Money, personal issues and lack of casting invitations (or lack of scripts being sent).

Now don't forget Kingsley appeared in Bloodrayne. From "Gandhi", "Sexy Beast" and "House of Sand and Fog" to that!... hmm now there you have a real mystery.

Kirth Gersen

erlik

Highlander Wolf

FellTheDabus

Valarien

Interesting. I thought it was like the game industry where the distributor just eats all the risk and cost (aside from development, of course... though sometimes this is also the case) and sends the devs chump change. At least, that's how I understand it from the days when Steam was still an idea.

dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased

AnnePackrat

I'll agree, because that was pretty bad. I just laughed my ass off and moved on.

Like I said, just put your brain in neutral and enjoy.

PapaBear434

The Amazing Exploding-Man

If they were unintended, that means the German government missed something. WHAT have they missed?

That's the detail no one seems to be able to explain. People and articles that claim this loophole thing about Uwe Boll seem to circle-reference one another on this, with none being able to explain what in the law Boll abuses that wasn't so painfully obvious that it can only be intended.

Guizzy

daschupa

If that's the case, Uwe Boll has finally done something right.

Prepare for the Apocalypse soon after.

Tyber_Zann

Guy Ritchie of 'Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Snatch' fame...not Revolver...

DCSimian

Yes, that was part of it, but Uwe Boll is one of those people. He was investing in his own movies, and finding mainly german investors using his own "production studio" he made for the purpose of taking advantage of the loophole.

And its not like it was just a small tax break, 100% deductable for Uwe Boll.

You say its vague, but I see if rather flat in the face, and nothing you explained goes agianst anything I said.

ScytheRexx

EmeraldDragon

The loophole that WAS closed, was where hollywood producers would find willing rich germans looking for a tax break, have these germans create token "production studios", which would buy rights for movies, then lease production back to hollywood producers. This would have the effect that the money put into movie rights was tax sheltered, despite the fact that the german "producer" gets it back in its almost entirety. Hollywood producers got some cheap financing; rich german investors got a tax break.

Guizzy

It was the scene where he flipped the car in the air to remove the bomb from the undercarriage that did it for me.

At that point, my brain liquefied and drained out through my ears and stained my couch in protest.

doubtful

I was just about to say that under no circumstances should Russ Meyer be mentioned in the same sentence as Uwe Boll unless, said sentence went something like, "When Russ Meyer saw how shitty Dungeon Siege was, he came back from the dead just to kill Uwe Boll."

Russ Meyer made some of the most classic films ever with Up! and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, etc.

re4de2ye0

I wish Seanbaby would have fought Boll. That would have been the greatest thing of all time. Seanbaby is so awesome.

bastardcake

REDFIELD8

firesign

daschupa

toneroni

Agian, the issue was intention. The law was designed to make more people use german investors for outside production houses. Uwe Boll learned that by being german he was able to take advantage of some unintended bonuses. Even the german government didn't want to give locals a 100% tax deductable on failed investments as it only hurts the government itself, who was paying the bills for those failures through lost tax revenue and rebates. This is why when Uwe Boll and a few others took advantage of the law, they quickly tried to change it.

Uwe Boll didn't do anything outside of the law, he was completely inside the law and thats the sad part. I blame the german government for spawning his mad schemes by not preparing for such things in the begining when they made the law in the first place.

Morally, he is a scum bag. He even sent a kid to the hospital in a "friendly PR boxing match" just to make sure we do exactly as he wants, to hate his guts for the scum he is, and still laugh his way to the bank because of it.

ScytheRexx

Corman, I'll give you that. But Russ Meyer stands in a class of his own. After all, Mr. Meyer brought us Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and (personal favorite) Super Vixens. Both amazing films who credit sequences alone outshine Mr. Boll's total collected work.

Poor Liotta - guy did from Goodfellas and Narc and somehow ends up in this?

KingGorilla

taftsearlobe23

Polyh3dron

@doubtful: I liked Transporter 2. Not as much as the first one, but it was a good popcorn movie. Crank wasn't even that. That was a steaming pile of poo from the very first frame. But Jason Statham should be getting a lot more good roles than he is. I like him very much.

