In 2005 I gave
my first interview as a professional film journalist, and nothing has quite
matched that experience. Sure, I’ve met and interviewed filmmakers and
celebrities that I admire greatly, but they have all been within the sterile
environment of press junkets, red carpets, and other typical Hollywood
events. The primary concern for each of these interviews has always been the
promotion of a film being released, and even the most candid responses to my
questions felt slightly self serving. My interview with German filmmaker Uwe
Boll was nothing like this.
Since this was
my first real interview, I had no idea how atypical it was until I’d had years
of experience as comparison. Ten years later, I still have experienced nothing
like this. To begin with, I was contacted directly by Boll and his
collaborating screenwriter, Michael Roesch. There were no studio lackeys or
public relations employees to set up the interview, and to this day I’m not
even sure how they got my information. I had previously reviewed the DVD
release of House of the Dead (2003),
but don’t recall my assessment of the film being flattering enough for them to
choose me for a one-on-one interview to promote the theatrical release of their
next video game adaptation, Alone in the
Dark (2005).
Stranger yet was
the choice of location for this interview, which was in a West Hollywood Coffee
Bean, surrounded by unsuspecting patrons. We talked about their latest release,
as well as Boll’s upcoming projects including Bloodrayne, but the interview really got interesting when he began
to criticize some of the year’s most acclaimed films and filmmakers. This was
coming from the filmmaker who had received most media attention for being
compared to Ed Wood and called the worst living director. Despite having no new
projects being released in the near future, Boll has been in the news recently
for more of this type of ranting against those far more successful than him.
It seems that
Boll was unsuccessful in crowdfunding for the second sequel in his Rampage franchise, and responded by
creating a You Tube video aptly titled “fuck you all.” In this video the
controversial cult director slams the popular method for funding vanity
projects, as well as giving a last-minute blow to the Marvel movie franchise
(he was already bashing the rising popularity of comic book adaptations in my
2005 interview included below). In another video he lifts up a copy of
Hollywood Reporter, pointing out photos of Hollywood
celebrities that he then rants and raves about for several minutes, including
George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, claiming that “they’re all fucking
each other in the asses.”
But it isn’t just the cast of Ocean’s 11 that seems to have irritated
Boll, with even Ben Kingsley (who starred in Bloodrayne) on the receiving end of attacks. He appears to be
telling all of Hollywood Hollywood
Below is my original interview from
2005, including his criticisms of comic book films, Clint Eastwood, Keanu
Reeves, and several other films far more successful than his own. At least he
has stayed consistent in the last ten years.
Uwe Boll and Michael Roesch
Interview- January 25th, 2005
Sitting in a coffee shop on Sunset,
Director Uwe Boll drinks coffee and enjoying a bagel as he talks about his
latest projects, including Alone in the
Dark, which is to be released this Friday. Writer Michael Roesch sits,
waiting to jump into the conversation any chance he can. Michael has such a
passion for the films that he writes he often wants to talk about all of the
projects at the same time. Each one is as special as the last to him. Uwe Boll
excuses himself from time to time, answering his phone during this busy, pre-release,
schedule. Both seem to have deep appreciation for film, understanding that
their films may not be for everyone, but also knowing some people will love
them.
Ryan Izay –So, you’ve got three projects going right
now, with Alone in the Dark, Bloodrayne and Far Cry. Tell me where you are at with Bloodrayne right now.
Uwe Boll -
You know the cast of Bloodrayne is a
great cast; Kristanna Loken, Michelle
Rodriguez, Michael Madsen, and Ben Kingsley. It’s a little like a horror
fiction Interview with a Vampire right
now. It’s because there are so many great characters. There’s Meat Loaf and
Billy Zane and Udo Kier. It’s a period piece because it plays two hundred years
ago, but it’s also a video game based movie, so it is an interesting
combination that nobody has done so far. Let’s wait and see. I’m quite
confident that it turns out very good, but it is an unusual movie. If you were
to compare it to Elektra or Catwoman, we don’t have this
over-the-top hero, flies around and walks up walls. It’s more (of a) dry
violent movie, what we did. It’s a lot of gore and it’s definitely a hard R
rating.
RI- I’ve heard Bloodrayne compared to Braveheart. Would you say that
this is accurate in any way?
UB- The way we did the action, and the way we did the swordfight and this
kind of stuff is similar. Story wise, not, because it’s not a heroic movie. It
is a horror movie.
RI- You have made three video game movies, and plan to make more. What
is your fascination with video games?
UB- I think video games are more interesting than comic books. I think
comic books are made into movies already a lot, and they are even making movies
now out of small comic books. Video games are really bestsellers for the
younger generation in the way that they are more influenced by video games than
books or comic books. This is the reason we do the movies, and I personally
like the stories. They are clear, forward, and as a genre fan I like these
kinds of movies.
Michael Roesch-
Me too. I’ve always wanted to make genre movies, like horror and thrillers. A
lot of actors want the opportunity to make these horror movies, which I love.
(Uwe excuses himself to take
a phone call.)
RI- Michael, you got your start as a film journalist,
correct?
MR- Yeah, I
sold some scripts, but they were never made, but now I’ve got Alone in the Dark opening Friday and I
wrote a script for Michael Hurst, House
of the Dead 2, which got filmed in December by Mindfire Entertainment.
RI- Will that be released anytime soon?
MR-
Absolutely. I think it’s now in post-production.
RI- Can we expect it to be similar to the original
film?
MR- The
movie is actually going a lot closer to the game. It involves a college campus
and as we get deeper into it and deeper into it, more people die. It’s a really
cool movie. It’s showing more like the original video game.
MR- Yes,
absolutely.
RI- How was that the two of you got connected to begin
with?
MR- That’s a
good question. (Uwe joins the conversation.) He asked when we first met. We met
for the first time at the Berlin Germany
UB- No, in
the screening. (Pauses) No, first at the restaurant, and I invited you to the
screening, and you came to the German
Fried Movie screening.
MR- Yes.
UB- So, from
this point on we stayed in contact.
UB- Yes.
MR- Oh, I
think it’s a classic video game. It’s a really cool script. We really wanted to
make a movie about this guy who is chasing creatures all day. It’s a very dark
video game.
UB- After
the more or less brainless House of the
Dead, where the action was everything and no story basically, we wanted to
do a movie where there was actually a story. That way you could get bigger
actors attracted. I think with Alone in
the Dark nobody has to know the video game to like the movie. It has a lot
to do with the video game; the names and the characters and set-ups, but it is
not necessary to know the video game.
RI- Would you say that there is still a large amount
of violence and action in Alone in the
Dark?
UB- Yeah,
you will see it is very gory. It’s an R rating, and we have people get ripped
apart. I personally like gore. I personally would never go- like a few weeks
ago in Germany
UB- The
humor comes from Christian Slater. He is not, let’s say depressed Keanu Reeves
guy. He makes a joke or talks, like for example Stephen Dorff is his competitor in the movie and if he comes to, for
example, the museum and get attacked by creatures and Stephen Dorff is coming,
and he says, “Always coming in the nick of time,” because Stephen Dorff is
always coming too late. In a way, the danger is all gone, and Stephen Dorff
comes in, and he makes jokes about this, which is pissing Dorff off.
UB- It was surprisingly easy. Christian Slater is a very nice, easy
going, and forward, guy. He’s so talented. He can tell you a joke, and then he
turns around and plays a very straight, serious scene. Stephen Dorff is more of
a method actor, so he is like in his part. So if he is pissed in his part he is
pissed also around you. So he was, in the beginning, very aggressive to
everybody; like the wardrobe, costume, make-up, like, “Ahhh, it’s all shit.”
But after like a week he got more and more relaxed and everything was fine. And
so in the end he would go out for drinks, together with Slater. Also Tara Reid.
I would summarize it that it was her first horror movie. She’s a good actress.
She’s doing everything that you require, but she was hurt on her legs and her
feet, because she was not used to it. Like running, jumping, or whatever; it
was a little hard for her. But she tried it and I think actually that we have a
character in the movie that is not used to the horror genre makes it even more
interesting.
MR- It depends on what actors are available, but personally I feel that
Christian Slater is perfect. He looks like Edward Carnby in the games, and he
acts like Edward Carnby in the games. I’m a huge fan of the games. It’s a huge
reason why I wanted to write the script. And Stephen Dorff is a fantastic
actor, Commander Burke, who is head of the unit, which is a kind of government
agency. And there is a conflict between Commander Burke and Carnby, and like
Uwe said, they are perfect for it.
RI- How did you cast the film? Who was the first of the three attached
to the project?
UB- Christian Slater. He liked the part. He liked the video game. He
played the video game. It was funny because Stephen Dorff was next and Tara
Reid was last, but it was a funny situation. Slater’s agent was calling us, I
think, and then Tara Reid’s agent was passing by the door and he heard the
conversation. And he heard that we maybe wanted to go for Jessica Alba, and he
said, “No, no, no. Tara Reid will do it. So he basically came in the room and
said that Tara Reid would do it. And so this is how it came to Tara Reid. It is
not a typical cast for this type of movie. I was not thinking of her to be honest,
and then he came up with the idea and I called her on the telephone and I
talked with her for forty-five minutes. So we said, “Okay, let’s try it.”
UB- It’s like what we did with Bloodrayne.
You have a list and you think, like, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, Kristanna
Loken… Actresses you know can do action, and are used to it. It’s limited what
actors you can use, and to go against trend, is an interesting choice, especially
since in Alone she has to do so much
running. But it’s not like Bloodrayne where
she really has to bite other people and kill other people, ongoing. So a movie
like Bloodrayne, you couldn’t do with
an actress like Tara Reid. It’s not physically possible. Christian Bale was
originally in the run for Slater’s part. He was interested, but we felt that
Bale is a really good actor, and I really like him, but with him the movie
would be very in his character sense, driven. I liked it to have Edward Carnby also
clever. That he’s not only straight and hard and dark. I don’t want to have a
Brandon Lee, The Crow, character. I
wanted to have a guy who was actually like an investigator, who is thinking
about stuff and trying to survive and everything, but should be having some
good lines from time to time.
RI- Do you think this film will be a comeback for Slater?
UB- I’ve personally always liked him a lot. I think his acting is good.
He’s done a lot of good movies. Since True
Romance I’m a big fan of him. I hope that a lot of people want to see him.
After Hard Rain, basically was his
last big movie. Hopefully there are a lot of Slater fans out there. We’ll know
in two weeks, I think.
RI- How was it shooting, and writing, with a creature that required a
great deal of CGI ?
UB- Writing it is easier.
MR- I just write a monster comes through the door.
UB- On set it is a little bit hard. You have to do something for them to
react. I always do some noises. (Growls) Because it is tough to react to
absolutely nothing.
MR- There was scenes with the huge creature, and there was only a few
boxes around. There is a lot of action, but it is only a few boxes. It is hard
for the actors and for the director.
UB- And the problem is that in those scenes, if you have massive action,
with everything floating around of whatever, then the actor doesn’t know where
the monster is. It’s different if you say, okay you stay here and then the
monster comes and cuts your head off. It’s easy. But if you run away, it’s
tough. We basically changed a lot of the animation to the eyes of the actor,
where they are looking. We conformed it to the actors. It was tough developing
the creatures, because whatever you do, you are coming into the Alien thing.
You have no choice. Are you going to do a Jurassic Park
RI- Are you happy with the final product, how the creatures turned out?
UB- CGI is great. It is not
one percent less than Alien Vs. Predator
in quality. And Doug Oddy and his CGI
team did The Cell and Panic Room before, so they are very
experienced. What I like about these guys is they are doing it more dry and
photo realistic so its not fantasy or CGI
stuff. It’s there, and I really like it.
MR- Somebody was saying that it’s better than Spider-man, and it’s a huge compliment.
