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 in Wermelskirchen, 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.^{[citation needed]} Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (3008x2000, 3545 KB) Uwe Boll, controversial director. ... is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... Wermelskirchen is a town in the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, southeast of Remscheid. ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A film producer creates the conditions for making movies. ... Screenwriters, scenarists or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies and television programs are made. ... is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. ... Wermelskirchen is a town in the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, southeast of Remscheid. ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... A film producer creates the conditions for making movies. ... Screenwriters, scenarists or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies and television programs are made. ... Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a universal phenomenon. ... American cinema has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. ... The University of Cologne (German Universität zu Köln) is one of the oldest universities in Europe and, with over 44. ... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ...

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 has a horror film Seed in production. Blackwoods is a direct to DVD pscyhological thriller film starring Patrick Muldoon and Clint Howard set in the titular Blackwoods. ... Heart of America is a 2004 drama film by German director Uwe Boll about a fictional school shooting in a suburban high school. ... Seed is a new horror film written and directed by Uwe Boll. ...

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, and BloodRayne. He has announced plans to produce adaptations of Dungeon Siege, Postal, Legacy of Kain and Far Cry. Boll also intends to produce Alone in the Dark 2, and BloodRayne II: Deliverance, as well as a third movie based on the BloodRayne franchise.^[1] Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a universal phenomenon. ... House of the Dead is the film adaptation of the successful 1996 light gun arcade game video game of the same name. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... BloodRayne is a 2006 horror/fantasy film based on the eponymous video game from Majesco and the game developer, Terminal Reality, directed by Uwe Boll. ... Dungeon Siege is a real time computer role-playing game developed by Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft. ... Postal is an ultraviolent and controversial computer game made by Running With Scissors and published by Ripcord Games in 1997. ... Legacy of Kain is a series of video games developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive. ... Far Cry is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Crytek Studios from Germany and published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004 for Windows. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... BloodRayne, is a horror-themed third-person action video game. ...

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 performed modestly to pitifully at the domestic box office. House of the Dead (budget: $12 million ) broke $5.73 million on opening weekend, Alone in the Dark made over $5.1 million (budget: $20 million ), and BloodRayne (budget: $25 million ) topped $2.42 million. Note: For the Russian novel written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, please see The House of the Dead House of the Dead is a first-person shooter arcade game released in 1998 by Sega, where the player assumes the role of a government agent who must shoot his way through an army... Alone in the Dark is the title of several works of fiction: Alone in the Dark (1982 film), a 1982 horror movie featuring Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, and Martin Landau Alone in the Dark (series), a series of computer games which as of 2005 has four titles Alone in the... BloodRayne, is a horror-themed third-person action video game. ...

In the DVD commentary of Alone in the Dark, Boll explains how he funds his films: Alone in the Dark is the title of several works of fiction: Alone in the Dark (1982 film), a 1982 horror movie featuring Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, and Martin Landau Alone in the Dark (series), a series of computer games which as of 2005 has four titles Alone in the...

"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. 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. 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.

Criticism

Boll's movies have been critically panned.^[2][3][4][5] As of October 25, 2006, all three of Boll's video game adaptations appeared on the Internet Movie Database's Bottom 100 films list. 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."^[6] 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."^[7] October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) [1] is an online database of information about actors, movies, television shows, television stars and video games. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A film that is released direct-to-video (also straight-to-video) is one which has been released to the public on home video formats first rather than first being released in movie theaters. ...

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."^[8] Metal Gear Solid is the tentative title of a live action film, based on the Metal Gear video game series created by Hideo Kojima. ... Hideo Kojima , born August 24, 1963) is a Japanese video game designer at Konami. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

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 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."^[9] This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Boll blames the poor commercial performance of his videogame adaptations on his distribution company, Romar, and has filed a lawsuit against them.^[10]

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. Boll's film Heart of America was based on the Columbine High School massacre and was praised as having the most mature subject matter of any of Boll's films. House of the Dead is the film adaptation of the successful 1996 light gun arcade game video game of the same name. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... Blackwoods is a direct to DVD pscyhological thriller film starring Patrick Muldoon and Clint Howard set in the titular Blackwoods. ... Heart of America is a 2004 drama film by German director Uwe Boll about a fictional school shooting in a suburban high school. ... The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in unincorporated Jefferson County, Colorado (the CDP of Columbine) near Denver and Littleton. ...

Boll and his films have also been accused of exploiting German laws regarding film-making.^[11]

Response to criticism

Boll does not shy away from his critics. In the Alone in the Dark 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."^[12] 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."^[13] This article does not cite any references or sources. ... House of the Dead is the film adaptation of the successful 1996 light gun arcade game video game of the same name. ... Screenshot of Aint It Cool News. ... Harry Jay Knowles (born December 11, 1971 in Austin, Texas), is an online film critic best known for his movie news and review website, Aint It Cool News. ...

Boll also 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 receive, whereas video game companies often "sell off the license and then forget about it."^[12] He argues that this is the reason video game adaptations are not well received by critics and audiences.

