SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Uwe Boll, known to videogame fans as the director of numerous game-to-film adaptations, including Postal, Alone in the Dark, and House of the Dead, has released a profanity-laden rant aimed at crowdfunding. The video comes as a Kickstarter campaign attempting to fund production of his latest project, Rampage 3, limps toward its conclusion with less than half of its goal and fewer than four days remaining.
"Basically, my message is, f**k you," says Boll, "because it is so f**king absurd what retarded, amateur idiots [are] collecting money on that absurd website." Boll goes on to complain about the crowdfunding system's failure to deliver on his expectations.
With the campaign appearing doomed, Boll claims to have decided to give up on the project. Despite his opinion that it is, "an important film," Boll acknowledges, "nobody seems to care about Rampage 3, so, I guess I shouldn't do it, then."
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @04:33PM
The article refers to a youtube video. Please do not watch it directly, since that would require running nonfree software.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by dyingtolive on Thursday June 11 2015, @04:44PM
And more importantly, it'd be condoning and indulging in this kind of vapid, pointless bullshit. This doesn't deserve to be here, yet it is.
I feel like I'm staring at TMZ or BuzzFeed or something right now. Need brain purge.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 5, Informative) by n1 on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:03PM
Uwe Boll did not deserve the coverage in my opinion, which is why I personally didn't accept this submission which was sitting in the queue for a while. Other editors and the community in general have different interests and perceptions from my own, which is why it wasn't rejected by me either.
All that said, there is a wider discussion to be had about the merits of crowd-funded campaigns. It's a shame that it's perhaps the wrong person (someone with no credibility) who brought it up on this occasion.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by CoolHand on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:50PM
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:38PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:41PM
What's wrong with Firefox?
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @07:02PM
You're obviously not very well read when it comes to Stallmanism:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.en.html [gnu.org]
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.en.html [gnu.org]
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday June 11 2015, @07:14PM
If your reason to not use youtube is because it uses JavaScript then your list of sites not to visit is growing faster than you could ever type it. Not only that but but Stallman's argument is that only SOME JavaScript qualify as non-free, not JavaScript itself. Which means Firefox IS free software but that youtube is not.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @06:24PM
Stallman? That you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @02:22PM
Next.
(Score: 5, Informative) by FatPhil on Thursday June 11 2015, @04:36PM
Postal: 22/100 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486640/criticreviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt
Alone in the Dark: 9/100 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369226/criticreviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt
House of the Dead: 15/100 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317676/criticreviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt
So thank you, crowdfunders everywhere, for not supporting his latest venture.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @04:55PM
Relevant to Rampage 3:
Rampage [imdb.com] Ratings: 6.3/10 from 13,738 users
Rampage 2: Capital Punishment [imdb.com] Ratings: 6.3/10 from 3,317 users
Also:
Assault on Wall Street [imdb.com] Ratings: 6.1/10 from 14,852 users
Plus, Postal's opening scene contains the best 9/11 parody ever, [youtube.com] the rest of the movie doesn't live up to it, but that scene was genius, especiall that it was nearly 10 years ago.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday June 12 2015, @08:51AM
Assault on Wall Street: 24/100 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2368553/criticreviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt
The other two weren't even deemed significant enough for any professional critics to see them and rate them, apparently.
However, that Postal clip was indeed hilarious. Very non-PC, offensive to anyone with a broomstick up their arse, but freedom to offend is a far more important right (namely one that validly exists) than the freedom to not be offended (which is some modern invention that doensn't really exist, nor should it).
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @03:04PM
> A bunch of fanboys tells you nothing about a film. Hence the linking to the metacritic scores.
A bunch of people with a variety of economic pressures to distort their views, like industry junkets [ericdsnider.com] and the ever weakening seperation between church-and-state. [forbes.com]
As if Uwe Bolle has fanboys. lol
> Very non-PC, offensive to anyone with a broomstick up their arse,
Like who, exactly?
