PR thing, since neither really trained.[24]
   
”

Lowtax added in a post-match interview that, "Half of us (the contenders) hadn't even seen his movies." Sneider shared similar sentiments, stating "I think he's a jerk. This might be PR but I don't want to keep getting punched in the head."[25] However, Boll has denied these claims in an interview. Stating that he gave his opponents three months to prepare. He also denied ever saying it was a PR stunt and claims that it was going to be a real fight. [1]

Some of the other contestants, however, have not been as negative. Alexander, in a Toronto Star article, recounts being invited to Boll's beach house on the following day, where Boll asked him about the reasons for his unilaterally negative reviews:

   
“

I had to tell him: Boll's movies are bloated, expensive and incoherent attempts at aping American genre pictures and sport some of the most boneheaded casting choices in filmdom. But I left Vancouver with the impression of him as a delightfully insane, two-fisted rogue, and a shockingly HONEST one at that, someone who absolutely adores film, knows its history and truly lives for what he does.[26]
   
”

Alexander referred to the event as "the weirdest pop culture bizarre journalism stunt I've ever been involved in."[25] Minter also praised what he'd seen so far of Boll's upcoming production Seed.[27] Boll praised the contestants in a post fight press conference, stating "I like now the critics... Everybody who was in the ring showed (guts). Nobody dived."[25]

[edit] Selection of opponents

Boll has been criticized for his selection of opponents, with many believing that he deliberately selected opponents he knew he could easily defeat.

Ron Sparks offered to fight Boll in Vancouver as part of the Postal publicity stunt, but Boll declined, citing Sparks's age and size advantage. Sparks himself defended Boll's decision in his MySpace blog, however, saying that because Boll was fighting several boxers back to back, and putting them in his movie, he had the right to choose any opponents willing to fight him.

Also, printed in Electronic Gaming Monthly's November 2006 edition of the section "The Rest of the Crap", written by critic Seanbaby, described Seanbaby's own involvement. Apparently Uwe was going to come onto G4's Attack of the Show and promote this fight by sparring with one of the hosts. He claims that, "Again, he's [Uwe Boll] a matchmaking genius, because everyone on TV's 3-feet tall. If you were watching [AotS] during the time I co-hosted, you might have noticed that I could have leaned over and eaten host Kevin Pereira." A producer of the show then asked if Seanbaby would come and spar in the host's place for the event. Seanbaby says that he trains in Muay Thai and Jujitsu, and that, "Boxing is to Fighting is what Hungry Hungry Hippos is to fighting..." When Uwe heard of this, he wanted to know Seanbaby's age, height, weight and fighting experience since he "learned he wasn't fighting a midget". After receiving said information, Uwe suddenly couldn't make it on the show.

[edit] Other films

It is perhaps notable that Boll's films prior to the release of House of the Dead had received a slightly better reception. The New York Times for instance gave the horror-movie Blackwoods a positive review, although overall reactions to the film have been mixed. Boll's film Heart of America was based on the Columbine High School massacre. While that film has been praised as having the most mature subject matter of any Boll film, some were outraged by a particular scene in which a mentally-disabled girl is raped. People who have seen Boll's later films usually agree that this film is probably Boll's best, as evidenced by its considerably higher overall rating at IMDb, as opposed to his other films.

[edit] Quotations

  • "They were better than actors. We looked for local Romanian actresses, but there they are all from the theater and act very broadly. For 150 euros a piece the whores would be naked and do as they were told. It was better." (in an interview for Bloodrayne: The Movie talking about why he chose to use real prostitutes instead of actresses) [2]
  • "Postal will be so politically incorrect and harsh, it's like a mirror to American society, and I don't think the movie will be well received by anybody. For example, Osama Bin Laden will be one of the lead characters—I think that shows the mood of the movie."[19]
  • "House of the Dead 2 I gave away. Alone in the Dark 2 I will also not do; even if the DVD movie made money. BloodRayne 2 in the Wild West is what I really want to do."[28]
  • Referring to the non-stop television airing of the September 11, 2001 attacks: "This day showed us that we are all completely voyeurs greedy for thrilling entertainment no matter if this is real or not." [3]
  • Recently, he has expressed interest in an "Alone In The Dark 2" starring Christian Slater despite earlier reports.

