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Uwe Boll

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Uwe Boll (born June 22, 1965 in Wermelskirchen, Germany) is a German film director and producer of movies usually adapted from video games. His films often attract strong criticism, mainly from movie critics and fans of the material he adapts. Unlike most directors that receive funding from Hollywood studios, he finances his own films through his Boll KG production company. Boll holds a doctorate in literature.

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 films German Fried Movie (1991) and then 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 always directs and produces his 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.

Boll is alleged to interact with fans by regularly posting on various internet message boards including IGN, SomethingAwful, and The Digital Bits. Listening to the DVD commentary of Alone in the Dark reveals that Boll has at least read the IMDb forums.

Financing

Boll continues to secure investors for the rights to future videogame-to-movie adaptations, despite the controversy surrounding his products. 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. The House of the Dead (budget: $12 million ) broke $5.73 million on opening weekend, Alone in the Dark made over $5.1 million (budget: 24 million ), and BloodRayne (budget: $25 million ) topped $2.42 million. A Boll film is usually made on a relatively tight budget in places like Vancouver, Canada.

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."

Whereas most directors would no longer be able to acquire the funding to continue projects after box office failures such as Alone in the Dark, 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. His films were financed, produced, and directed by a German company, which was the initial intention behind the tax shelter: to provide incentive for German companies to invest in 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. 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. 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.

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 (Serials and Their Genres), on themes of serial TV, which, according to Dr. 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 typogolocial categorization and verification of the computational matrixes which form the basis of the various singular episodes."

Criticism

When adapting a video game into a movie, detractors allege that Boll will change the plot, environment, and anything else that he deems necessary, earning him the nickname the 'master of error'. For example, Alone in the Dark was criticized for departing from the video game's survival-horror style (the original game was set in New England 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 with assault rifles). These deviations from the source material tend to irritate fans of the original video game the movie is based on.

To the majority of hardcore gamers and movie buffs alike, he is considered the world's worst director as his movies always fail at the box office whilst having almost nothing in common with the games on which they are based.

  • Boll's movies, particularly his video game adaptations, are frequently panned by movie critics. As of January 24, 2006, all three of Boll's video game adaptations appeared on IMDb's Bottom 100 list.
  • 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."
  • When rumors appeared that Uwe Boll expressed interest in a Metal Gear Solid movie, Metal Gear director 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."
  • On the DVD commentary of Alone in the Dark Boll describes the film's ending as "Lynchian".He has also described his upcoming film Dungeon Siege as "a very dark, epic picture in the tradition of the Sergio Leone Westerns."

Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

IMDb's logo
IMDb's logo

Since the release of House of the Dead, many 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. Boll alledged that his film Bloodrayne received thousands of negative votes even before it was released, causing some concern over the fairness of this service.

The Internet Movie Database has been forced to ban users who have posted death threats on their boards. They have been accused of being lenient with extreme hate posters.

In June, 2006 Boll's production company issued a press release stating that Dr. Boll would challenge his five harshest critics each to a 10 round boxing match. 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 in his upcoming film Postal.

Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka stated on Somethingawful.com on June 20th, 2006, that he has been invited by Boll to be the first contestant. Despite the appearance that this is a joke, Kyanka insists this is true and has already reviewed Alone in the Dark. Kyanka claims he will "get his ass kicked."

House of the Dead

Fans of the series sometimes claim that Boll strayed too much from the source material, as not much in the movie could be connected easily to the actual game series (to the extent of being called "shack of the dead") despite the movie being a prequel to the events in the game (except for a subtle game reference in the end of the movie).

Of particular note; the titular house (a large mansion inhabited by scientists of questionable morals) is never visited in the movie.

Alone in the Dark

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 requests 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 himself has claimed that he chose to not use Erickson's script, citing such reasons as it had "not enough car chases."

BloodRayne

Template:Spoiler The movie makes many departures from the original plot and characters. Billed as a prequel, the events that happen in the movie contradict the events of the game. Specifically:

  • Rayne (the heroine of the games and film) kills her father, Kagan at the end of the movie, which occurs in 1723 according to the official movie site. In 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.
  • 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 1916, in America 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. The movie was shipped to numerous theaters for play in January 2006 that had not even booked it. Also, the DVD edition of the film is bundled with the BloodRayne 2 PC game in an apparent effort to boost sales. Boll blames the poor performance of the movie on the distribution company, Romar, hired to circulate and promote the film, and has filed a lawsuit against them.

Response to criticism

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

  • Uwe Boll's comment on 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).
  • "Fans are always totally flipping out and I understand that 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." (Uwe in the Alone in the Dark DVD commentary).
  • In response to criticisms from web sites like Ain't It Cool News and IMDb, Boll makes the argument that the Internet audiences that 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." Ironically, the sex scene in Alone in the Dark that Boll was referring to was cut from the film when it was finally released on DVD in Germany.
  • Referring to critics who negatively review his work, Boll has said, " Harry and Quint are retards."
  • Boll criticizes the game companies themselves for providing zero support once the movie license is sold. He compares 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."
  • 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." He has not responded to the movie's lack of an actual house.
  • Recently, he has made a challenge to his critics to "put up or shut up", which he claims he will start near the end of his filming the Postal movie. He says that he will fight in a boxing ring with five of his most outspoken critics and they will have 10 bouts to take him down. Some of the shots will be used in the movie. As of June 20th, he has agreed to duel Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka of Something Awful.

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.” - Uwe Boll (in an interview for Bloodrayne: The Movie talking about why he chose to use prostitutes instead of actual actresses).
  • "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 everybody. For example, Osama Bin Laden will be one of the lead characters - I think that shows the mood of the movie."
  • "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."
  • "This day showed us that we are all completely voyeurs greedy for thrilling entertainment no matter if this is real or not." (referring to the non-stop television footage of the 9/11 attacks)

Upcoming Projects

Boll is at the helm of the forthcoming projects :

Boll said that French scriptwriters approached him with the screenplay for Metal Gear Solid; however, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, who has confirmed that a Metal Gear movie is in the works, has vehemently denied Boll the rights to produce or direct the film.


References

  1. "House of the Dead Box Office Returns". Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  2. "Alone in the Dark Box Office Returns". Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  3. "BloodRayne Box Office Returns". Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  4. Epstein, Edward Jay. "How To finance A Hollywood Blockbuster". Slate. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  5. "Germany closes tax loophole for Hollywood". Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  6. Vaux, Rob. "Alone in the Dark Review". FlipSideMovies.com. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  7. ^ "Kojima on Uwe Boll: "It's impossible"". Joystiq.com. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  8. "Alone in the Dark Commentary Review". AvClub.com. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
  9. "Statham, Sobieski in 'Dungeon'". HollywoodReporter.com. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
  10. "Uwe Boll Challenges His Critics". Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  11. ^ "Uwe Boll Wants Me Alone In the Dark". Retrieved 2006-06-20. Cite error: The named reference "SomethingAwful" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  12. "BloodRayne Press Release". Retrieved 2006-06-15.
  13. Hiestand, Jesse. "Boll Sues Over 'BloodRayne'". TheHollywoodReporter.com. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  14. Klepek, Patrick. "Uwe Boll Talks 'BloodRayne'". 1Up.com. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  15. ^ "Uwe Boll Bites Back". Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  16. "Uwe Boll Wants Me Alone in the Dark". Retrieved 2006-06-20.
  17. "Uwe Boll For 'BloodRayne'". Retrieved 2006-06-13.

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