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday June 11 2015, @09:37PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jummama on Thursday June 11 2015, @04:46PM
Uwe, your message goes straight back to you from us. F**k you, because it is so f**ing absurd what retarded, amateur idiots [are] producing from solid franchises"
It isn't so much that we don't care about Rampage 3, but more that we don't care about you. The "retarded, amateur idiots" you speak of haven't already repeatedly proven themselves to be incompetent at what they are trying to get funding for. (Failure horror stories notwithstanding)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:22PM
F**k you, because it is so f**ing absurd what retarded, amateur idiots [are] producing from solid franchises
If you are already running you generally don't need a "Kickstart."
The site is pretty explicitly intended for those exact amateurs!
Sorry, but your cynical industry churn is not the intended audience.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TheRaven on Thursday June 11 2015, @09:41PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Zinho on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:11PM
I feel no pity for his lack of funding. This is the man who famously pioneered making money on bad films [cinemablend.com] by taking film production subsidies and tax breaks from the German government, then intentionally making the movie flop. The same man who thinks an appropriate response to criticism is to lure his detractors into a one-sided boxing match and pummel them into unconsciousness. [engadget.com] His CV is a stain on the history of filmmaking, and he is personally a blemish on the face of humanity.
I can only pray that the reason he's experimenting with crowdfunding because his previous gravy train dried up. The world will be a better place if no more of his films get exposure on the silver screen.
And Uwe, if you're reading this? The reason that you didn't get funded is that WE DON'T WANT YOU TO MAKE ANY MORE FILMS and we're voting with our money. Please take the hint and start defrauding Wall Street bankers instead of moviegoers, the world will thank you for it.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 1) by bitrotRnotbitrot on Thursday June 11 2015, @08:43PM
The same man who thinks an appropriate response to criticism is to lure his detractors into a one-sided boxing match and pummel them into unconsciousness.
Clicking that link makes all the difference, he beat a guy from something awful. I dislike Mr Boll slightly less now ;)
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday June 11 2015, @10:47PM
This is the man who famously pioneered making money on bad films…
Reminds me of The Producers [imdb.com].
(Score: 2) by MrGuy on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:17PM
Uwe Boll deciding to stop making crowdfunded movies reminds me more than a little of this comic [penny-arcade.com]
It IS a nice dream!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by purple_cobra on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:20PM
It's "an important film", yet a tiny amount of people are willing to throw money at it? A film made by a man considered by a non-trivial number of people as one of the worst living film directors?
You can't fool all of the public all of the time, Uwe. And getting them to part with their cash is even harder.
(Score: 1) by Zal42 on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:47PM
But it clearly is an important film. To him.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by curunir_wolf on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:32PM
"nobody seems to care about Rampage 3, so, I guess I shouldn't do it, then."
Exactly. It's working as designed.
I am a crackpot
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:42PM
"Game to film" and "important" just don't seem to belong in the same sentence. Or paragraph, or whatever. Maybe it's just me, but few films have ever seemed to be very important to me. Way back in the day, Tron seemed kind of cool - but that went the other way, right? Film to game? Again, whatever - it just wasn't "important". It amazes me that so many people can take games so very seriously. It amazes me even more that so many of those people are seeming adults. Game - important - game - important. Hell, the NFL isn't "important". NFL, NBA, the World Cup - all of them together aren't important. Games are merely DISTRACTIONS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @06:01PM
Distractions from what? From what YOU think is important. And that is exactly the issue here.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tibman on Thursday June 11 2015, @08:12PM
I agree that games aren't important but they are fun and challenging. You can't do something important 24/7. Most of life is drifting from one distraction to the next with decent company.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:53PM
So he went on a YouTube rampage because his rampage movie didn't work out.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday June 11 2015, @06:32PM
I'm confused. I thought Kickstarter was designed to provide amateurs a mechanism for financing projects that are high risk as far as traditional financiers goes.
