Uwe Boll

Uwe Boll

Boll on the set of Dungeon Siege, at the studios in Vancouver, in 2006
Born (1965-06-22) June 22, 1965
Wermelskirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
Residence Richmond Hill, Ontario
Occupation Film director, film producer, screenwriter
Years active 1990–present
Spouse(s) Natalia Tudge
Children 1
Website eventfilm.us

Dr. Uwe Boll (German pronunciation: [ˈuːvə ˈbɔl]; born June 22, 1965)[1] is a German director, producer and screenwriter based in Canada, whose work includes several films adapted from video games. He finances his own films through his Boll KG and Event Film Productions production companies. Many of his films are produced on low budgets and have received highly negative reviews from critics, with Alone in the Dark being considered one of the worst films ever made.[2] However, Boll's Rampage film series, Tunnel Rats, Stoic, Assault on Wall Street, Heart of America, Seed, Postal and Darfur have been mildly well received by critics.

Early life

Boll was born in Wermelskirchen. He studied at the University of Cologne and the University of Siegen, and holds a doctorate in literature.[3]

He first decided to go into the movie business at ten years old, after seeing Marlon Brando's Mutiny on the Bounty.[4]

Career

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 loosely 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,[5] BloodRayne: The Third Reich, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Postal, and Far Cry.

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.[6]

In September 2010, a trailer for Boll's film, titled Auschwitz, about the concentration camp, was posted on YouTube. The trailer, in which Boll appears as an SS gas-chamber guard, contains explicit scenes of the brutalization and killing of concentration camp inmates.[7] Boll has been quoted as saying that films such as Schindler's List "no longer had the ability to reach young people and that it was his duty as a German to make the film as a way of confronting the past."[8]

Boll is the subject of a documentary film titled Raging Boll, directed by Dan Lee West, which premiered at the Austin Film Festival in October 2010.[9]

In March 2012, it was announced he had finished directing a short horror story for the anthology film The Profane Exhibit. The story, inspired by Josef Fritzl, focuses on parents with a daughter locked in a room, where they can partake in immoral acts against her.[10]

Upcoming projects

The upcoming Italian zombie film Eaters is presented by Uwe Boll.[11] Boll will also be producing the upcoming film Zombie Massacre based on the Amiga video game by 1988 Games.[12]

Uwe Boll is also planning a fourth entry in the BloodRayne franchise in a contemporary setting involving her trying to live a normal life. Natassia Malthe is expected to return, and is expected to be loosely based on the video game Bloodrayne 2.

On August 29, 2013, Boll announced plans to produce a sequel to Postal based on achieving $500,000 from a Kickstarter campaign.[13][14] The campaign was however cancelled prematurely on October 5, 2013.

Writings

Boll has written two books, Wie man in Deutschland einen Film drehen muss (How one must make a movie in Germany) and Die Gattung Serie und ihre Genres (Genus Series and its Genres), on themes of serial television.

Financing

Boll's films have often performed poorly at the box office in the United States and around the world. House of the Dead, which was budgeted at $12 million, made $5.73 million in its opening weekend,[15] Alone in the Dark, which was budgeted at $20 million, made $5.1 million,[16] and BloodRayne, which was made for $25 million, made $2.42 million.[17] The least profitable commercial performance of his career was In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, which grossed a little over $10 million worldwide on a $60 million budget.

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 has received significant negative publicity regarding this funding method.[18]

Reception and reputation

As of April 2015, House of the Dead (for which VideoHound's "Golden Movie Retriever" described Boll as a "cinematic train wreck"),[19] Blubberella and Alone in the Dark appear on the Internet Movie Database's Bottom 100 films list, with Blubberella at #100.[20] 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.'"[21] 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."[22] One critic has dubbed him as the "Jonas Brothers of movie directors".[19]

Boll also made a bid to direct the upcoming Warcraft movie, but was turned away by the owners of the Warcraft franchise, Blizzard Entertainment who said: "We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…especially not to you." Boll commented: "Because it’s such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income, what the company has with it."[23]

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."[24]

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.[25] 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.[26]

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.[27] Boll has been nominated for Razzies three times in total.

