Uwe Boll

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Uwe Boll

Born June 22, 1965 (1965-06-22) (age 42)
Wermelskirchen, Germany
Occupation Director, Executive Producer, Producer, Screenwriter
Website
Boll-KG.de

Uwe Boll (pronounced [ˈuːvə bɔl]), (born June 22, 1965, Germany) is a German director, producer and screenwriter of films often adapted from video games. Unlike most directors in the United States, who receive funding from Hollywood studios, he finances his own films through his Boll KG production company. Boll studied at the University of Cologne and the University of Siegen, and holds a doctorate in literature.[1]

Contents

Films

Boll's first two major releases were the horror movie Blackwoods and the drama Heart of America, both of which he directed and co-wrote.

Boll is best known for adapting video games into movies, having directed and produced a number of such adaptations, among them House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne, BloodRayne II: Deliverance, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, and Postal. He has announced plans to produce an adaptation of Far Cry. Boll intends to produce Alone in the Dark II, as well as a third movie based on the BloodRayne franchise.[2]

For the opening credits footage to Seed (2007), Boll uses footage of animal abuse and torture he received from PETA to underscore the film's nihilism. He has also promised to donate 2.5 percent of his net profits from Seed to PETA. Boll is a devoted animal lover and has two dogs of his own.[3]

Financing

Boll continues to find investors who wish to acquire the rights for future video-game-to-movie adaptations. His investors are mostly German. He acquires the rights for potential future adaptations, then does all the production himself, and completes the finished product.

Movies directed by Boll have performed modestly to poorly at the box office in the United States. House of the Dead (budget: $12 million) broke $5.73 million on opening weekend,[4] Alone in the Dark (budget: $20 million) made over $5.1 million,[5] and BloodRayne (budget: $25 million) topped $2.42 million.[6]

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,[7] he was actually one of the few directors to use the tax shelter as intended. 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.

Criticism

Many of Boll's movies, especially those based on video games, have been critically panned.[8][9][10][11] As of April 4, 2008, Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne II: Deliverance and House of the Dead appear on the Internet Movie Database's Bottom 100 films list.[12] In a review of Alone in the Dark, Rob Vaux 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] Another reviewer wrote that Alone in the Dark was "so poorly built, so horribly acted and so sloppily stitched together that it's not even at the straight-to-DVD level."[14]

When rumors surfaced that Boll had 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."[15]

Blair Erickson, a writer of a treatment for Alone in the Dark, has written a critical account of his experience working with Boll, in which Erickson alleges that Boll stole ideas from prior movies and wanted to add elements to the story that were not true to the tone of the source material. Uwe chose to not use Erickson's script, citing reasons such as it having "not enough car chases."[16]

Boll blames the poor commercial performance of his video game adaptations on his distribution company, Romar, and has filed a lawsuit against them.[17] Boll's films prior to the release of House of the Dead received better reception. The New York Times, for instance, gave Blackwoods a positive review, although overall reactions to the film have been negative.[18]

MTV Movies Blog suggests, "If you’re not going to make a faithful adaptation, why make an adaptation at all?" Blizzard Entertainment refused Boll's request to make a World of Warcraft adaptation in a most critical manner... Boll says, "I got in contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard, and he said, 'We will not sell the movie rights, not to you... especially not to you,'"[19]

Response to criticism

Boll does not shy away from his critics. In the Alone in the Dark DVD commentary, he responds to criticism that his adaptations make significant changes to the plot and style of the source material: "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." 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."[20] Boll is especially critical of his internet detractors. Referring to two Ain't It Cool News critics who negatively reviewed his work, Boll said, "Harry (Knowles) and Quint (Eric Vespe) are retards."[21]

Boll also criticizes the game companies themselves for providing zero support once the movie license is sold. He cites the cross-promotion and support which comic-book-based properties adapted for the screen receive, whereas video game companies often "sell off the license and then forget about it."[20] He argues that this is the reason video game adaptations are not well received by critics and audiences.

When Wired published a negative review of Postal, Boll responded with an e-mail claiming that the critic "(didn't) understand anything about movies and that you are a untalented wanna bee filmmaker with no balls and no understanding what POSTAL is. you dont see courage because you are nothing. and no go to your mum and fuck her ...because she cooks for you now since 30 years ..so she deserves it" [22]. Boll claims that this angry email was sparked not by the review, but because the Wired editor told Boll in person that the editor loved the movie, then turned around and published a negative review.[23]

Also, in the 2007 G-Phoria awards on G4 (the annual video game awards), G4 has created a special award titled the "Games most deserving of a Uwe Boll movie" stating that some of the most disappointing and overall horrible games could be made into disappointing and horrible movies by Uwe Boll.[24] The 2007 nominations include Red Steel (Wii), Fuzion Frenzy 2 (Xbox 360), Full Auto 2: Battlelines (PS2, PSP), Bomberman: Act Zero (Xbox 360), and Bad Day: L.A (PC).

