Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:58AM6 comments ›
Thu Jan 17, 2008 — by Rick Marshall
Funding Fountain To Dry Up For Uwe Boll
Filmmaker Uwe Boll, whose work on big-budget flops such as Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne has made him a favorite target of critics and movie fans, recently announced that he plans to return to low-budget films now that the tax shelter that provided backing for his projects has been banned in Germany.
After making a career out of producing big-budget adapatations of videogame properties, his latest project, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, continued the filmmaker's streak of both commerical and critical failures at the box office. Despite his string of big-screen flops, Boll's ability to continue producing big-budget films due to German tax shelter funding has long been a subject of discussion among online movie fans and critics alike. In 2006, after BloodRayne was universally savaged by critics and fell more than $20 million short of making back its production costs, Boll earned even more notoriety by challenging some of his most vocal critics to a boxing match. The critics who took him up on the offer received a fairly one-sided beating.
From The Hollywood Reporter:
"In the future, I will focus on small films such as (the video game adaptation) Postal or (the Vietnam war drama) Tunnel Rats, " [Boll] said. "These are films that represent my true passion, and they can be done with small budgets."
...
"Because of the Boll reputation, it is not easy to get audiences into the cinemas," said Mychael Berg, head of distribution at 20th Century Fox in Germany, which released King locally. "We finally managed it, and we are quite satisfied with the abut 250,000 people who watched the movie (in Germany). We proved that you can make money with a Boll film."
Boll's next project? The filmmaker plans to helm an adaptation of the videogame Zombie Massacre.
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Comments (6)
Vinnie Bartilucci (12:30 PM on Thu Jan 17, 2008)
How does this man keep getting the rights to games? I mean, I get it, it's a business, but occasionally you'd think a company would look at Boll's...um...films and realize that if they grant him the rights, the film will stink worse than a gibbed Pinky after three days on the floor of Phobos Base. Isn't there ANY businessman who can see past the check for the film rights and think, "Hm, if we have a REAL director make this, it might actually succeed, and we'll make MORE money!" Silly question, I know.
Much like Ed Wood, Boll is a huckster able to put stars in people's eyes, and make off with their cash while they're trying to rub their eyes clean. Real actors, people like Ben Kingsley and Jason Statham appear in his films...people who surely must have better things to do. Does he keep hidden during negotiations or something? "Oh, uh, the director hasn't been attached, here, sign this..."
"We proved that you can make money with a Boll film."
Was this really so important to prove? Especially after how many times they had to try to do it?
Rick Marshall (12:47 PM on Thu Jan 17, 2008)
I think the appeal to producers is that Boll's films come with a large part of the funding already attached - or, at least, the tax incentives inherent to doing a movie with him are such that it becomes a win-win situation no matter how the film does in the box office.
Either that, or they're just acid-fiend crazy.
Andrew Collins (2:09 PM on Thu Jan 17, 2008)
That's it, I'm Netflixing BloodRayne. I have heard over and over how bad his films are and now my stare-at-the-trainwreck curiosity has gotten the btter of me. I HAVE to see this for myself...
Jonathan (the other one) (12:27 PM on Thu Jan 17, 2008)
After which, we will see production begin on the new Uwe Boll films, [i]Pong[/i] and [i]Missile Command[/i].
Sal Loria (9:46 AM on Fri Jan 18, 2008)
As this tidbit hits the net, millions of fans rejoice, prompting Uwe Boll to stage another press conference to defend himself in the snarkiest fashion possible. Even outside his movies, to be exposed to Uwe Boll brings about the same train-wreck sensation.
Bruce Darren Acosta (5:02 AM on Sun Feb 3, 2008)
UWE BOLL RETURNS TO LOW BUDGET FILMS AND MAKE NINJA ASSAULT MOVIE.
Uwe Boll is finish with big budget films and he will go back to making low budget films and he should work on the Ninja Assault movie based on the Namco arcade shooting game with a budget of $17 million,Mishael Roesch and Peter Scheerer will write the script.
The story takes place in feudal Japan 1620 where an evil demonlord has kidnapped two women and wants to marry them for his dark resurrection,three ninjas and a US merchant must save the girls and hunt down the forces of evil.
This can be another video game movie project for Mr Boll.
Thank You.
BRUCE ACOSTA
AUSTRALIA.