Uwe Boll

Uwe Boll (born June 22, 1965) is a German filmmaker.

He holds a PhD in literature; in 1994, he published a dissertation at the University of Siegen.

Boll first decided to go into the movie business at ten years old after seeing Marlon Brando's Mutiny on the Bounty.

Boll's first two major releases were the horror movie Blackwoods and the drama Heart of America, both of which he directed and co-wrote.

He achieved recognition for loosely adapting video games into movies, having directed and produced a number of such adaptations, including House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Alone in the Dark II, BloodRayne, BloodRayne 2: Deliverance, BloodRayne: The Third Reich, In the Name of the King, In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds, In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission, Postal, and Far Cry.

He came to prominence during the 2000s for his adaptations of popular video game franchises.

Released theatrically, the films were critical and commercial failures; his 2005 Alone in the Dark adaptation is considered by many critics to be one of the worst films ever made.

Boll was criticized in 2005 regarding his funding method, attributed to a loophole in the German tax laws that was finally closed in 2006.

In the opening credits to Seed (2007), Boll used footage of animal abuse and torture he acquired from PETA to underscore the film's nihilism.

He has also promised to donate 2.5 percent of his net profits from Seed to PETA.

Boll's films during the 2010s, comprising mostly original projects and independent movies, received home media releases to better reviews.

In September 2010, a trailer for Boll's film, titled Auschwitz, about the concentration camp of the same name, was posted on YouTube.

The trailer, in which Boll appears as an SS gas chamber guard, contains explicit scenes of the brutalization and killing of concentration camp inmates.

Boll has been quoted as saying that films such as Schindler's List "no longer had the ability to reach young people and that it was his duty as a German to make the film as a way of confronting the past."

In 2010, Boll was the subject of a documentary film titled Raging Boll, directed by Dan West, which premiered at the Austin Film Festival in October 2010.

In 2011, Boll released Blubberella that was indeed a satirical take on superhero movies and a critique of Marvel’s MCU.

As said filmmaker, "...my criticism of the MCU in the past could be seen as part of my satirical approach rather than a personal stance on the entire cinematic universe concept."

In March 2012, it was announced he had finished directing a short horror story for the anthology film The Profane Exhibit.

The story, inspired by Josef Fritzl, focuses on parents with a daughter locked in a room, where they can partake in immoral acts against her.

Boll planned a fourth entry in the BloodRayne franchise in a contemporary setting involving her trying to live a normal life.

Natassia Malthe was expected to return, and was expected to be loosely based on the video game BloodRayne 2.

In August 2013, Boll announced plans to produce a sequel to Postal based on achieving $500,000 from a Kickstarter campaign.

The campaign was, however, cancelled on 5 October 2013.

After retiring in 2016 to become a restaurateur, Boll eventually returned to filmmaking in 2022.

His films are financed through his production companies Boll KG and Event Film Productions.

Boll was born in Wermelskirchen and studied at the University of Cologne.

In October 2016, during an interview with the Toronto edition of Metro, Boll announced his retirement from filmmaking, chiefly citing the decline of DVD and Blu-ray sales, noting that he has had to use his own money to finance his work since 2005.

As of 2017, he continued to work as a film producer.

In February 2018, he revealed in his vlog that he intends to return to film and has sent proposals to Netflix.

However, he no longer wants to finance his projects.

In November 2018, Boll was the subject of a second documentary film titled Fuck You All: The Uwe Boll Story, directed by Sean Patrick Shaul and produced by Prairie Coast Films, which premiered at the 2018 Whistler Film Festival.

The film offers insights into Boll's filmmaking journey, capturing the perspectives of those who collaborated with him.

In October 2020, Boll decided to return to making films and announced Germany in Winter as his next project in development.

In 2022, Boll announced that he would be directing and producing Ness, which follows the later part of Eliot Ness's career, and an action thriller titled 12 Hours.

In February 2023, Variety reported that Boll would be directing and producing the crime drama titled First Shift with Kristen Renton and Gino Anthony Pesi in lead roles, following the journey of two contrasting NYPD officers on their initial day as colleagues.

At the post-production of First Shift Boll worked with Ethan Maniquis, alongside executive producer Michael Roesch.

In October, Quiver Distribution picked up Uwe Boll’s crime drama “First Shift” for the U.S., Canada and selected international territories.

As of 2023, Uwe Boll’s estimated net worth is approximately $10 million.

Boll's films have often performed poorly at the box office in the United States and around the world.

House of the Dead, which was budgeted at $12 million, made $5.73 million in its opening weekend, Alone in the Dark, which was budgeted at $20 million, made $5.1 million, and BloodRayne, which was made for $25 million, made $2.42 million.