@mydogisdexter: I prefer "candy coated" to "puffy" but yes she does look like a younger Helen Hunt. I adored her in Glass House. For one scene in particular...

seafisch

So you say you've actually looked through german law and saw this loophole first hand? Because if you say so, I'll believe you, but I've yet to see a single precise explanation of it (all articles or forum posts that discuss this miss step and either sound like the underpants gnome profit making scheme, or end up with something that is exactly what the law was created for).

Guizzy

Here, if you want to know it all, just read this. Its the ultimate breakdown of what he does, long ago when he started doing it.

[www.cinemablend.com]

If you want to know the specifics of the law itself, you will have to look it up yourself, I don't feel like searching through german law agian.

I realized I was mistaken about one thing, and that was my dates, the loopshole was closed in 2006, and Uwe put all those movies I mentioned into pre-production at the end of 2005. I was a year off on that, I admit, time sure flies.

ScytheRexx

How else? Money.

Even the best of actors will be in some of the worst movies if you hand them a big enough check. The lead actor himself is notorious for taking the next action script thrown in front of him, and all the others are "B" class actors at best. Even Burt Reynolds probably realizes his career is on the decline as he gets older, and so why not accept a nice fat check for a few weeks of work?

ScytheRexx

Guizzy

Its the fact that the law was designed to promote making movies using german companies from outside sources like Unversal and Paramount, who loved using germany because of the amazing rebates and incentives without the restrictions. Uwe Boll learned that by being german himself he was entitled to unintentional rebates and tax breaks that were not considered for the law as it was written, which was why the law was "rewritten" in the first place at the begining of 2007. That is the whole point of a loophole, something written into law that goes beyond the intention of the law.

Really, imagine you can make a movie, with a 100% deductible on the investment from you and all the other investors, rebates, and can even borrow outside money and write that off also. Uwe Boll and his investors can write off the expenses of the movie they make, and do not have to pay taxes as long as the movie does not make a profit, at which point he would have to thus pay taxes. He makes money on flops.

ScytheRexx

KosherInfidel

*watching TV, Dungeon Siege ad comes on*
"Dude, they made a Dungeon Siege movie."
"What the hell?"
"And the dude playing the main character is the same guy as in Crank. How lame."
"Listen to them speak, it's so barely credible."
*sees Boll's name in the credits*
"Oh my god, Uwe Boll made the movie."
"Who?"
"History's greatest monster, that's who."

AuraHACK

Also, doesn't Leelee Sobieski look like a slghtly puffy Helen Hunt?

mydogisdexter

To understand that, you need to know how distribution works. Distribution is another expense, you basically go to the company, give them a huge check, and say "I want this many of this movie, sent to here and here" and the movie is taken, copies printed, and shipped out to theaters or stores.

The reason most smaller movies can't get distribution is because they don't have the money to pay the companies to print all those reels and ship them to the theaters, it can be very expensive depending on the company. This is why most smaller production houses go straight to dvd, as distribution is significantly cheaper then film and thus you have less risk.

Distrubutors don't care if its Citizen Kane or Attack of the Eyeball People as long as you give them that check.

Uwe Boll has the abilitiy to write that check, and when its all said and done, such costs are just another expense he can write off on his taxes using the loophole.

ScytheRexx

Where's the loophole in that? Where does he abuses anything?

Do you really believe that NO ONE in the german government thought that movies could, GASP, not make a profit?

Guizzy

StupidDufus

See while I agree with his opinion, his approach is all wrong. Boll has shown us that he is of course a TERRIBLE film maker but he is one mean ass boxer.

Odin

The movie wasn't great, but the action was top notch. I found the movie quite enjoyable as long as I turn off my brain and enjoy.

PapaBear434

I'm just wondering how he manages to get this filth distributed at all. I've seen better straight-to-video movies that can't even hope of getting distribution, yet here's a guy purposely making bullshit getting all the distro he wants. Why is he allowed to continue?

dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased

BraveSrRob

That's just like in that movie called "The Producers". I can't believe people actually do this, and get away with it too. Upsetting.

romBox

Also, the real actual loophole was closed. Uwe Boll has nothing to do with it. The loophole was that American studios would have German "studios" buy movie rights for them and lease them for production, which would shelter the "leased" "investment" under the german law. This loophole was closed, yet Uwe still produces movies, so there. Uwe actually produces his own movies, with his German studio; this is exactly what the tax shelter wants to do; encourage the growth of the german movie industry.