Critic boxing matches (Raging Boll)

Boll made headlines by challenging 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 qualify, critics had to have written two extremely negative reviews of Boll, in print or on the Web, in 2005. Footage from the fights were to be included on the DVD of his upcoming film Postal.[25] On June 20, 2006, Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka stated on Something Awful that he had been invited by Boll to be the first contestant. Only after that did Kyanka review Alone in the Dark.[26] 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.[27][28] Boll fought and won against all five participants. The first took place on September 5, 2006 in Málaga, Spain against Carlos Palencia[29]with the rest on September 23, 2006 at the Plaza of Nations in Vancouver.[30]

After Kyanka lost his match, he would go on to make several allegations against Boll, including that Boll refused to fight against Chance Minter, an amateur boxer, because he was an experienced boxer; that Boll misled them by claiming it was a PR stunt, but actually intended to fight them; that Boll claimed the participants would get training before the match, which no one did; and that Boll had seriously wounded Sneider, who had also believed Boll.[31] However, Boll actually fought Minter as his fourth opponent.[32]

Kyanka added in a post-match interview that, "Half of us (the contenders) hadn't even seen his movies."[33] 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."[34] 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.[35]

Other contestants responded less negatively. 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. Alexander bluntly told Boll that his movies were "bloated, expensive and incoherent attempts at aping American genre pictures and sport some of the most boneheaded casting choices in filmdom" but that Boll was an "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."[36]

Alexander referred to the event as "the weirdest pop culture bizarre journalism stunt I've ever been involved in."[34] Minter also praised what he had seen so far of Boll's upcoming production Seed.[37] 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."[34]

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 appear on 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 jujutsu, and that, "Boxing is to Fighting 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, Boll chose not to appear on the program.

Petition to retire

In April 2008, The Guardian ran an article claiming Boll had promised to retire if an online petition at petitiononline.com asking him to do so received 1,000,000 signatures.[38] As of May 21 there are 280,263 signatures.[39][40]

On May 7, 2008 the makers of Stride gum announced they would give each signer a digital coupon for a pack of gum if the petition obtained the required 1 million signatures by May 14, 2008.[41]

Retort

Uwe Boll has released a video stating that he is "the only genius in the whole fucking [movie] business" and that other directors such as Michael Bay and Eli Roth are "fucking retards". He promises that his upcoming film Postal will be "way better than all that social-critic George Clooney bullshit that you get every fucking weekend." He has also expressed hopes that somebody will start a Pro-Uwe Boll petition, which he is sure will hit a million signatures.[42]. At least two persons have already counter-protested the present petition thus far, signing with such statements as "please keep making cool videogame movies" and "I LOVE YOU UWE BOLL YOU ARE TEH BEST," however these have remained isolated cases.[43]

Bay responded to the "fucking retards" comment by calling Boll "a sad being" and stated that he didn't care "in the slightest" to the remark[44] while Roth facetiously said Boll's comments were the "greatest compliment ever."[45] Boll later noted that the comments were meant to be a generic picture over Hollywood, and that he has nothing against the people mentioned.[46]

However, on April 27th 2008, Boll responded to Bay's comment of "not caring about Boll" as an insult and to prove who is the better director, Boll offered to challenge Bay to a boxing match at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. If Bay accepts, the match will last for 12 rounds and will take place in September. [47]

Boll then appeared on Thursday, April 10th's episode of G4's Attack of the Show, where he was interviewed regarding his controversial online retort. In the interview, he said (in regard to Michael Bay and Eli Roth responding to his criticisms) that Roth "has a sense of humor" and that Bay "has no sense of humor." He also jokingly stated that he believes that his upcoming adaptation of Postal (from the video game of the same name) could beat Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at the box office, because Harrison Ford is older than his deceased grandfather.

Writings

Boll has written two books, Wie man in Deutschland einen Film drehen muss (How a Movie has to be made in Germany) and Die Gattung Serie und ihre Genres (Series and Their Genres), on themes of serial TV.


