FunnyCrave Exclusive: An Interview with Uwe Boll

Uwe Boll, as you should know, is the German director of a string of video game-to-film adaptations – movies like Bloodrayne, Postal and House of the Dead.  He’s been maligned critically since he came on the scene, he’s challenged his harshest critics to actual boxing matches and he’s called Michael Bay a fucking retard.  And here’s what he had to say to us about critics, his work as a whole, and getting Megan Fox naked.

FunnyCrave: According to your Wikipedia and imdb pages, from 2009 on through 2011 you had or have 9 movies in the works – how the hell do you manage a schedule like that?

Uwe Boll:  It depends on the movie. Basically during the prep and the post I can also work on other movies parallel – only during the shooting I can focus only on 1 movie

FC: You’re very well known for biting back when critics lash out at you.  At some points your interactions with critics has garnered more attention than your films with events like the boxing match.  Has a critic ever actually said anything that legitimately pissed you off?

UB: I learn and learned a lot from critics and I have nothing against a bad review if the review is substantial. I have only something against unfair, jealous nerds writing lies about me or my movies.

FC: I have to ask this one because it comes up all the time – people say your films are funded through a tax loophole in German filmmaking.  Is that true?

UB: No.  If you invested in a movie in Germany before 2005 you could get a tax loss for your investment – but still your movie must make money to get you the money back. Since 2006 this possibility is closed and I finance my movies with investors that believe in me.

FC: You had a verbal fight with director Michael Bay a while back and I loved how in Bay’s response he tries to make fun of you because you called him a fucking retard and he took issue with the word “retard” despite having directed Transformers 2 which, by all accounts, was fucking retarded.  Is it frustrating that a director like Bay, who the internet also heaps hate upon and who makes awful, terrible movies like Transformers 2 seems to still have this support system and an endless pit of money to work with, while you get even more criticism but have less industry backing?

UB: Absolutely.  I don’t get it how directors of the studio system still get $150 million budgets even if they go nonstop over budget with their movies.

FC: Could you get Megan Fox to appear naked in a movie?

UB: I don’t know. She looks like a bitch so why she shouldn’t do it?

(Ed Note – This answer was voted the best answer to an interview questions since anything John Mayer said in his last interview)

FC: Do you have any contact with the software and game designers responsible for some of the movie adaptations you’ve made, after the movie has been released?  What kind of feedback have they given you?

UB: Some like Gaspower Games on Dungeon Siege, or Majesco on Bloodrayne was very good …or with Running with Scissors on Postal.  Some like Ubisoft just don’t care.

FC: Alone in the Dark is famous for the casting of Tara Reid as an archeologist and if I recall correctly, you lament in the DVD extras that she never showed her boobs on camera.  Did you see them after the surgery she had and if so, would you have wanted them in the movie looking like that?

UB: I think Tara with her big boobies naked in ALONE would sell

FC: You’ve been making films for over 15 years, what have you learned about the industry as a whole?  Do you find you need not only a thick skin but attitude to get by?

UB: I think I’m different than a lot of directors and I have my own way to handle things. That this is not accepted by the industry or hated is not my problem

FC: If Hollywood was Uwe Boll’s Hollywood, what changes would you make?

UB: No more overpaying actors and no more residuals to anybody as long the budgets of the movies are not recouped

FC: Do you think you’ll ever get out of the video game adaptation business and stick to original scripts?

UB: I do that more and more.  Check out Stoic, Rampage, Darfur.  My best movies along with Tunnelrats and Postal.

FC: What film topics would you like to tackle in the future?

UB: I will make a movie about the bailout.