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Uwe Boll

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Uwe Boll
Boll on the set of Dungeon Siege, at the studios in Vancouver
Occupation(s)Director, Executive producer, Producer, Screenwriter, Boxer
Websitehttp://www.boll-kg.de/

Uwe Boll (German pronunciation: [ˈuːvə ˈbɔl] (Oove Boll); born June 22, 1965) is a German independent film director, producer and screenwriter. The films he works on are often adapted from video games. He finances his own films through his Boll KG production company AND HIS DEAL WITH THE DEVIL>[1]

Early life

Boll was born in Wermelskirchen. He studied at the University of Cologne and the University of Siegen, and held and failed a Examination in Painting.[2]

He first decided to go into the movie business at ten years old, after seeing Marlon Brando's Mutiny on the Bounty.[3] and deciding that it would be the last film he would ever destroy by treating his audience like idiots.

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, including House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Alone in the Dark II, BloodRayne, BloodRayne II: Deliverance,[4] In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Postal and most recently Far Cry. Boll intends to produce a third movie based on the BloodRayne franchise.[5] Boll also made a bid to direct the upcoming Warcraft movie, but was turned away by the owners of the Warcraft franchise, Activision Blizzard.[6]

In the opening credits to Seed (2007), Boll used footage of animal abuse and torture he acquired 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.[7]

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 and personally oversees preproduction work, filming, and post-production.

Movies directed by Boll have always performed poorly at the box office in the United States. House of the Dead (budget: $12 million) broke $5.73 million on opening weekend,[8] Alone in the Dark (budget: $20 million) made over $5.1 million,[9] and BloodRayne (budget: $25 million) topped $2.42 million.[10] The least profitable commercial performance of his career was In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, which made barely $10 million worldwide at the box office on a $60 million budget.

Until the law was changed in 2005, Boll was able to acquire funding thanks to German tax laws that reward investments in film. The law allowed investors in German-owned films to write off 100% of their investment as a tax deduction; it also allowed them to invest borrowed money and write off any fees associated with the loan. The investor was then only required to pay taxes on the profits made by the movie; if the movie loses money, the investor got a tax writeoff.

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."

While Boll has received a lot of negative publicity regarding this funding method,[11] 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

Boll's movies, particularly those based on video games, have been near-universally panned by critics, and he is often called the new Ed Wood. As of February 1, 2009, five of his films, including Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead (for which VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever described Boll as a "cinematic train wreck"),[12] appear on the Internet Movie Database's Bottom 100 films list, although BloodRayne II: Deliverance has since disappeared from the listing.[13] Three of his films (Alone in the Dark, House of the Dead, and BloodRayne) also appeared on GT Countdown's "Top 10 Worst Video Game Movies";[14] all were in the top five, and BloodRayne was number one. In a review of Alone in the Dark, Rob Vaux states that the movie makes other "bad" movie directors feel better in comparison: "'It's okay,' they'll tell themselves, 'I didn't make Alone in the Dark.'"[15] 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."[16] For example, in one scene a character who was "killed" can visibly be seen getting up as the actor prematurely made the move to get off the set.

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."[17] Boll later stated that he only thought he was doing the film because he was tricked by someone named Scithe who claimed to work for Konami.[18]

On the website spill.com, all of the hosts believe that the reason for the limited progression of video game movies is due to Boll's continued presence in the genre because movie producers rather give money to a "complete schlock-master" and make a quick buck by attracting the game's fans rather than actually take time and make a decent movie.

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."[19]

The comic book series Firestorm features an issue where the titular character reacts angrily when his girlfriend Gehenna purchases DVDs of all of Boll's films. When he berates her for her decision, she jokingly claims that she becomes aroused by how bad Boll's films are.[20]

Boll has blamed the poor theatrical performance of his early video game adaptations on his distribution company, Romar, and has filed a lawsuit against them.[21] Boll's films prior to the release of House of the Dead were more positively received. The New York Times, for instance, gave Blackwoods a positive review, although most reactions to the film have been negative.[22]

On X-Play's "Gphoria" awards show, one of the categories was "Game Most Deserving of an Uwe Boll Adaptation."

Boll received a rare "Worst Career Achievement" award at the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards on February 21, 2009 for In The Name of the King, 1968 Tunnel Rats, and Postal.[23] Boll has been nominated for Razzies three times in total.

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."[24] 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."[25]

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."[24] 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 don't see courage because you are nothing. and go to your mum and fuck her ...because she cooks for you now since 30 years ..so she deserves it".[26] 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 published a negative review.[27]

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.[28] On June 20, 2006, Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka stated on Something Awful that he had been invited by Boll to be the first contestant, after Kyanka reviewed Alone in the Dark.[29] The online gambling site GoldenPalace.com decided to sponsor this event, dubbing it "Raging Boll". A lot was drawn up in late August 2006, featuring 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.[30][31] Boll fought and won against all five participants. The first match took place on September 5, 2006 in Málaga, Spain against Carlos Palencia.[32] The others battled on September 23, 2006 at the Plaza of Nations in Vancouver.[33]

