WoW - No Uwe Boll Movie @ MTV

Well, this one comes from the humour department. It seems Uwe Boll has been turned down by Blizzard for a World of Warcraft movie. Here's what he had to say to MTV when interviewed:

“You go for it, to please the game fans, but on the other hand if you have the hard core gamers, they live in their own world. And you cannot fulfill their ideas from a video game based movie, it’s impossible,” Boll recently told MTV News. “And to be honest, the real gamers are the typical download guys, right? They don’t pay anything for movies, because they illegally download the movies. So why I should please these guys? I need the normal audience.”

“I got in contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard, and he said, ‘We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…especially not to you,’” Boll revealed. “Because it’s such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income, what the company has with it.”

More information.

"especially not to you"

Guys like Boll make me almost believe that there IS a vast media conspiracy to only let select people make movies. Otherwise, how does he actually get work?

Originally Posted by blatantninja
Guys like Boll make me almost believe that there IS a vast media conspiracy to only let select people make movies. Otherwise, how does he actually get work?

Here's something I found regarding that point:

Originally Posted by Andy Cochrane
Ok, here is some interesting back story on Uwe Boll, and how he keeps making movies. He is self-funded, using a loophole in the German tax code that has since been closed, specifically to stop him from making more movies. With the abysmal failure of “Dungeon Siege” he is out of $$ and will now enter the ‘low budget’ phase of his career, like so many inexperienced directors before him. Could not have happened to a more deserving filmmaker. Now I hope that this petition works.

maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income

What kind of thing could destroy WOW now anyway ?

I mean - the income is so huge there is almost nothing that could harm WOW anymore !

If I'm understanding Uwe Boll right, he thinks tastes improve when someone becomes an illegal downloader. It's sort of like respect. So the reason he aims for low quality is that he figures he can't make any money on the higher-quality audience.

Gosh, what a sweet guy.

Originally Posted by Arhu
Here's something I found regarding that point:

I've never seen 'em, but I've heard Boll's early, non-gaming films were actually pretty decent. If he returns to that, who knows.

I mean, the guy's just…the Ed Wood of our time. Complete inept, but for some reason I can't help thinking he really loves films. Why he has such a hard time recognizing his own ineptitude…who knows.

I understand that some people are "amusical" — that means they simply cannot perceive the difference between someone singing in tune and someone not singing in tune. That explains a whole lot about the folks presenting themselves at various Idols contests. I suppose the same could be true about films.

They should let him do it… I mean - it's WoW - what could he possibly screw up there?

Based on his interviews I think he knows himself. He is not inept and he is not Sidney Lumet and I think he is confident with both of those.

/climbs soapbox

It irks me to see people say things like "inept" about a produced filmmaker or working actor. I work in the industry and know how hard it is to get produced or get work. You can be inept at some things but you have to be a genius at another aspect of the business.

Keanu Reeves is a good example. People laugh out loud at his "terrible" acting yet everyone in the industry respects him. And believe me, he is not a terrible actor. It is hard for the public to gauge because they never get to see the terrible actors who never make it.

That was a rant, sorry.

Originally Posted by Reyla
Based on his interviews I think he knows himself. He is not inept and he is not Sidney Lumet and I think he is confident with both of those.

/climbs soapbox

It irks me to see people say things like "inept" about a produced filmmaker or working actor. I work in the industry and know how hard it is to get produced or get work. You can be inept at some things but you have to be a genius at another aspect of the business.

Keanu Reeves is a good example. People laugh out loud at his "terrible" acting yet everyone in the industry respects him. And believe me, he is not a terrible actor. It is hard for the public to gauge because they never get to see the terrible actors who never make it.

That was a rant, sorry.

I take it you haven't actually seen any Uwe Boll movies?

Some people are more cut out for certain areas than others. I think Keanu's casting for "Much ado about nothing" was a mistake but he did fine as Neo in the Matrix trilogy as well as John Constantine. However, I've yet to discover Uwe Boll's redeeming characteristics. He really *IS* as bad as the rumors are saying and while the tax loophole explains why he could continue to make one horrible movie after the other, I still haven't figured out what the heck actors like Jason Stratham, John Rhys Davis and Ron Perlman were thinking when they signed on to do the Dungeon Siege flick.

Keanu Reeves is a good example. People laugh out loud at his "terrible" acting yet everyone in the industry respects him. And believe me, he is not a terrible actor. It is hard for the public to gauge because they never get to see the terrible actors who never make it.

I don't think he's necessarily a terrible actor, at least not anymore. But he's been absolutely HORRIBLE in certain films, and as to why that is - who can say. In any event, he's - at best - a mediocre actor.

Why anyone would respect that is hard to understand from where I'm sitting. Maybe he's a nice guy and he certainly looks great - which is always helpful - but respect should not be based on his ability to act.

I don't respect anyone because they're lucky, pretty, or knows how to manipulate those around them or any kind of system. If he's a nice guy, I can respect him for that, but it has nothing to do with his talent as an actor.

Telling "the public" they can't guage quality of acting is bullshit. There is no law that states what good acting has to be. To me, it's whether or not the actor can convince me. That's all there is to it.

Reeves has done some incredibly unconvincing work, and he managed to almost singlehandedly ruin Dracula for me, simply because he was so utterly bad in it. Ok, so he wasn't the only bad thing about that film, but still.

Now, I haven't seen any of Uwe's movies, but if they all suck then why would anyone respect his ability to get them produced? That is entirely seperate from his work as an artist. Meaning it's irrelevant to the point, which is that he might be a good business man, but he's apparently a terrible director regardless. It's like saying we should respect a lying, incompetent, or corrupt politician because he knows how to stay in the game.

I guess that means I should respect EA for compromising so many game designs, or Bruckheimer for his ability to find the largest audience and appeal to it. That's not gonna happen, though, because I find nothing worthy of my respect about those things. Maybe if I was "in the business" I could appreciate the "talent" required to successfully navigate the system, though I have a hard time seeing myself as a part of that circus.

Originally Posted by blatantninja
Guys like Boll make me almost believe that there IS a vast media conspiracy to only let select people make movies. Otherwise, how does he actually get work?

As far as I can tell, he buys licenses for games like Far Cry and Postal pretty cheap. The developers sell it off because they figure their game will get no licensing revenue or exposure anyways, so why say no? WoW is a different case though, since they actually have something to lose.

Originally Posted by Reyla
Keanu Reeves is a good example. People laugh out loud at his "terrible" acting yet everyone in the industry respects him. And believe me, he is not a terrible actor. It is hard for the public to gauge because they never get to see the terrible actors who never make it.
.

Come on now. Keanu Reeves is, indeed, an absolutely terrible actor. He essentially played himself in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and that was his only good performance. Even the good movies that he has been in like "Devil's Advocate" would have been better with somebody else.

If Blizzard was going to make a Warcraft movie, it sure as hell wouldnt be Uwe at the helm!

Truth be told, I have kinda enjoyed some of his stuff while knocking back a beer, but then again, terrible films are a guilty pleasure of mine ='.'=

I have a very high tolerance!