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Probing the mind of producer/director Uwe Boll

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Probing the mind of producer/director Uwe Boll

Old 01-26-06, 11:54 AM
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Probing the mind of producer/director Uwe Boll

Found an interesting article on what Uwe Boll is up to and what projects he's working on next.

The quotes below are from: No box office reign for BloodRayne

It sounds like Boll thinks a factor in BloodRayne doing so poorly at the box office is that Hostel drew his audience away:

It didn't help that Lions Gate Entertainment, which previously worked with Boll in releasing House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark, picked up the $5 million horror film Hostel just a few weeks before Christmas and opened it January 6 opposite BloodRayne. It grossed over $20 million and drew the exact same audience Boll was targeting with his R-rated film.
We will be treated to BloodRayne on DVD by April, according to Boll. But he's still debating whether to release the "harder" director's cut:

Video game fans will get a chance to see BloodRayne on DVD within three months, according to Boll. Universal Studios Home Video will release the movie by April. Boll said details on the launch, including whether his "harder" director's cut of the film will be released, are still being worked out.
Despite the negative reviews BloodRayne is getting, many critics and editors who have seen all three films (BloodRayne, House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark) say that Boll is getting better with each movie.

But despite the fact that his movies have kept internet message boards buzzing, Boll cannot figure out what went wrong:

"If all of the people who clicked onto the BloodRayne web site or wrote on the message boards about the movie went and saw the movie, we'd have made $25 million in the first weekend," said Boll, who added that House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark continue to be very strong DVD releases.
Note that BloodRayne made $18,590 from Jan 20–22, bringing the total up to $2,405,420.

As for the future, we can look forward to sequels of both BloodRayne and Alone in the Dark! I'm not kidding:

"It's clearly a shock what's going on in theaters today," said Boll. "There's a definite possibility for me to maybe create Hunter: The Reckoning, Fear Effect, BloodRayne 2, and Alone in the Dark 2 straight for DVD. Is it really good to spend so much marketing dollars for advertising theatrical releases when DVD generates the bulk of sales?"
Of course, Boll still has several theatrical features in the works after In the Name of the King comes out. If you ask me, these movies are funny just to read about. Can't wait to see what Boll does with them.

First up is Postal. Boll is writing this script which he describes as Wag the Dog meets Pulp Fiction meets Falling Down:

Boll is writing the script for the $12 to $15 million movie, which will film in July and August. The film will focus on a day in the life of the Postal dude -- a day in which things go completely out of control. Boll said several known Hollywood actors have already expressed interest in the politically incorrect film, which he calls Wag the Dog meets Pulp Fiction meets Falling Down. Boll said he's creating 40 to 50 cameos for big-name stars to potentially fly in for a few days of shooting.
This is overflowing with promise. This could be very entertaining, indeed:

"The Postal dude leaves his trailer park and goes to the bank to try and cash a check and things get completely out of control," said Boll, adding that the film will include everything from drug deals to the Taliban.
Next up is an original story from Boll himself. He calls it Seed:

This fall, Boll will direct an original story that he's writing called Seed, which is conceived from a rather bizarre law. The $10 million film features a man on death row who's executed by the electric chair three times, but lives. Boll said that in the '60s and '70s, many electric chairs malfunctioned, and that there's a law on the books that says if a man survives three executions, he's free. Seed is a revenge story as the freed man is set loose.
Amazingly, Boll doesn't seem to realize why video game movies are not a sure fire success anymore. He doesn't realize that he destroyed the genre:

Boll there's been a shift in video game-based movies since Tomb Raider. BloodRayne cost $17 million to make and will bring in about $3 million in North America, putting it in about the same boat as the Universal Pictures "Doom" movie, which cost a reported $60 million and only made $28 million.

"Video game movies no longer guarantee a huge opening, even if they have a big budget behind them and great marketing like Doom had," said Boll. "And the video game publishers don't want to co-invest in a game, they just want to see the incremental sales shift in that game when the film releases."
I think Boll is just being optimistic here. According to boxofficemojo.com, BloodRayne had a $22M production budget. On the other hand Doom had a $60M production budget and has made about $53M worldwide. Compared to the $2.5M worldwide for BloodRayne and I don't think they're exactly "in the same boat".

