There are directors you complain about, and then there’s Uwe Boll. The German director had made so many flops that he could no longer get studios to finance his movies; instead of taking this as a sign that maybe he ought to find a new career, he secured his own financing, and churned out three more flops.
Now even that ride has ended, thanks to the dismal box office performance of Boll’s latest, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. The Hollywood Reporter tells us that the money from Boll’s German tax shelter fund has run out, which means he’s got to go low-budget or not at all. The money from now on will have to come from presales, which means that investors will need some guarantee that they’ll get some of their money back. Given that Alone in the Dark made about $12 million less than it cost, and Bloodrayne lost a staggering $23 million, you can bet there aren’t a whole lot of investors lining up to pour money into the next Boll project.
But don’t worry, genre fans. Just because he’s going low budget doesn’t mean Boll is leaving the schlock behind. He told the Reporter, "In the future, I will focus on small films such as (the video game adaptation) 'Postal' or (the Vietnam war drama) 'Tunnel Rats,' " he said. "These are films that represent my true passion, and they can be done with small budgets." Phew. If Boll’s true passion were to tell the story of a small-town girl with big dreams, I’m not sure movies would survive unscathed.