In September 2010 Darfur won the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival prize for the best international film.[28][29]

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."[30] 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."[31]

Boll also criticizes the game companies themselves for not providing support to the production following the selling of the film rights. 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."[30] 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 an untalented wannabe filmmaker with no balls and no understanding what POSTAL is. You don't see courage because you are nothing. and go to your mom and fuck her ...because she cooks for you now since 30 years ..so she deserves it" [sic].[32] Boll stated 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.[33]

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.[34] 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.[35] The online gambling site GoldenPalace.com decided to sponsor this event, dubbing it "Raging Boll" (a play on the 1980 Martin Scorsese film Raging Bull). 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.[36][37] Boll fought and won against all five participants. The first match took place on September 5, 2006, in Estepona, Spain, against Carlos Palencia.[38] The others battled on September 23, 2006, at the Plaza of Nations in Vancouver.[39]

After Kyanka lost his match, he would go on to make several allegations against Boll, including a claim that Boll refused to fight against Chance Minter who was an experienced amateur boxer. However, Boll fought Minter as his fourth opponent.[40] He also stated that Boll misled them by claiming it was a PR stunt when he actually intended to fight them, and that Boll stated that the participants would get training before the match, which no one did.[41]

Kyanka added in a post-match interview that, "Half of us (the contenders) hadn't even seen his movies."[41] 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."[42] 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 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."[43]

Alexander referred to the event as "the weirdest pop culture bizarre journalism stunt I've ever been involved in."[42] Minter also praised what he had seen of Boll's upcoming production known as Seed.[44] 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."[42]

Electronic Gaming Monthly's November 2006 edition's "The Rest of the Crap" section, written by critic Seanbaby, described Seanbaby's own involvement. Boll was going to appear on G4's Attack of the Show! to promote this fight by sparring with one of the hosts. Seanbaby stated that, "Again, he's a matchmaking genius, because everyone on TV is three 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 said that he trains in muay thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, stating that "boxing is to fighting what Hungry Hungry Hippos is to fighting", but that he was eager to fight Boll nonetheless. 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." Seanbaby stated he sent said information to Boll, after which Boll chose not to appear on the program.[45]

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.[46]

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.[47]

In July 22, 2012, there were around 353,835 signatures.[48] 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, it has been too long. If they would have made it to a million in like 2 months, then they would have had something. They even got sponsored by that gum factory. I felt like it's three years later, forget it. I also felt that people signed numerous times on the petition so it is probably only like 150,000 people that actually signed it.[49]

Response

As part of a publicity stunt for Postal, Uwe Boll released a video claiming 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".[50] He promised that his 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. As of July 22, 2012, the pro-Uwe Boll petition with the most signatures is the Long Live Uwe Boll poll with a total of 7,631 signatures.[51]

Bay responded to the "fucking retards" comment by calling Boll "a sad being" and stated that he did not care "in the slightest" about the remark,[52] while Roth facetiously described Boll's comments as the "greatest compliment ever". Boll later noted that the comments were meant to be a generic picture over Hollywood, and that he has nothing against the people mentioned.[53]

Boll then appeared on Thursday, April 10's episode of G4's Attack of the Show, where he was interviewed in the nude 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 would take place in September. 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. This guy just wants 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.[54]

Recently, Boll told everyone to "fuck yourself" in a viral video on YouTube, targeting those who did not fund his film; Rampage 3, on Kickstarter as he was unable to secure enough funds. [55]

Bauhaus Restaurant

In the spring of 2015, Boll opened a German restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia called Bauhaus. He hired Stefan Hartmann as the chef, who had earned a Michelin star at his own restaurant in Berlin. The restaurant has earned some acclaim from reviewers.[56][57]

Personal life

Boll currently lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario and holds German citizenship. His wife Natalia Boll[4] is native to Vancouver. He has one child with her.