[edit] Upcoming projects

Boll is at the helm of the forthcoming projects :

[edit] Awards

Awards
Nominations
Related nominations
Other

[edit] References

  1. ^ House of the Dead Box Office Returns. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  2. ^ Alone in the Dark Box Office Returns. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  3. ^ BloodRayne Box Office Returns. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  4. ^ Edward Jay Epstein (2005-04-25). How To finance A Hollywood Blockbuster. Slate. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  5. ^ Deutsche Presse-Agentur (2005-11-24). Germany closes tax loophole for Hollywood. Monstersandcritics.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  6. ^ Alone in the Dark. MetaCritic (2006-12-14).
  7. ^ House fo the Dead. MetaCritic (2006-12-14).
  8. ^ Blackwoods. MetaCritic (2006-12-14).
  9. ^ Bloodrayne. MetaCritic (2006-12-14).
  10. ^ Christopher Grant (2006-02-03). Kojima on Uwe Boll: "It's impossible". Joystiq. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  11. ^ John Gaudiosi (2005-07-01). Statham, Sobieski in 'Dungeon'. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved on 2006-06-16.
  12. ^ Blair Erickson (2005-02-02). Behind the Scenes: Uwe Boll and Uwe Boll's Alone In the Dark. Something Awful. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  13. ^ Rob Vaux (2005-01-28). Alone in the Dark Review. FlipSideMovies.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  14. ^ Nathan Rabin (2005-05-11). Commentary Tracks of the Damned - Alone in the Dark. The A.V. Club. Retrieved on 2006-06-16.
  15. ^ BloodRayne Press Release. Retrieved on 2006-06-15.
  16. ^ Jesse Hiestand (2006-6-06). Boll Sues Over BloodRayne. The Hollywood Reporter.
  17. ^ JoBlo (2006-10-02). Bloodrayne: Part Deux!. JoBlo.com.
  18. ^ Patrick Klepek (2006-01-08). Uwe Boll Talks 'BloodRayne'. 1UP.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  19. ^ a b c Ellie Gibson (2006-02-15). Uwe Boll Bites Back. Eurogamer. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  20. ^ Gareth Von Kallenbach (2006-06-12). Uwe Boll Challenges Tarantino and his critics. sknr.net. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  21. ^ Richard Kyanka (2006-06-20). Uwe Boll Wants Me Alone In the Dark. Something Awful. Retrieved on 2006-06-20.
  22. ^ Brendan Sinclair (2006-08-25). 'Raging Boll' boxing bouts set. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2006-08-25.
  23. ^ Jason Barbato (2006-09-17). Getting hit with opportunity's left hook. The Frederick News-Post. Retrieved on 2006-09-26.
  24. ^ Lowtax (2006-24-09). Lowtax forum post. Something Awful Forums. Retrieved on 2006-09-26.
  25. ^ a b c Jeremy Hainsworth (2006-09-25). Maligned Director KOs His Critics. Associated Press. Retrieved on 2006-09-26.
  26. ^ Alexander, Chris. "In the ring with raging Boll", Toronto Star, Torstar, 2006-10-08, p. C6.
  27. ^ Tiffany Crawford (2006-09-25). Controversial German directer beats up harshest critics in boxing ring. Canadian Press. Retrieved on 2006-09-26.
  28. ^ Gareth Von Kallenbach (2006-03-03). Uwe Boll Talks Bloodrayne, Dungeon Siege, Postal and More.. sknr.net. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.

[edit] External links

Films directed by Uwe Boll
Original films: German Fried Movie • Amoklauf • Barschel - Mord in Genf? • Erste Semester, Das • Sanctimony • Blackwoods • Heart of America • Seed
Video game adaptations: House of the Dead • Alone in the Dark • BloodRayne • In the Name of the King • BloodRayne II • Postal • Far Cry
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../u/w/e/Uwe_Boll_46b4.html"