Born June 22, 1965, Uwe Boll studied at the University of Cologne and the University of Siegen, earning a doctorate in literature. From 1995-2000, he directed and produced motion pictures with Taunus Film-Produktions GmbH. In 2000, Boll founded the production company Boll KG. From that point, he directed and produced such video adaptations as House of the Dead (2003), Alone in the Dark (2005) and BloodRayne (2005).

Uwe Boll and I recently discussed his upcoming film Postal. The director examined the movie’s portrayal of the events of September 11, 2001. Furthermore, he explained his comments about the film defeating Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at the box office. Boll likewise addressed the criticisms against his filmmaking, noticing the “Stop Dr. Uwe Boll” online petition.

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Josh E Armstrong: How did the idea for Postal come about?

Uwe Boll: I got approached by the Postal fan club, basically. I have to admit I had never played the game before.

I went to see the producer of the game. He liked the idea. He felt like he is an outsider in the game industry, and he felt like I’m an outsider in the film industry. So we meshed together.

He visited me in Vancouver here. We started developing ideas around a possible movie. Then, finally, we went all the way through and made the movie.

JA: How do you want audiences to react to Postal?

UB: I think the audiences’ reactions, besides a few negative internet critics, are very positive. We showed it at a few festivals in San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, New York and LA. The crowds always laughed about it and had a good time. Compared to my other movies, the reviews are also better. From this point of view, I’m very happy with Postal.

JA: In an e-mail, you wrote that you felt Postal would destroy the new Indiana Jones film at the box office. Do you still feel that way?

UB: It’s like my PR strategy, right. What should I say? That I’ll get destroyed by Indiana Jones, and thank you very much? We have no real chance to make the same box office as Indiana Jones. I think it’s very obvious.

But on the other hand, I think Indiana Jones starts on a Wednesday or Tuesday in that week. On the Friday, May 23, there is no other movie coming out. I think that a lot of Indiana Jones fans will go immediately to the movie and maybe on the weekend. There are some other audiences willing to look at other movies.

Postal is so different than Indiana Jones. It’s definitely a very entertaining movie and ridiculous and insulting and politically incorrect. Why should there not be also an audience for Postal existing?

The campaign with Verne Troyer going after Harrison Ford - I think, first of all, it’s funny that Mini-Me tries to destroy Indiana Jones. The other point is also Indiana Jones, I think, is from that big, big Hollywood movie system - what we, in a way, attack with Postal and all my independent-made movies.

JA: About the petition for you to stop filmmaking, are you surprised at the reaction that has gotten? The amount of signatures?

UB: You know, that petition has been online for over two years. Now that I said I would stop making movies if there are a million signups, it got the attention so that a hundred thousand people signed up in the last few days.

But on the other hand, I think there are three or four different pro-Uwe Boll petitions also on the internet, and they also have already a few thousand signups. I think from this point of view, hopefully, I will get a lot of votes that I should not stop making movies.

If you really see what’s coming up every weekend in the theaters, is it really so much better than what I make? Or is it so great to get every weekend, the same movies from the studios, like 10,000 B.C. or Jumper or Leatherheads? Are these movies all so great and way better than my movies? I think it’s kind of an absurd, unfair judgment in regard to my movies.

If you go to the petition ‘Stop Boll,’ it’s also kind of absurd that a lot of people write actually, ‘I never saw a movie from him, but I signed up because it’s cool.’ I have a feeling that it’s the same with people going on IMDb. They vote my movies with one point, because it’s cool. It has nothing to do [with their seeing] the movie. Like Seed, the horror movie, everybody who has seen Seed says that it’s one of the best horror movies ever made. But of course, we have already over 800 people on IMDb who gave it one point, and it’s in the Bottom 50 of IMDb. But the movie’s not even out! It’s been shown at a few festivals. So where are those votes coming from? It’s absurd!

JA: You stated in a video response to the petition that you felt you were the only genius in the whole business. Do you really feel that way?

UB: [laughs] There are two sides of me. I always have the tendency to go, on purpose, a little over-the-top. It’s the same with the Indiana Jones competition.