Filmography

Year Film Director Writer Producer
1991 German Fried Movie
No
No
No
1993 Barschel – Mord in Genf
No
No
No
1994 Amoklauf
No
No
No
1997 Das erste Semester
No
No
No
2000 Fíaskó
No
Sanctimony
No
No
No
2001 Angels Don't Sleep Here
No
2002 Blackwoods
No
No
Heart of America
No
2003 House of the Dead
No
No
2005 Alone in the Dark
No
No
BloodRayne
No
No
2007 In the Name of the King
No
No
They Wait
No
BloodRayne 2: Deliverance
No
Postal
No
No
Seed
No
No
No
2008 Tunnel Rats
No
No
No
Alone in the Dark II
No
Far Cry
No
No
2009 Stoic
No
No
No
Rampage
No
No
No
Darfur
No
No
No
2010 The Final Storm
No
No
Max Schmeling
No
No
BloodRayne: The Third Reich
No
No
2011 Auschwitz
No
No
No
Blubberella
No
No
No
In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds
No
No
2013 Zombie Massacre
No
Assault on Wall Street
No
No
No
Suddenly
No
The Profane Exhibit (segment "Basement")
No
No
2014 Blood Valley: Seed's Revenge
No
In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission
No
Rampage: Capital Punishment
No
No
No
Morning Star Warrior
No
2015 Anger of the Dead
No
Zombie Massacre 2: Reich of the Dead
No
2016 Rampage: President Down
No
No
No
???? 12 Hours
No
No
No