References

  1. ^ Catalogue of the German National Library: Uwe Boll, Die Gattung Serie und ihre Genres, Inaugural-Dissertation, Universität Siegen, 1994
  2. ^ JoBlo (2006-10-02). Bloodrayne: Part Deux!. JoBlo.com.
  3. ^ http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/feature/408
  4. ^ House of the Dead (2003)
  5. ^ Alone in the Dark (2005)
  6. ^ BloodRayne (2006)
  7. ^ Wood, Stuart (2005-10-17). Uwe Boll: Money For Nothing. Cinemablend. Retrieved on 2007-08-04.
  8. ^ Alone in the Dark. MetaCritic (2006-12-14).
  9. ^ House of the Dead. MetaCritic (2006-12-14).
  10. ^ Blackwoods. MetaCritic (2006-12-14).
  11. ^ Bloodrayne. MetaCritic (2006-12-14).
  12. ^ IMDb Bottom 100. Accessed January 6, 2008.
  13. ^ Rob Vaux (2005-01-28). Alone in the Dark Review. FlipSideMovies.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  14. ^ [1][dead link]
  15. ^ Christopher Grant (2006-02-03). Kojima on Uwe Boll: "It's impossible". Joystiq. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Jesse Hiestand (2006-6-06). Boll Sues Over BloodRayne. The Hollywood Reporter.
  18. ^ Blackwoods (2002): Reviews
  19. ^ Uwe Boll Won’t Ever Be Entering The World Of Warcraft. Shawn Adler (2008-4-18).
  20. ^ a b Ellie Gibson (2006-02-15). Uwe Boll Bites Back. Eurogamer. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  21. ^ Patrick Klepek (2006-01-08). Uwe Boll Talks 'BloodRayne'. 1UP.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  22. ^ Chris Kohler (2007-08-14). You Dumb F*ck: Uwe Boll Responds To Our Postal Review. Wired (magazine). Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
  23. ^ Celestian Rince (2007-11-23). 'World's worst filmmaker' visits UBC. Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
  24. ^ http://www.g4tv.com/gphoria2007/index.html?cat=49 G-Phoria 2007
  25. ^ Gareth Von Kallenbach (2006-06-12). Uwe Boll Challenges Tarantino and his critics. sknr.net. Retrieved on 2006-06-13.
  26. ^ Richard Kyanka (2006-06-20). Uwe Boll Wants Me Alone In the Dark. Something Awful. Retrieved on 2006-06-20.
  27. ^ Brendan Sinclair (2006-08-25). 'Raging Boll' boxing bouts set. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2006-08-25.
  28. ^ Jason Barbato (2006-09-17). Getting hit with opportunity's left hook. The Frederick News-Post. Retrieved on 2006-09-26.
  29. ^ Uwe Boll to Literally Fight His Critics - GoldenPalace Sponsors Filmmaker's Revenge (2006-08-22). Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
  30. ^ Baker, Chris (12-2006). Raging Boll. Wired Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
  31. ^ Lowtax (2006-24-09). Lowtax forum post. Something Awful Forums. Retrieved on 2006-09-26.
  32. ^ Carlson, Peter (2006-12-19). Box Office: Director KO'd His Critics. Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
  33. ^ YouTube - Interview with Lowtax after Uwe Boll fight
  34. ^ a b c Jeremy Hainsworth (2006-09-25). Maligned Director KOs His Critics. Associated Press. Retrieved on 2006-09-26.
  35. ^ YouTube - Uwe Boll Interview 9-28-06
  36. ^ Alexander, Chris. "In the ring with raging Boll", Toronto Star, 2006-10-08, p. C6. 
  37. ^ Tiffany Crawford (2006-09-25). Controversial German directer beats up harshest critics in boxing ring. Canadian Press. Retrieved on 2006-09-26.
  38. ^ Director promises to retire if a million people demand it | News | guardian.co.uk Film
  39. ^ Stop Dr. Uwe Boll - Signatures
  40. ^ Uwe Boll: Decision 2008
  41. ^ Stride(R) Gum Declares Its Support for StopUweBoll.org
  42. ^ Watercutter, Angela (April 09, 2008). Uwe Boll Responds to Anti-Boll Petition: I'm No George Clooney. Wired News. Retrieved on 2008-05-03.
  43. ^ Stop Dr. Uwe Boll - Signatures
  44. ^ Being Called a "F*!$ing Retard" by Uwe Boll
  45. ^ Uwe Boll: Michael Bay Responds To "Fucking Retard" Remark
  46. ^ RobOnt Radio - Uwe Boll Interview
  47. ^ EXCLUSIVE: Boll Challenges Bay to Boxing Match Showdown

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Movies directed by Uwe Boll
Original films
German Fried Movie • Amoklauf • Barschel - Mord in Genf? • Erste Semester, Das • Sanctimony • Blackwoods • Heart of America • Seed • 1968 Tunnel Rats
Video game adaptations
Persondata
NAME Boll, Uwe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION German film director, producer and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Wermelskirchen, Germany
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH