What Would Uwe Boll Do?

[aj4x94]

Give him a break. Yes his movies may suck , but he's not mental, he has his head screwed on and knows what he's doing, watch this interview for some incite http://www.loadingreadyrun.com/videos/v ... h_Uwe_Boll . It's a long interview but it's a good watch. People familer with theescapistmagazine will recognise that the interviewer is Graham Stark of Unskippable

Sorry, but I have a hard time taking a guy like him seriously for a few reasons:

1) His movies are some of the worst to ever grace the planet

2) He keeps making them

3) He doesn't seem to realize that his movies never make money at the box office. For the last 4 years, each of his movies that he has released has bombed at the box office

He's one persistent son-of-a-bitch I tell yu.

[Kairu]

He knows his movies, he gets revenue from massive dvd sales, seriously, the guy knows what he's, watch the interview, the guys interviewing him used to take the piss out of him all the time before they actually met him. I'm no fan of Uwe Boll, but I believe he could one day make a half decent film (I believe he already has when he was younger but I forget what it's called).

[Loveless_Dogg]

The thing is Uwe can talk a good game, I mean I've seen a number of his interviews and the man knows how to sell himself off to people. So, I'm sure that's partly how he continues making films. Big Hollywood films, with a lot of money. I'd say that if he wants to be "edgy" like he claims, then make smaller budgeted films. If a majority of his money is being made in DVD sales and what-not then aim for that straight to video release and not major theatrical releases. Then at least it doesn't sound like he's just making excuses.

The fact that no one can even remember a halfway decent film from him should be a pretty clear indication that it probably wasn't really as good as you think.

[Kairu]

I've never seen it, just read that it was recieved, and to my knowledge he hasn't recieved a big budget for any of his films, except maybe postal which i haven't seen. The man is capable of crafting a good film but has not been given a chance, you know why he does video game movies? Because they are to obtain a license and already has a fan base to go see the film or buy the dvd, not as much risk, he's shot himself in the foot by doing this though, because of most peoples opinions no one will take him seriously and doesn't get to do what he likes.

[Loveless_Dogg]

"House of the Dead" was budgeted at $12 million, "Alone in the Dark" at $20 million and "BloodRayne" was at $25 million. The worst commercial performance of his career was "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale" had a $60 million budget and made only $10 million at the box office. So as you can see, he's been getting bigger and bigger budgets.

"Postal" was set at $18 million and "Far Cry" was set at an estimated $30 million.

Interestingly enough, while looking around I found out that Uwe 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.

Also check the DVD commentary of Alone in the Dark,(yes my mom owns the movie) Boll further explains:
"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."

.......So in other words, there isn't any real problem when it comes to funding his movies like he claimed in that interview.

Like I said, he sells himself off to people.

[Kairu]

He doesn't get that tax deduction anymore, can't remember the details but it stopped. Wasn't Far Cry canceled, or is it in development hell?

[Loveless_Dogg]

Far Cry is being released June 19, 2009.

As for that funding of he doesn't actually get a full tax deduction, his German investors do. Boll find investors who wish to acquire the rights for future video-game-to-movie adaptations. These investors are mostly German. He acquires the rights for potential future adaptations and personally oversees preproduction work, filming, and post-production. He's one of the few directors to use this tax shelter as intended: to provide incentive for investment in German entertainment properties.

If he's having problems now then that's his problem.

[DistantJ]

The topic is just a bit of a joke, Kairu, but I appreciate your defence of the director.

I'll put my two cents on Uwe Boll in now, in this opportunity:

Nice guy, spoke to me, let me do an interview for HooplaNet.

Absolutely loved POSTAL and Alone in the Dark. POSTAL being one of my favourite comedies, Alone in the Dark being a flawed but really fun flick.

Thought Bloodrayne and Bloodrayne 2 were pretty good fun but very flawed.

In two minds about In the Name of the King - great battles but very korny.

Hated House of the Dead.

SEED and Tunnel Rats were both amazing movies (Though I don't think I could stomach SEED a second time).

Not biased - I had seen and made my mind up about most of these movies before I spoke to him.