Also, in the 2007 G-Phoria awards on G4 (the annual video game awards), G4 has created a special award titled the "Future 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. This year's 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 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.^[14] 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.^[15] 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.^[16][17] Boll fought and won against all five participants. The first took place on September 5, 2006 in Málaga, Spain against Carlos Palencia^[18]with the rest on September 23, 2006 at the Plaza of Nations in Vancouver.^[19] Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, actor, and screenwriter. ... Roger Avary, photographed for Score Magazine at the Hotel Costes K, Paris. ... is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Richard Kyanka (born May 11, 1976[1]), better known by his nickname Lowtax, is an Internet personality, and owner and operator of the humor website Something Awful. ... Something Awful, often abbreviated to SA, is a comedy website housing a wide variety of content, including feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. ... goldenpalace. ... Screenshot of Aint It Cool News. ... is the 248th day of the year (249th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Location of Málaga Municipality Málaga  - Mayor Francisco de la Torre Prados Area    - City 385. ... is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Plaza of Nations from False Creek. ... Motto: By Sea, Land, and Air We Prosper Location of Vancouver within the Greater Vancouver Regional District in British Columbia, Canada Coordinates: , Country  Canada Province  British Columbia Region Lower Mainland Regional District Greater Vancouver Incorporated 1886 Government  - Mayor Sam Sullivan (NPA)  - City Council List of Councilors Suzanne Anton (NPA) Peter...

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.^[20] However, Boll actually fought Minter as his fourth opponent.^[21]

Kyanka 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."^[22] 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. [2]

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. 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."^[23] The Toronto Star is Canadas highest-circulation newspaper, though its print edition is distributed almost entirely within Ontario. ...

Alexander referred to the event as "the weirdest pop culture bizarre journalism stunt I've ever been involved in."^[22] Minter also praised what he'd seen so far of Boll's upcoming production Seed.^[24] 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."^[22]

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. Ron Sparks is a Canadian comedian, actor and writer. ... Postal is a 2007 film based on the 1997 computer game Postal. ...

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. Electronic Gaming Monthly (often abbreviated to EGM) is an American video game magazine. ... Sean Reiley (born June 15, 1976), better known by his nickname Seanbaby, is an American writer best-known for his comedy website. ... G4 is an American cable and satellite television channel originally geared toward male viewers aged 12–34, devoted to the world of video games and the video game lifestyle. ... Attack of the Show! logo as of May 2006. ... Kevin of Attack of the Show Kevin Pereira (born December 28, 1982[1]) is co-host of G4s Attack of the Show! (formerly The Screen Savers) with Olivia Munn. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Hungry Hungry Hippos is a board game made for young children by Hasbro of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, under the brand of its subsidiary, Milton Bradley. ...

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. “TV” redirects here. ...

References

Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 164th day of the year (165th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Joystiq is a video gaming weblog founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 164th day of the year (165th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Something Awful, often abbreviated to SA, is a comedy website housing a wide variety of content, including feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 164th day of the year (165th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Eurogamer homepage Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news and reviews. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 164th day of the year (165th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1UP.com is a video-game site owned and operated by Ziff Davis Media, publisher of popular videogame magazines Computer Gaming World (CGW) (now known as Games for Windows: The Official Magazine (or GFW) Magazine), Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), and the now-defunct Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (OPM), GMR... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 164th day of the year (165th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 164th day of the year (165th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Richard Charles Lowtax Kyanka (pronounced ) (born May 11, 1976[1]) is an Internet personality, and owner and operator of the humor website Something Awful. ... Something Awful, often abbreviated to SA, is a comedy website housing a wide variety of content, including feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 237th day of the year (238th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Frederick News-Post is the local newspaper of Frederick County, Maryland. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is now the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 89th day of the year (90th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Wired is a full-color monthly magazine and on-line periodical published in San Francisco, California since March 1993. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is now the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 89th day of the year (90th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is now the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 89th day of the year (90th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency, the worlds largest such organization. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Toronto Star is Canadas highest-circulation newspaper, though its print edition is distributed almost entirely within Ontario. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Canadian Press (CP) is a Canadian news agency established in 1917 as a vehicle to permit Canadian newspapers of the day to exchange their news and information. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Uwe Boll

• Official Website of Boll's Production Company, BOLL KG
• Uwe Boll at the Internet Movie Database
• Uwe Boll at Rotten Tomatoes
• Golden Palace Events - Photos, video, and details of Uwe's September 2006 boxing match with his critics
• Boll Bashers A comprehensive website on Boll
• Interview with Uwe Boll at Creature Corner
• Dinner With Uwe - IGN's four-part video interview
• Interview with Uwe Boll at The Globe & Mail
• Boll to brawl critics onscreen in Postal movie? at GameSpot News
• Interview - Now Playing magazine
• Uwe on UGO.com - Uwe Boll wants to make a sequel to Schindler's List