After Kyanka lost his match, he would go on to make several allegations against Boll, including the fact that Boll refused to fight against Chance Minter (an amateur boxer), because he was an experienced boxer. However, Boll fought Minter as his fourth opponent.[34] He also claimed that Boll misled them by claiming it was a PR stunt when he actually intended to fight them and that Boll claimed that the participants would get training before the match (which no one did). Boll had seriously wounded Sneider, who had also believed Boll.[35]

Kyanka added in a post-match interview that, "Half of us (the contenders) hadn't even seen his movies."[citation needed] 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."[36] Boll has denied these claims in an interview, stating that he gave his opponents three months to prepare. 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, sporting some of the most boneheaded casting choices in filmdom". He also stated 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."[37]

Alexander referred to the event as "the weirdest pop culture bizarre journalism stunt I've ever been involved in."[36] Minter also praised what he had seen of Boll's upcoming production known as Seed.[38] Boll praised the contestants in a post fight press conference, stating "I now like the critics... Everybody who was in the ring showed guts. Nobody dived."[36]

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, stating 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."

Electronic Gaming Monthly's November 2006 edition's "The Rest of the Crap" section, written by critic Seanbaby, described Seanbaby's own involvement. Apparently Uwe was going to appear on G4's Attack of the Show! to promote this fight by sparring with one of the hosts. He claims that, "Again, he's a matchmaking genius, because everyone on TV is 3 feet tall. If you were watching Attack of the Show during the time I cohosted, 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, stating 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.[39]

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.[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]

As of 8 May 2010, there are around 355,425 signatures.[citation needed] In an interview with Mike Gencarelli of the Movie Mikes website on March 22, 2010, Boll stated that he would not retire, should the petition receive one million signatures, commenting:

I think no, its has been too long. If they would have made to a million in like 2 months, then they would have had something. They even got sponsored by that gum factory. I felt like its three years later, forget it. I also felt that people signed numerous time on the petition so it is probably only like 150,000 people that actually signed it.[42]

Rejoinder

As part of a publicity stunt for POSTAL, Uwe Boll 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 promised that his upcoming film Postal would be "way better than all that social-critic George Clooney bullshit that you get every fucking weekend." In response to an "Anti-Uwe Boll" online petition, Boll has also expressed hopes that somebody will start a Pro-Uwe Boll petition, which he would expect to hit a million signatures. At the moment the pro-Uwe Boll petition with the most signatures is the Long Live Uwe Boll poll with a total of 7164 signatures as of March 10, 2010.[43]

Bay responded to the "fucking retards" comment by calling Boll "a sad being" and stated that he didn't care "in the slightest" about the remark[44] while Roth facetiously said Boll's comments were the "greatest compliment ever." and "That is just further proof of what a genius Sasha Baron Cohen is. That’s his best character yet!"[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]

Boll then appeared on Thursday, April 10'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.

On April 27, 2008, Boll responded to Bay's "not caring about Boll" comment. "To prove who is the better director", Boll offered to challenge Bay to a boxing match at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. If Bay accepted, the match would last for 12 rounds and will take place in September.[citation needed] In response to Boll's comments, Bay again posted a statement this time saying:

"I never even heard his name till last week when he made threats and rants. The guy is a fucking idiot, making threats to me, Clooney, Eli Roth, says he has a doctorate—but uses the word 'retard' in his vocabulary, come on. When you look at his videos, what is interesting are the backgrounds. I guess his low rent offices, with 15 year old 3/4 machines, archaic computers, this is just some dumb chump trying to get some fame when he has none, so he has to make Youtube lame quality anger rants. Guy just want attention because he can't get any for the so called movies he makes. Nothing sadder when he had his screening in LA to an over half empty movie house."[47]

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 (Genus Series and its Genres), on themes of serial television.

Upcoming projects

Boll is working on two new films, Stoic and Darfur.[48] Unlike some of his most well known films they will not be based on video games. He will also direct Final Storm, Bloodrayne 3,[49] and Rampage.[50]

Boll is planning his first German language film in 14 years, about German former heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling, to be shot in the summer of 2009.[51] It is a movie about the real life boxer who was abandoned by the German authorities during World War 2, and then acquired the Coca Cola license for Germany.

Uwe Boll's website now offers the opportunity for anyone to "co-produce" his upcoming film Blackout. In exchange for a gift of 33 euros ($44 US), a donor will receive a limited edition DVD of the film and a signed certificate from the cast and crew.[52]

Personal life

He currently lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and currently holds both Canadian and German citizenship.[1] His wife is native to Vancouver.[3]