So yeah, I'm fond of Uwe, as a person and as a director - he does have a certain Ed Wood-ish-ness to him in some films, but also he has made some good stuff too and whatever he does it usually turns out interesting and quite cocky. Anybody talking about how Silent Hill would have Matrix camera movements and spin kicks and things have clearly only seen House of the Dead and haven't had a look at his horror flick SEED or the atmosphere of Tunnel Rats.

Oh and "He keeps making nothing at the box office but he keeps making them, why?" is a very American Hollywood kinda thing... Uwe's movies perform poorly at the box office and then break even and generate a large profit on DVD sales, which is a little more common here in Europe.

But, no, this topic is just for a bit of fun really dude, so no need to take it to heart.

[Kairu]

I knew it was a joke, but I thought he needed some defendiing, and thanks Distantj you just reminded me of what his well recieved film was, Seed, I want to see that and Postal, though I don't think I'll like the latter. Just saying, give the guy credit where its due, he must be doing something right to remain in the industry as long as he has even though most people think of him as a clown.

[DistantJ]

I LOVE Postal. I think it's a work of genius. Got the DVD right here! XD

As for Uwe remaining in the industry, remember with the internet (and any communication), those who complain have a louder voice. Those who are satisfied tend to sit happily and not say anything (except me ).

I've not met many people in real life who have hated POSTAL (I've met many who are fans of it) or even know Uwe by name (except one guy in Gamestation who told me not to buy DOA because it was by "Yewey Ball" who is "the worst director ever" who then confirmed he hadn't seen any of the films!), so I think yeah, it's an internet thing... Many of the movies I've defended on here are films non-forum-typing-folks tend to like.

[JKristine35]

I knew it was a joke, but I thought he needed some defendiing, and thanks Distantj you just reminded me of what his well recieved film was, Seed, I want to see that and Postal, though I don't think I'll like the latter. Just saying, give the guy credit where its due, he must be doing something right to remain in the industry as long as he has even though most people think of him as a clown.

It's a well-known fact why Uwe is still in the industry. There's a tax loophole in Germany that allows anybody who makes a movie that bombs in America to get a tax writeoff that goes to the director, as well as the investors. Uwe purposefully does this shit so he can skate on taxes.

[DistantJ]

That loophole actually disappeared a while ago. Uwe Boll makes movies to make money.

[JKristine35]

That loophole actually disappeared a while ago. Uwe Boll makes movies to make money.

What money? His last movie made a whopping $5,000 more than it cost to make. Not to mention that he stated that he told his actors for one of the films he's now working on that they would have no script and would adlib everything. If that's not someone purposefully trying to fail, I don't know what is.

[DistantJ]

Many movies are adlibbed for realism. Blair Witch Project and the like. Quite a few classic movies, have actors given a very rough guideline of a scene and they talk it out naturally. Gives the actor more control over their character and scenes tend to come out more naturally.

I have no idea how Tunnel Rats has performed but most Uwe Boll movie success goes to DVD sales in Europe. His budgets are all out of his own pocket so he's making money.

[Loveless_Dogg]

Blair Witch Project and the like.

Yeah but...The actors in Blair Witch didn't know it was fake... and there was a story to go by.

Besides It's one thing to ad lib for scenes to make an existing script feel and sound more natural, but It's something totally different to ad lib a script that doesn't exist like with "1968 Tunnel Rats" where there was nothing to fall back on. I know it was supposed to be a documentary style movie. But still, even movies done in that style have some sort of plot or point that's being made.

[DistantJ]

Er, they did. Blair Witch wasn't a bunch of pranks played on kids with a camera, they were given basic outlines of what to do but surprised with a few things. That was just one example though, many, many movies are unscripted and work better for it.

Tunnel Rats was done like a lot of movies are where they're given the gist of what they're supposed to say and left to interpret it their own way. It's a decent method, particularly for a director whose first language isn't English. Also allows characters to become more separable from each other since they're each "written" by a different person.

[HeresJohnny]

I checked out his filmography, definetly not something to be proud of! lmao