cogadh: Boll fully admits that he has made movies specifically to bomb at the box office, just to take advantage of German tax laws. He is not making movies he feels are good (except Postal, I honestly think he believes that is a masterpiece), he is making movies he
knows are bad.
Gundato: Do you actually have a link to that interview? I was always under the assumption that he pointed out that German tax laws allow for a return on investments, and everyone just assumes that he intentionally tries to make bad movies to take advantage of that (rather than using it as a safety net).
Essentially, the way German tax law used to work (it was changed in 2005/2006, too late for some of the movies Boll already had in the pipe, like Dungeon Siege), investors in German-made films could write off 100% of their investment as a tax deduction and even write off fees on borrowed money. This meant investors would only have to pay taxes on any profits the film might make and if the film didn't make any profits, it was a complete write off. No Boll film (that I know of) has ever made a profit, so for Boll's investors, his movies become like a charitable contribution that guarantees at least a 50% return on the investment through tax rebates and a lower overall tax burden. He explains his funding method in the DVD commentary for Alone in the Dark:
"...the reason I am able to do these kind of movies is I have a tax shelter fund in Germany, and if you invest in a movie in Germany you get basically fifty percent back from the government."
Also this article has some great insight into the whole scam (though it does also contain some strong opinions on it as well):
http://www.cinemablend.com/features/Uwe-Boll-Money-For-Nothing-209.html Interestingly, since the tax laws in Germany were changed, Boll is no longer able to get the funding he used to and was asking fans for help with financing his Blackout movie (offering "investors" a signed copy of the movie's DVD for a $44 investment).
Fortunately, it didn't work but Boll ended up financing the film by some other means and it is still supposed to be out sometime this year.
Also interestingly, Postal was the first movie Boll made after the law was changed and it was the first movie that he actually got upset about its limited (practically non-existent) release. With the law the way it used to be, he didn't care one bit that film might only be in 300 theaters, that limited release pretty much guaranteed it wouldn't make a profit and his tax dodge scam would work. Now that he no longer has that dodge, he needs his movies to get a wider release and actually make a real profit, but Hollywood has been burned by his past movies too many times now.