Filmography

Director

Other roles

References

  1. ^ a b Schwartz, John (2008-05-18). "Call Uwe Boll the Worst Director (Then Duck)". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  2. ^ Catalogue of the German National Library: Uwe Boll, Die Gattung Serie und ihre Genres, Inaugural-Dissertation, Universität Siegen, 1994
  3. ^ a b "An Interview with Uwe Boll". LoadingReadyRun. May 26, 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
  4. ^ 00's Retrospect: Dead on Arrival -- Ten Horror Duds of the Last Decade
  5. ^ JoBlo (2006-10-02). "Bloodrayne: Part Deux!". JoBlo.com.
  6. ^ "Blizzard laugh away Uwe Boll". Movie Chronicles.com. 2008-04-21. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  7. ^ ""Seed (V)" Movie Info". Bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  8. ^ "House of the Dead (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  9. ^ "Alone in the Dark (2005)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  10. ^ "BloodRayne (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  11. ^ Wood, Stuart (2005-10-17). "Uwe Boll: Money For Nothing". Cinemablend. Retrieved 2007-08-04. {{cite web}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
  12. ^ Craddock, Jim, editor. VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (Detroit, Michigan: Thomson Gale, 2007), p.416.
  13. ^ IMDb Bottom 100. Retrieved January 6, 2008.
  14. ^ http://www.gametrailers.com/video/top-ten-gt-countdown/41754
  15. ^ Rob Vaux (2005-01-28). "Alone in the Dark Review". FlipSideMovies.com. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  16. ^ "Alone in the Dark". Eonline.com. 2005-01-28. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  17. ^ Christopher Grant (2006-02-03). "Kojima on Uwe Boll: "It's impossible"". Joystiq. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  18. ^ MTV Movies Blog » Uwe Boll Gets Conned Out Of ‘Metal Gear Solid’ Movie…By The French!
  19. ^ Blair Erickson (2005-02-02). "Behind the Scenes: Uwe Boll and Uwe Boll's Alone In the Dark". Something Awful. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  20. ^ Firestorm (vol 2.) #33
  21. ^ Jesse Hiestand (2006-06-06). "Boll Sues Over BloodRayne". The Hollywood Reporter.
  22. ^ "Blackwoods (2002): Reviews". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  23. ^ "Meyer's 'Guru' up for year's worst". Alan Duke. 2009-01-21.
  24. ^ a b Ellie Gibson (2006-02-15). "Uwe Boll Bites Back". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  25. ^ Patrick Klepek (2006-01-08). "Uwe Boll Talks 'BloodRayne'". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  26. ^ Chris Kohler (2007-08-14). "You Dumb F*ck: Uwe Boll Responds To Our Postal Review". Wired (magazine). Retrieved 2007-08-15.
  27. ^ Celestian Rince (2007-11-23). "'World's worst filmmaker' visits UBC". The Ubyssey Online Edition. Archived from the original on 2008-01-25. Retrieved 2008-01-15.
  28. ^ Gareth Von Kallenbach (2006-06-12). "Uwe Boll Challenges Tarantino and his critics". sknr.net. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  29. ^ Richard Kyanka (2006-06-20). "Uwe Boll Wants Me Alone In the Dark". Something Awful. Retrieved 2006-06-20.
  30. ^ Brendan Sinclair (2006-08-25). "'Raging Boll' boxing bouts set". GameSpot. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
  31. ^ Jason Barbato (2006-09-17). "Getting hit with opportunity's left hook". The Frederick News-Post. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
  32. ^ "Uwe Boll to Literally Fight His Critics — GoldenPalace Sponsors Filmmaker's Revenge". 2006-08-22. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
  33. ^ Baker, Chris (12-2006). "Raging Boll". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ Carlson, Peter (2006-12-19). "Box Office: Director KO'd His Critics". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
  35. ^ Lowtax (2006-09-24). "Lowtax forum post". Something Awful Forums. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
  36. ^ a b c Jeremy Hainsworth (2006-09-25). "Maligned Director KOs His Critics". Associated Press. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
  37. ^ Alexander, Chris (2006-10-08). "In the ring with raging Boll". Toronto Star. p. C6.
  38. ^ Tiffany Crawford (2006-09-25). "Controversial German director beats up harshest critics in boxing ring". Canadian Press. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
  39. ^ Seanbaby (2006-10-17). "Seanbaby's The Saga of Uwe". Retrieved 2010-06-04. {{cite web}}: Text "1UP.com" ignored (help)
  40. ^ "Director promises to retire if a million people demand it". London: The Guardian. 2008-04-07. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  41. ^ "Stride(R) Gum Declares Its Support for StopUweBoll.org". Prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  42. ^ Gencarelli, Mike (22 March 2010). "Interview with Director, Uwe Boll". moviemikes.com. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  43. ^ Watercutter, Angela (April 9, 2008). "Uwe Boll Responds to Anti-Boll Petition: I'm No George Clooney". Wired News. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
  44. ^ Being Called a "F*!$ing Retard" by Uwe Boll
  45. ^ Eli Roth's Myspace Blog Greatest Compliment Ever
  46. ^ RobOnt Radio - Uwe Boll Interview
  47. ^ "Uwe Bowl is at it again". Shootfortheedit.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  48. ^ Matt Yeager. "Interview with Uwe Boll About the Movie Far Cry". Diehard GameFAN. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
  49. ^ "BOLLFANS.DE :: OFFIZIELLE UWE BOLL FANSEITE" (in German). Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  50. ^ Fantastic Fest 09: Uwe Boll on the RAMPAGE!
  51. ^ "Interview with Uwe Boll about past and future movies".
  52. ^ BLACKOUT .:. The Film ::
  53. ^ Italian Zombie Horror Returns in Eaters dreadcentral.com
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