Last edited by awmurray; 01-26-06 at 11:57 AM.
Old 01-26-06, 01:07 PM
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wow. What a fucking moron
Old 01-27-06, 12:25 AM
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Nobody watches video game movies because they're usually crappy and they'd rather play video games.

I want to see an Overnight about this guy. It would be hilarious.
Old 01-27-06, 12:34 AM
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Doom hasn't been released in Japan yet.Wonder why...or did I miss it?
Old 01-27-06, 01:13 AM
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Originally Posted by Kumar J
Doom hasn't been released in Japan yet.Wonder why...or did I miss it?

I think in our history we've released enough bombs on the japanese. Another one and of this magnitude would just be inhumane.
Old 01-27-06, 07:07 AM
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This fall, Boll will direct an original story that he's writing called Seed, which is conceived from a rather bizarre law. The $10 million film features a man on death row who's executed by the electric chair three times, but lives. Boll said that in the '60s and '70s, many electric chairs malfunctioned, and that there's a law on the books that says if a man survives three executions, he's free. Seed is a revenge story as the freed man is set loose.
Poor Uwe, he really is a moran (but a rich one). There is no law like this. In fact, the sentence was typically pronounced as "It is the determination of this court that on June third of this year you will be placed in the electric chair at Albemarle State Penitentiary where electricity will be passed through your body until you are dead."
Old 01-27-06, 08:06 AM
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Interesting...For someone who is hated as much as this guy. He seems to get more attention (especially on this site for some reason) than just about anyone else.
Old 01-27-06, 08:45 AM
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Originally Posted by FantasticVSDoom
Interesting...For someone who is hated as much as this guy. He seems to get more attention (especially on this site for some reason) than just about anyone else.
Because this is a site frequented by people that love movies, and Uwe Boll represents everything that is wrong with modern filmmaking.
Old 01-27-06, 08:46 AM
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Originally Posted by Ravid
Nobody watches video game movies because they're usually crappy and they'd rather play video games.
Nobody watches video game movies because they're usually directed by Uwe Boll.
Old 01-27-06, 09:39 AM
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Originally Posted by FantasticVSDoom
Interesting...For someone who is hated as much as this guy. He seems to get more attention (especially on this site for some reason) than just about anyone else.
I think it is because Uwe Boll is the Ed Wood of our generation.

Of course, with modern special effects and such a long history of film making technique in the books, he could never equal a masterpiece like Plan 9, but it is fun to watch.

His DVD commentaries are great, too. For example, in AinD, he talks about how he thinks the CGI is better than a movie like Spider Man 2 or Tomb Raider because those movies farm out their CGI to multiple companies in order to get done in a few months. But, for AitD, Boll says they only used one company which makes his CGI more uniform and seemless. It's really good stuff.