Guizzy

Brill

firesign

Oomingmak

pitnyelder

wizardofoz85

If there is any good side to this, it means Uwe Boll has an expiration date.

ScytheRexx

Pancake_Ninja

AnotherGamer

Pancake_Ninja

Mohrdikai

Accordion

SuperFox

Wow, if thats the case then he is a fucking genius. I still loathe him and the shit he creates but I gotta hand it to him, thats a pretty good racket he has going there.

Gray665

Uwe Boll is still taking advantage of the tax law in Germany. Basically, the law in question, used to promote the german film industry, has a loophole that if you used a german production house, and the movie flopped, you could write off all expenses on your taxes while keeping whatever revenues were made on the film. This is how Uwe gets all his dirty money, and why producers continued to fund him, since it was basically a risk free investment.

He wants it to flop, as any "real profit" would go beyond the boundries of the law, in essene losing him and the investors money.

Now, the german government noticed that people were abusing this loophole and closed it at the begining of 2007. However, all films that were put into "PRE-PRODUCTION" before the new year and the revision would still be under the old law, and so what did Uwe do? He put multiple movies into pre-production at the end of 2006, two of them being Postal and Dungeon Siege, another one being Far Cry, and I would not be suprised if the other five or six movies he supposedly is working on were thrown into the pre-production stages just before the ball dropped at the end of 2006. He went from one movie now and then to nearly ten at once, its like he decided to stop trying to hide the real reason he does this.

He is a crook, plain and simple, that only wins because we hate him, and will win regardless of what we do. If we don't watch his movies, he gets rich, if we watch his movies, he gets rich.

ScytheRexx

nardsy

Gray665

I think he is the next big action star out there...

I thought that, too, until I saw Transporter 2 last weekend. What a waste of a Blu-Ray. Thank goodness it was free.

doubtful

jayntampa

Seiven

FanDam

Not NAKED Stathome, though. I not what I meant. I think he is the next big action star out there (along with Dwayne "I refuse to call him The Rock" Johnson.)

PapaBear434

Trowble (XBL/PSN)

smitty1123

I also like Jason Stathome, so I feel kind of bad that he is in this.

PapaBear434

Well, I'd encourage you to wait until it's on DVD and rent it, or buy a ticket to a better movie and sneak in.

If you're not familiar with Uwe's previous work, Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne 2 are his most hideous things to date. Haven't seen ITNOTK.

BloodRayne 2 is probably on the short list of the worst films of all time. Considering Boll's other films, that's saying A LOT.

VicViper

BobbyMike

Tri5cui7

seafisch

I kinda want to find out how awful it is, yet don't want to give the funding to encourage more of this drivel. So much conflict.

holytramp

tho the only one i'm not sure if it's good or bad is house of the dead, that type of movie is SUPPOSED to be bad, so technically speaking, it's probly the only good movie he's made, yayaya flame away but i do have a point for those that enjoy the zombie genre

cleverlymadeup

9 p.m. Big climax. Lots of action on lots of fronts. Beasties in the rain. Babes in the trees. Farmer in the castle. Editing in the dumpster. Looks like somebody keeps changing channels.

TitillatedOcelot

Wookiee1

So, since when have you been a masochist Mike? Do you want to talk about it?

FP_slomo788

NunianVonFuch

baked ham

ShirtNinja

doubtful

darksteel1989

Whats scary though is while they tank here, Bolls films do insanely well in the Eastern Bloc countries now.

Falconfire

Kuroomu

dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased

cametall

I'm just... okay, that analogy is lame... but what are they nailing? It should say:
"Wisdom is our hammer; goodness will be our nail; this line of dialogue, our coffin."

Tonx

Wolf_Dog

Don't give it a penny this weekend. I feel so sorry for the saps wandering innocently into the theater to see an action movie with magic missles. Emergency rooms will be full tonight!

KK

KittenKiller

Stop encouraging him!

Tale