Notes

    References

    1. ↑ "Boll, Uwe". Current Biography Yearbook 2010. Ipswich, MA: H.W. Wilson. 2010. pp. 53–56. ISBN 9780824211134.
    2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZOby9yQAOM
    3. ↑ Catalogue of the German National Library: Uwe Boll, Die Gattung Serie und ihre Genres, Inaugural-Dissertation, Universität Siegen, 1994
    4. 1 2 "An Interview with Uwe Boll". LoadingReadyRun. May 26, 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
    5. ↑ Chris Eggertsen. "00's Retrospect: Dead on Arrival – Ten Horror Duds of the Last Decade". BloodyDisgusting.
    6. ↑ "SEED - Ein Horrorfilm, der den Tieren hilft (engl.: "A Horrorfilm that helps animals")". Peta. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
    7. ↑ "Who Wants to See the Trailer for Uwe Boll’s Holocaust Movie?". New York Magazine.
    8. ↑ Kate Connolly (2010-11-12). "German director's Holocaust film causes outrage". London: The Guardian.
    9. ↑ Sneider, Jeff. "Uwe Boll Documentary Set to K.O. Austin Film Festival". The Wrap. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
    10. ↑ Uwe Boll Contributes to The Profane Exhibit, First Pics
    11. ↑ "Eaters the movie official website". Archived from the original on February 7, 2011.
    12. ↑ 1988 Games: Zombie Massacre Archived October 1, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
    13. ↑ Welch, Chris. "Director Uwe Boll wants Kickstarter to help make 'Postal 2' because no one else will". The Verge. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
    14. ↑ "Postal 2". Kickstarter.
    15. ↑ "House of the Dead (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
    16. ↑ "Alone in the Dark (2005)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
    17. ↑ "BloodRayne (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
    18. ↑ Wood, Stuart (2005-10-17). "Uwe Boll: Money For Nothing". Cinemablend. Retrieved 2007-08-04.
    19. 1 2 Craddock, Jim, editor. VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (Detroit, Michigan: Thomson Gale, 2007), p.416.
    20. ↑ IMDb Bottom 100. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
    21. ↑ Rob Vaux (2005-01-28). "Alone in the Dark Review". Flipside Movie Emporium. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
    22. ↑ "Alone in the Dark". Eonline.com. 2005-01-28. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
    23. ↑ "Uwe Boll Won't Ever Be Entering the World of Warcraft". MTV.com. 2008-04-18. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
    24. ↑ Blair Erickson (2005-02-02). "Behind the Scenes: Uwe Boll and Uwe Boll's Alone In the Dark". Something Awful. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
    25. ↑ Jesse Hiestand (2006-06-06). "Boll Sues Over BloodRayne". The Hollywood Reporter.
    26. ↑ "Blackwoods (2002): Reviews". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
    27. ↑ "Meyer's 'Guru' up for year's worst". Alan Duke. 2009-01-21.
    28. ↑ Darfur wins Best Film in New York FilmContact, September 17, 2010
    29. ↑ "2010 Summer NY Awards". nyfilmvideo. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
    30. 1 2 Ellie Gibson (2006-02-15). "Uwe Boll Bites Back". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
    31. ↑ Patrick Klepek (2006-01-08). "Uwe Boll Talks 'BloodRayne'". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
    32. ↑ Chris Kohler (2007-08-14). "You Dumb F*ck: Uwe Boll Responds To Our Postal Review". Wired. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
    33. ↑ 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.
    34. ↑ Gareth Von Kallenbach (2006-06-12). "Uwe Boll Challenges Tarantino and his critics". sknr.net. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
    35. ↑ Richard Kyanka (2006-06-20). "Uwe Boll Wants Me Alone In the Dark". Something Awful. Retrieved 2006-06-20.
    36. ↑ Brendan Sinclair (2006-08-25). "'Raging Boll' boxing bouts set". GameSpot. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
    37. ↑ Jason Barbato (2006-09-17). "Getting hit with opportunity's left hook". The Frederick News-Post. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
    38. ↑ "Uwe Boll to Literally Fight His Critics – GoldenPalace Sponsors Filmmaker's Revenge". 2006-08-22. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
    39. ↑ Baker, Chris (December 2006). "Raging Boll". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
    40. ↑ Carlson, Peter (2006-12-19). "Box Office: Director KO'd His Critics". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
    41. 1 2 Rich „Lowtax“ Kyanka - video interview after the match. Retrieved 2013-02-03.
    42. 1 2 3 Jeremy Hainsworth (2006-09-25). "Maligned Director KOs His Critics". CBS News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2007-12-20. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
    43. ↑ Alexander, Chris (2006-10-08). "In the ring with raging Boll". Toronto Star. p. C6.
    44. ↑ Tiffany Crawford (2006-09-25). "Controversial German director beats up harshest critics in boxing ring". Canadian Press. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
    45. ↑ Seanbaby (2006-10-17). "Seanbaby's The Saga of Uwe". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
    46. ↑ "Director promises to retire if a million people demand it.". London: The Guardian. 2008-04-07. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
    47. ↑ "Stride(R) Gum Declares Its Support for StopUweBoll.org". Prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
    48. ↑ "Stop Dr. Uwe Boll petition". Retrieved 2010-08-05.
    49. ↑ Gencarelli, Mike (22 March 2010). "Interview with Director, Uwe Boll". moviemikes.com. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
    50. ↑ Bailey, Jaso n. "The 30 Harshest Filmmaker-on-Filmmaker Insults in History". FlavorWire.
    51. ↑ Watercutter, Angela (April 9, 2008). "Uwe Boll Responds to Anti-Boll Petition: I'm No George Clooney". Wired News. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
    52. ↑ Being Called a "F*!$ing Retard" by Uwe Boll
    53. ↑ RobOnt Radio – Uwe Boll Interview
    54. ↑ michaelbay (April 28, 2008). "Uwe Bowl is at it again". Shootfortheedit.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
    55. ↑ Luke Karmali (June 8, 2015). "Uwe Boll has breakdown following failed Kickstarter". au.ign.com. Retrieved 2015-06-15.
    56. ↑ "Uwe Boll's Bauhaus restaurant in Vancouver boasts Michelin-starred chef". CBC_News. Jan 9, 2015. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
    57. ↑ Johnson, Gail (June 3, 2015). "Uwe Boll's Bauhaus restaurant upholds fine dining in Vancouver". The_Georgia_Straight. Retrieved 2016-02-16.

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