Uwe Boll gets classy. Wait, what? No…
May 23, 2008
otorious genre director Uwe Boll is striking back at his critics with two improvised films aimed straight at the arthouse crowd: “Stoic,” the true story of a prison rape starring Edward Furlong, Shaun Sipos and Sam Levinson, and the Sudan genocide drama “Janjaweed.”
“Stoic” chronicles a 2006 incident in which three German men arrested for nonviolent offenses (played by Furlong, Levinson and Steffen Mennekes) rape and tortured a cellmate (Sipos) for 10 hours before helping the victim hang himself to cover up their crime.
The $2 million drama, now in post-production, was based on a treatment written by Boll and contains fully improvised dialogue by the actors. “It all started with a game of poker, where the loser had to eat a tube of toothpaste,” Boll says. “He refused and was forced to eat it, threw up and was forced to eat his puke, and things escalated from there.”
Boll says he had confidence in his cast, who all slept in the cell on the Vancouver set for a month, and especially Sipos (”The Grudge 2″), who Boll says actually ate a tube of toothpaste, though the vomit he ate from the floor was artificial. “I was prepared to throw out any of the actors after the first take,” he said, adding that the final cut will be intense.
“When the actor licks his puke off the ground, he will be seen eating it for a minute, not just a little bit,” Boll said. The director says he made the film to demonstrate “that even nonviolent people can turn into animals in a short time and that we all have this in us.”
The film will be graphic and possibly released unrated. “Sometimes movies get an R rating for their social commentary, and that might happen, but from what I’ve shot the chance of an NC-17 is kind of high,” he says.
Boll will shop the movie at the American Film Market in November and submit the films for next year’s Sundance and Berlin fests, producing the project through his Boll AG outfit with Dan Clark.
His next project, “Janjaweed,” will also be improvised based on his treatment. Its title is the name of Arab militia groups in Sudan accused of torture and genocide in Sudan. The story, which will also have improvised dialogue from actors, focuses on American journalists faced with the dilemma of leaving to report on the atrocities or staying to help the victims. Boll plans to shoot the film in South Africa in January, producing through Boll AG with Clark and “Hotel Rwanda” production consultant Chris Roland.
- From THR
Call Uwe Boll the Worst Director (Then Duck)
May 18, 2008
UWE BOLL is often referred to as the worst filmmaker in the world.
This seems to pain Mr. Boll, a gregarious 42-year-old German whose best-known movies are based on video games. So he has shared the pain with his critics, literally, challenging several to a series of boxing matches in 2006. Mr. Boll, a former boxer, thumped them handily.
But what he really wants is respect.
There is a Web site called StopUweBoll.org, with a petition demanding that he stop making movies. The petition had drawn only 18,000 names until last month, when Mr. Boll told the horror-movie Web site FearNet.com that he would quit making films if a million people signed. With his own version of “bring it on,” the list has now grown to more than a quarter of a million.
Why play along? “I have to live with it,” Mr. Boll said with an unhappy smirk. “It’s better to make fun with it,” as an alternative to “being depressed, sitting at home, slowly crying.”
We won’t even talk about UweBollIsAntichrist.com.
During a lunch interview in New York, he pressed a freshly copied DVD into a reporter’s hands. It was a rough cut of a serious film he’s been working on, about a brutal prison rape in Germany in 2006. “I would be interested to see what you think about it,” he said.
He also noted that there are counterpetitions urging him to keep making films. At least part of what is going on, he argued, is an online pile-on, a “can you top this?” game with Mr. Boll on the bottom.
“Is it the movies are all so bad?” he asked. “Something is not fitting together in the story, that I’m the worst of the worst.”
Mr. Boll’s most recent film, “Postal,” might not be the best vehicle for winning respect. The first sequence of the film, which opens on Friday, portrays 9/11 hijackers squabbling over the precise number of virgins who will be awaiting them after their martyrdom. The scene switches to a World Trade Center’s-eye view of an oncoming jet.
- From NYtimes
Can the Power of Gum Stop Uwe Boll?
May 9, 2008
o prevent infamous director Uwe Boll from creating more video game-based films, the makers of Stride gum today announced that it will provide free packs of gum to those who sign the Stop Uwe Boll internet petition, provided that it reaches a million signatures.
The oft-hated filmmaker had previously claimed that he would stop directing films if a petition reached one million signatures. Should the milestone be reached by May 23, the release date of Boll’s latest adaptation Postal, Stride promises to offer signatories a downloadable coupon for a free pack of gum.
“Since gamers are one of our most supportive groups, we’ve been looking for ways to return the favor,” said Stride marketing director Gary Osifchin. “And what better way is there to get gamer’s backs than by helping them rescue their cherished videogames from the clutches of Uwe Boll?”
- From shacknews
Holy fuck is Uwe Boll nuts! Sues Billy Zane…
May 4, 2008
Director Uwe Boll has sued actor Billy Zane in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming he’s owed at least $700,000 in revenues from the 2006 boxoffice flop “Bloodrayne.”
Boll claims in the April 30 filing that Zane was the one who suggested Romar Entertainment handle distribution of the film. Zane and Romar principal James Schramm allegedly promised the film would open in 2,000 theaters and that a $10 million advance from Boll would be used for advertising and promotion. But at least $900,000 was paid out to Zane and Schramm and the movie opened in only 950 theaters, Boll claims. — From THR
Uwe Boll responds, is the only genius in the whole f*cking business
April 9, 2008