Uwe Boll is a German filmmaker, best known for adaptations of the popular video games Alone in the Dark, Postal and Bloodrain. Many of his paintings became box office failures and received negative reviews from critics, thanks to which Ball received a reputation as the worst director in the world. In 2016, he decided to leave the film business and opened his first restaurant in Vancouver.
Childhood and youth
Uwe Boll was born on June 22, 1965 in the city of Wermelskirchen. Since childhood, he was fond of cinema, shot short films on the Super 8 camera. In his own words, fell in love with the movie after watching the historical film "Rebellion on the Bounty."
After leaving school, Uwe Boll entered the University of Cologne, where he received his doctorate in literature. He later studied at the University of Siegen, where he studied economics. Also, in his own words, he studied the craft of the director in Berlin and Vienna.
Carier start
In the mid-nineties, Uwe Boll began making full-length films, often these were horror films with a small budget. He also often co-wrote the script on his early projects. In 2000, the first English-language project of the director, the television film "Goodies", was released. The picture received mixed reviews from critics.
Two years later, a second English project appeared in the filmography of Uwe Boll. The psychological thriller “Dusk of Reason” was again warmly received by critics, but with a budget of three million dollars, he was able to raise a little more than a thousand dollars at the American box office.
Ball continued to work actively, and the very next year his first dramatic film, Heart of America, was released. The film again received mixed reviews from critics. In the same year, the first adaptation of the video game from the director came out - the horror film "House of the Dead". The budget has grown relative to the director’s past projects, but the film could not return the twelve million dollars spent on its production following the results of the rental, in addition, it was negatively accepted by critics.
Big Budget Projects
Two years later, Uwe Ball made another horror film based on the famous game series "Alone in the Dark." The main roles in the film were played by Hollywood stars Tara Reid and Christian Slater. The budget of the film was twenty million dollars, he could only collect ten at the box office. The film received negative reviews from critics and viewers and almost immediately after the release gained the status of one of the worst films in history.
However, Uwe Ball continued to work and in the same year released a new game adaptation, the vampire action "Bloodrain", in which the main roles were played by Kristana Loken, Michael Madsen, Billy Zane and Ben Kingsley. With a budget of twenty-five million dollars, the picture was able to collect only three and a half at the box office, and again critics negatively accepted Ball's directorial work.
The German, however, was not discouraged, and in 2007 he released as many as four directorial projects. The fantasy action movie "In the Name of the King" starring Jason Statham became both the most expensive and most unprofitable film by Uwe Boll, collecting a little more than thirteen million dollars at the box office with a budget of sixty. The sequel “Bloodrain” was released immediately on media, Kristana Loken did not return to the role of the main character. The adaptation of the game “Fasted” was shot in an atypical style for Uwe Boll (there was a lot of black humor in the style of the original source), but it also did not become a box office hit. Horror "Seed" critics and viewers also did not appreciate.
The following year, Uwe Boll released an action movie based on the Far Edge video game with German superstar Thiel Schweiger in the title role. The budget of the film was thirty million dollars, less than a million could collect the picture at the box office.
Also in 2008, Uwe Boll's military drama "Tunnel Rats" was released. This film is not typical for the director, the plot is based on a true story, the project was shot in a more realistic manner. Critics, however, did not appreciate Ball's reincarnation. At the end of the year, he received Golden Raspberry as the worst director.
A new stage in creativity
The director Uwe Boll often financed the filming of his films himself, for many years it remained a mystery where he got the money from, because absolutely all of his projects turned out to be unprofitable. In an interview, he mentioned that he used a loophole in German tax law, according to which an investment in cinema is returned to the investor in the amount of almost fifty percent.
In 2006, the law was amended and Ball could no longer finance major projects with Hollywood actors. Many critics divide Uwe Boll's directorial filmography into two phases. It was after 2008 that he began to shoot more modest paintings, which were much better received by critics and viewers.
In 2009, the military drama "Darfur" was released, which received several festival prizes and received positive reviews from critics. In the same year, the best, according to many viewers, Uwe Boll's film "Rage" was released. The picture was released on media everywhere except for the director’s homeland, but this did not stop her from receiving positive reviews from critics and after a few years to gain cult status.
In 2011, Ball released the film Auschwitz, which was again negatively praised by critics and viewers. In the same year, he returned to gaming adaptations, removing the sequels of the films "Bloodrain" and "In the name of the king." Projects again turned out to be unprofitable financially and could not win the love of the audience.
In 2013, the action movie "Assault on Wall Street" was released, which many viewers considered Ball's best work in the action genre. In 2014 and 2016, the sequel to Rage came out, Uwe Boll, however, could not repeat the success of the original picture.
Retirement
For many years, the director reacted painfully to criticism and got involved in disputes with viewers on the Internet. In 2008, he even promised that he would retire if the petition on the Web gains more than a million signatures. The right amount, however, was never collected.
However, in 2016, Uwe Boll said in an interview that the third part of the Fury series was his last film, as it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to find funds to finance projects, and raising money on the Kickstarter platform for the production of the sequel " I got "failed.
Ball opened a restaurant in Vancouver, which received positive reviews from industry critics, and plans to further develop in this direction. In 2017, Ball's restaurant was ranked among the fifty best restaurants in the world according to the Discovery Channel, becoming one of the three Canadian restaurants in the ranking.
Other jobs
In addition to directing and writing scripts for his projects, Uwe Boll also produced several films. In addition, he wrote two books telling about the production of series.
In 2018, Uwe and his wife founded a business group that acquired one of Vancouver's sports bars. The company also intends to open a second restaurant in Toronto in 2019 and is developing a third restaurant in China.
Reviews and ratings
Uwe Ball was nominated three times for the Golden Raspberry Award. Some viewers calculated the average score of his films on IMDB, according to which he is the worst director in history.
The German reacted extremely painfully to the failures of his films, for example, filed lawsuits against the distributors "Alone in the Dark" and "Bloodrain", blaming them for the box office failure of the projects. He also repeatedly accused game developers of the lack of support in creating film adaptations of the material.
In 2015, a video appeared on the Internet where Uwe Boll addresses spectators who have not funded the third part of the Fury series on the Kickstarter platform. The video, where the director swears to the audience and behaves extremely strangely, has become viral.
In general, the director often does not agree with the criticism of his films, saying that the critics themselves could not realize themselves as filmmakers and do not understand anything in the cinema. The concept of Uwe Boll’s argument has even appeared on the Internet, which can be formulated as “get it first”.
Critical Boxing Fights
In 2006, the production company Uwe Boll issued an official statement according to which the director provoked five critics who spoke negatively about his films to a boxing match.
The director won all five fights. After that, some critics accused him of the fact that before the fight he assured them that this was only a publicity stunt, but in reality he was fighting for real. Ball and his representatives denied this fact. The director’s battles with critics were actively discussed in the press and many were recognized as one of the best advertising tricks in the history of cinema.
Personal life
Uwe Ball is married to Canadian producer Natalie Ball (nee Taj). They live in Canada with three children from past marriages. Also, the couple are together engaged in the restaurant business.