UB- Spider-man, I wouldn’t say
it’s better than.
MR- A guy on the internet was viewing the movie and he said it was better
than Spider-man.
UB- Yeah?
MR- Yeah, today.
UB- Yesterday was the first press screening. In Toronto Germany
MR- Is Tara Reid going?
UB- No.
UB- People that hated The House of
the Dead, they hate me. If you go in the chat rooms, they are flipping out,
and they have never seen Alone in the
Dark. They judge it because of one movie they didn’t like. They should see Heart of America, they will see it is a
very good movie. I’m really proud of that movie and it has nothing to do with
video games. It’s not a genre movie, it’s a drama, but it is good acting and
script and it works. I say, wait and see Alone
in the Dark. It is a movie that is hard to hate. It is far better in
everything; not only the acting, the story, the CGI .
The set-up is bigger. It was a bigger budget. People cannot say Alone in the Dark is worse. You can
still say “I don’t like it.” But it’s not like you are going to be upset about
the movie. I also judge hard. If I go in the theater to see movies I’m also a
brutal reviewer. If I see a movie like SWAT,
for example. I hated it. It didn’t make sense, and it was heroic things the
whole time. It is over-the-top. Like Alien
vs. Predator. I enjoyed it because I was expecting nothing. And Resident Evil 2. I enjoyed it also. I
cannot say that I would write after it that I hated it.
MR- I think it’s because it’s a video game movie. Video games have such a
large following and people are so emotional about them. I also liked Resident Evil. You should not have
expectations like an Academy voter. I saw Million
Dollar Baby and it’s a really amazing movie, but it’s a film for Academy
Awards. If you’re talking about a fun movie, where you see fun and creatures
and shooting.
UB- Every movie has its place and its audience, and from time to time- I
just saw Shaun of the Dead and I
really enjoyed it. I was laughing because it’s funny. I liked it, but it’s
dumb. I know many people that would hate it. They would think they would not
want to lose ninety minutes of my time for this brainless shit, but I like this
kind of movie. It depends. I try to make it better in every case. I learned
from House of the Dead, like that the
script wasn’t good, and the cheesy dialogue, and you can’t save everything in
the editing. You have to have a better script before you start. Guinevere
Turner, she wrote Bloodrayne, and she
wrote American Psycho. She is not
dumb or something. She is not used to genre movies at all, and that’s the
reason we hired her. It’s really a good character script. That is why people
like Ben Kingsley played in that movie. You will not see Ben Kingsley in Jeepers Creepers. This is because the
script worked good, and Alone in the Dark
was good. Bloodrayne was even better.
It will be better and better and better. Far
Cry will also be very strong. It’s also a learning process. Nobody can say,
“I am perfect, whatever I do”. It’s not the case.
RI- Are there any other video games that you have considered making
movies out of?
UB- Yesterday we actually met about Soul
Calibur. People are devoloping it. There are a lot of games that would be
good movies. Now people are coming to me also. But it must make sense and it
must be new genres. I don’t want to make one zombie movie after the other, or
one creature movie, or one sci-fi movie. Hitman,
I really want to do because I’m a big fan of the story, and I’m a big fan of The Professional from Luc Besson. I’ve
never seen a movie like this. The Hitman
is not repeating The Professional,
storywise, but the movie could be made in the same genre.
RI- How was it working with Ben Kingsley?
UB- I called him and he said I shouldn’t talk with him about it. He said
he knew how he was going to play Kagan, the big vampire, and he played him
perfect. I talked with my agent and he told me, “Ahh, Ben Kingsley is shit”. I
said, “You’re not getting it. He’s a ghost. He’s four hundred years old, and he
is the leader of all the vampires”. He plays it like Schindler’s List and Gandhi,
really calm and straight, and the violence is coming out of the quiet. Then he
grabs someone and sucks a young girl or kills. He’s not the kind of guy you can
have yelling around. It’s idiotic. For this you don’t hire Ben Kingsley. Not
everyone gets this.
Don't ever change, Uwe.
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