But on the other hand, who else was able in the last eight years to produce, direct and distribute so many movies outside of the system? If you see the life of Quentin Tarantino, he develops something, and then other people [finance] it. Then he makes the movie. Then he sits on his *ss and looks, for ten months, at other movies to get new inspiration to make his next movie.

But let’s face it, I do everything. Nobody ever did something like what I did in the last eight years. I made the most movies out of all the directors. I was even able to get theatrical releases for those movies. In the U.S., not successful, but outside of the U.S., big success! With BloodRayne and In the Name of the King, all those movies were, in tons of territories, three weeks in the top ten. At the same time, I raised all the financing on my own.

There’s all this stuff that’s absurd in the internet. They’re all writing jealously, like, ‘I could make way better movies than Uwe.’ Then, let’s do it!

But it’s not only about making movies. It’s about working really hard and getting movies made. It’s not so easy. It’s not like you grab a video camera and start filming. I think people who actually try to make movies, they know how hard I have to work to do all this. They know the difference between BloodRayne and one of the fifteen thousand direct-to-DVD movies coming out every year. I think people who are a little attached to the film industry know on what technical level and what kind of range I work.

This is the thing: I make, in a way, independent movies on a studio level - In the Name of the King, BloodRayne and Alone in the Dark, with major film stuff in them. Who else is doing this? Everybody else writes scripts or pitches ideas to the agencies in LA, and they try to get the money from the studio system. I did something outside of the studio system.

People who know something about it respect me big time. It’s not that I get, every day, hate e-mails. I get also, every day, e-mails from people who say they actually think, first of all, that my movies are way not as bad as they get judged. But second of all, they think I do an unbelievable job in making this stuff actually happen.

JA: When in your career do you think the backlash against you began?

UB: I think, first of all, I’m too outspoken. I say what I think about the industry, about the people in the industry, about critics and also about some of the actors I work with. I don’t hide anything. This is, for a lot of people, unusual. They don’t accept it.

At the same time, I totally admit that House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark were not perfect movies. They were like a lot of things I would change, if I could change them. I was not happy with the scripts and with the way we did them. I blame myself also for them - that I, for a higher tower, reached for Alone in the Dark and so on. But I cannot help it anymore.

I think I did better with the other movies. I think In the Name of the King is a way better movie than the movies I did before based on games. If you read the critics of In the Name of the King, you’ll think whatever I do, they will always have exactly the same opinion about me. I think it’s kind of where I lose my respect for those people. It’s completely absurd to say that In the Name of the King is of the same quality as Alone in the Dark. If people say that, they have no clue in filmmaking at all.

I don’t what it was that turned them so against me. But I think in a magazine it was written that I am the guy people love to hate. I think that it got kind of this self-fulfilling prophecy, that the people love to flip-out at my movies.

Even if it’s a great movie like Postal, they say, ‘Yeah, he made here a decent movie.’ But it’s wrong! Postal is not a decent movie; Postal is a great movie! It’s way better than all the comedies with Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell. It’s in the tradition of movies like Blue Brothers or Naked Gun, and people who’ve actually seen the movie know it. But a lot of people, I think, have a problem admitting it.

JA: Are you afraid that because of Postal’s use of 9/11, there will be backlash against it in America? That Americans will be upset?

UB: I met, in New York, a guy in a screening. His father died in the attacks on September 11th. He said the movie was necessary to do.

I make not fun of the victims of September 11th. I make fun of the stupidity of the terrorists. They are like completely retarded, with the suicide ideas of being in Paradise if you kill tons of people that don’t believe in Allah. If people think that this movie is anti-American or something, it’s completely absurd! It has nothing to do with the movie. The movie makes fun of a lot of critical stuff. It shows [Osama] bin Laden as a good friend of [George W.] Bush.

I think, first of all, everybody has the right to do an absurd comedy. Second, I think it was time to make a comedy like this. You will not get a comedy any more like Life of Brian from Monty Python, for example - a great movie from 20-25 years ago. If they made a movie like that now, no one would finance it anymore, because everybody is so politically correct. My idea was really to do something to wake up a lot of people, with the movie.

Postal is not only a trashy comedy. I think it’s also a very sharp satire. It comes across with tons of dirty jokes and violent jokes to stay true to the game and to entertain. I don’t think Postal is as dirty as the reality around us.

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