9 amazing Uwe Boll facts from Vanity Fair's epic profile
Uwe Boll -- pronounced "OO-va Bowl" -- is a singular figure in this world.
He's a filmmaker and a restauranteur. A boxing enthusiast who has literally stepped into the ring with his critics. His movies -- particularly an infamous string of video game adaptations -- are legendarily terrible, but not in the way that earns them cult status.
Boll recently completed and released Rampage: President Down, his 30th and -- supposedly -- final movie. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Vanity Fair profiled the filmmaker in a sprawling feature that frames his unusual body of work against an unusual life.
As you might expect, the interviews with Boll and those who know him uncover some fascinating nuggets about his life and creative output. Read on for a rundown of the standouts.
1. There was no script for Boll's final film
"On Boll’s set, in the video village, a harried script supervisor searched the 20-page treatment, which was more like a hodgepodge of miscellaneous dialogue ideas, in no discernible order, with no page or scene numbers or character designations. It was largely ignored, in any case."
Don't overlook the most amazing factoid here: even without a script, Boll still hired a script supervisor. Later in the story, it comes out that President Down was shot in 10 days. Shocker.
2. He challenged his critics to a boxing match
"At that time, the smoke had barely cleared from the event dubbed 'Raging Boll,' where Boll battled several critics in the boxing ring, including a 17-year-old who urinated blood afterward. 'Boll seemed honestly mad and bothered that people could not accept him as a genius,' says Rich Kyanka, one of Boll’s pummeled opponents."
This really happened. I remember covering it. The profile returns to Raging Boll later, describing it thusly: "In Boll’s mind, the 2006 Raging Boll boxing event was an unmitigated triumph, a symbolic defeat of the hordes of anonymous haters. It looks more like a fatal P.R. misstep, forever cementing Boll’s reputation as a cartoon villain flailing at his inner demons."
3. Boll might create trash, but he's a likable fellow
“I like Uwe,” Michael Madsen told me, despite what he’s said about the films in the past. “If he called me up tomorrow to be in a movie, I’d sign up in a heartbeat.”
Earlier in the profile, Madsen calls BloodRayne -- Boll's 2005 film based on the vampire-focused action game series -- an "abomination" and "a horrifying and preposterous movie."
4. Boll's third child is named after a fictional character
In 2014, Boll married a former actress, who co-runs the restaurant and acts as Uwe’s publicist. They have a child each from previous marriages, plus an infant son of their own—named Walter, after Walter White from Breaking Bad.
I'd sure love to be a fly on the wall the day a young Walter Boll watches Breaking Bad for the first time.
5. Jennifer Lawrence has a weird connection to Boll
"...and the time he slept in Jennifer Lawrence’s bedroom—and read her teenage diary—when her parents rented out their home in Los Angeles (“You should actually write that in the article. She doesn’t know it”)."
Uhhhhhhh... what? No no. I'm serious here: WHAT?
6. Boll has come up with... creative ways to stay under budget
"Boll saved even more money by having real Romanian prostitutes play the concubines sprawling themselves over Meat Loaf."
The movie referenced here is BloodRayne. Also, hiring Romanian sex workers is apparently cheaper than hiring extras...?
7. Those crappy video game movies were very profitable
“If House of the Dead totally tanked, I would’ve stopped it right there,” Boll says. “But those three films over-performed. I have to drive this as long as it goes. I have to put my personal interests aside. Build my reputation, build capital with it, that I can do more passion projects if I have some money.”
Apparently, cutting every corner during production and draining all the craft out of the filmmaking process helps to keep things under budget. As a result, House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne earned more for Boll's investors -- "Mostly dentists who don't watch the films," he said -- than they would have gotten backing a typical Hollywood blockbuster.
8. The BloodRayne shoot faced a literal plague, apparently
"The shoot for BloodRayne was the direst of all: cast and crew were attacked by gnats and bees and passed dead horses on the way to work, and even the live horses were difficult, throwing off actors and galloping into the forest at the clap of the clapperboard."
Nothing screams "I've made excellent choices in my life" more than passing horse corpses on the way to work every day.
9. Boll tried to nab the World of Warcraft rights, and... LOL
Boll eventually found himself treated like a pariah in the games industry. When he met with the game developer Blizzard, hoping to acquire the film rights to World of Warcraft, they laughed him out of the room. “They hate me. ‘No way. Never, ever.’”
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