His new movie Postal looks like it has real promise (from a 'bad movie' perspective).
Old 01-27-06, 10:25 AM
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Uwe Boll is not the Ed Wood of our generation. I think Ed Wood really believed that he was making good movies, and was forced through circumstance to use incredibly low budgets. Uwe Boll KNOWS that his movies stink (he's said so himself) and he is given the money to make them because the producers know that they will eventually turn a profit thanks to mindless genre fanboys. It's a rather disgusting exhibition of utilizing a formula to produce an inferior product without regard to quality because you know that you will make your costs back and then some. It's a slap in the face to people that make movies for the sake of artistry and integrity.
Old 01-27-06, 12:35 PM
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Boll is writing the script for the $12 to $15 million movie, which will film in July and August. The film will focus on a day in the life of the Postal dude -- a day in which things go completely out of control. Boll said several known Hollywood actors have already expressed interest in the politically incorrect film, which he calls Wag the Dog meets Pulp Fiction meets Falling Down. Boll said he's creating 40 to 50 cameos for big-name stars to potentially fly in for a few days of shooting.
How does he expect to get 40-50 big name stars to want to cameo in his film? I can't even imagine how 40-50 cameos can be fit into a film and run smoothly and coherently. Of course, I guess that wouldn't matter with Boll.
Old 01-27-06, 12:58 PM
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Originally Posted by Numanoid
Because this is a site frequented by people that love movies, and Uwe Boll represents everything that is wrong with modern filmmaking.
Just wanted some clarification...Ive never seen any of his movies, and wasnt exactly sure who he was at first, but seen a number of threads on him so I was wondering. Looked through the site and others and saw how much he was hated so I though I'd ask.
Old 01-29-06, 02:34 AM
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I haven't seen any of the movies referenced in this thread yet. I think I have them in my netflix queue, but I certainly wouldn't see them in the theater. With the costs associated to seeing a flick, there are much better movies to see than his.
Old 01-29-06, 07:32 PM
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Originally Posted by BenboC
How does he expect to get 40-50 big name stars to want to cameo in his film?
It's an unexplained phenomena. His cast gets better and better with each film. I'm still trying to figure out how he got Ben Kingsley to do Bloodrayne. Uwe Boll is a genius of some sort.
Old 01-29-06, 07:43 PM
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Who keeps giving him money to make movies?
Old 01-29-06, 08:21 PM
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Originally Posted by cupon
It's an unexplained phenomena. His cast gets better and better with each film. I'm still trying to figure out how he got Ben Kingsley to do Bloodrayne. Uwe Boll is a genius of some sort.
Kingsley's been in a few stinkers lately, I'm sure he did it just for the paycheck. Plus it looked like he filmed all of his stuff in about a week.

People in his next movie, "In The Name Of The King" include: Jason Statham, John Rhys-Davies, Ray Liotta, Matthew Lillard, Leelee Sobieski, Burt Reynolds and Claire Forlani. I would agree that his casts keep get better.
Old 01-29-06, 09:16 PM
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I hear his next film will be Pac-Man starring Robert DeNiro as the title character with Al Pacino as Pinky and Anthony Hopkins as Inky.
Old 01-30-06, 01:13 AM
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<--Uwe Boll (World Renowned Director) <--Wolfgang Puck (World Renowned Chef)

I think Uwe and Wolfgang are twins that were separated at birth and moved to across the Germany/Austria border for a strategic position in Europe. Each was placed in their respective country for total domination. Uwe was to rise to power in Germany using his directorial powers and Wolfgang was meant to take over Austria with his culinary skills................ Or maybe it is all a conspiracy and "Uwe Boll" is just an alias for Wolfgang????????
Old 01-30-06, 12:24 PM
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Originally Posted by Mr. Cinema
Who keeps giving him money to make movies?
I've read that he gets money from German Investors, who actually make money on movies that bomb. They get a taxbreak or something like that. I think it was on another post about Boll.
This the link that talks about his investors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uwe_Boll

Last edited by paradicelost; 01-30-06 at 12:30 PM.
Old 01-31-06, 03:00 AM
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Originally Posted by mitsuman
Or maybe it is all a conspiracy and "Uwe Boll" is just an alias for Wolfgang????????
Hmmm... interesting. Have they ever been seen in the same place at the same time?
Old 01-31-06, 09:45 AM
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Originally Posted by cupon
It's an unexplained phenomena. His cast gets better and better with each film. I'm still trying to figure out how he got Ben Kingsley to do Bloodrayne. Uwe Boll is a genius of some sort.
Boll says that the secret is holding off casting until the very last minute. He puts no thought into who plays what role. Instead he just tries to snag big names with holes in their schedules.

From Uwe Boll Hires “Whores” & Badmouths Spielberg

During the filming of BloodRayne, Uwe said that Michael Madsen (Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs) was drunk everyday, and that Ben Kingsley refused to shoot scenes with him. Dr. Boll then went on to explain that it didn’t matter what actor you put in the roles, just as long as they are famous enough to attract foreign investors. (“Casting hasn’t been this bad since John Wayne played Genghis Khan,” writes Harry.) Chowderhead then advised to cast yer movie at the last minute, because you can get great names as suddenly people’s schedules open up. BloodRayne’s cast was assembled a mere two weeks before cameras started rolling.

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