Uwe has a long resume in the film industry. From his rant it seems he would considers himself non-amateur, thereby allowing him to seek capital from more traditional sources. But he is putting himself through the painful process of crowdfunding (he obviously is not enjoying it, hence rant).
Maybe - just maybe - he cannot secure funding through traditional sources because of his track record. I've never seen his films so this is pure speculation.
(Score: 2) by MrGuy on Thursday June 11 2015, @07:11PM
Meh. Zach Braff raised $3,000,000 on Kickstarter [kickstarter.com] to fund "Wish I Was Here." He has no more claim to being an amature than Uwe Boll.
At the time, Wish I Was Here was a big story - a director raising money directly from the people, able to make the film he wanted without "traditional" studio constraints. It was one of the earlier projects that put Kickstarter on the map for big industry players in entertainment (Tim Schaefer's Double Fine Adventure [kickstarter.com] game being the other one I remember from that period). There were breathless stories that directors maybe wouldn't NEED big studios anymore - Kickstarter would usher in a golden age of artistic freedom!
That said, the movie was a commercial and critical flop, so clearly "the people want this!" isn't a guarantee standard for what will succeed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @07:20PM
> Uwe has a long resume in the film industry.
He doesn't take funding from traditional industry sources. He used to benefit from "stupid german money" [usatoday.com] but that tax dodge went away in 2005. So he might not be an "amatuer" but he's not like the typical industry professional either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @06:43PM
please, can we negative fund a project like the next M. Night Shyamalan movie?
(Score: 2) by MrGuy on Thursday June 11 2015, @07:23PM
We could maybe do something like agriculture subsidies where the government pays farmers NOT to grow crops [theweek.com] to keep the price higher.
We could crowdfund a pool of money that would allow us to offer (say) Shyamalan $500,000 in cash if he can agree to go a year without writing, directing, participating in, visiting the set of, or even thinking about movies. I'd chip in $10 for this...
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 12 2015, @01:11AM
At least Shyamalan made one good movie and a couple more pretty decent ones. He seems to have run out of steam though. Boll never made any good movies at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @02:01AM
Sixth Sense: check
The Vil... hmm... ah!
Signs... oh wait, no that was shit too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @06:51PM
Today, Kickstarter named Uwe Boll as their new Quality Control Chief. Mr. Boll's first action after swearing in live on youtube was to remove his own Kickstarter projects for funding retarded, amateur, and idiotic films.
(Score: 4, Funny) by JeanCroix on Thursday June 11 2015, @07:31PM
(Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Thursday June 11 2015, @08:09PM
I've been watching Jim Sterling's Steam Greenlight stuff and I've seen tons of 15-year-olds who crap out MS-Paint/pirated asset knockoff games and then rage when the world refuses to fellate them for their 'work'. Nothing but a wall of anger, egomania, and defensiveness.
I'm not able to see much difference between that and this.
(Score: 2) by TK on Friday June 12 2015, @04:44PM
That's kind of universal for young "artists". Ever had someone hand you their mixtape or demo CD outside of a concert venue? Or post links on their social media accounts. They suck 90% of the time, but the people making them obviously think they're good enough to bring out in public.
The difference is that someone like Uwe Boll, who has experience actually being paid for his work, and presumably being criticized for it as well, should have a thick enough skin to not publish a rant on youtube.
Then again, maybe all publicity is good publicity. I hope the backers get their money back and learn their lesson.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 1) by acp_sn on Friday June 12 2015, @01:17AM
I was surprised that Rampage 1 was actually a really well made movie. The main character was a believably acted, the plot was engaging and it had an actual interesting twist that wasn't telegraphed from the start.
Also 1968 Tunnel Rats different than most war movies in a good way. And while the Postal movie average overall it did have some really funny moments. Including Uwe playing himself telling the audience that his movies were funded by nazi gold.
So while he has made some stinkers he has also done some good work , just like lots of career filmmakers.