Uwe Boll And The Strange World Of Film Incentives
Uwe Boll And The Strange World Of Film Incentives
Introduction
Uwe Boll. Arguably the worst filmmaker in the modern filmmaking world and yet his films, despite being mind-bogglingly atrocious, aren't even the thing that intrigues me most about him. And despite the fact that he's worked with immensely actors like Burt Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Ben Kingsley, J.K. Simmons, and John Rhys-Davies among others, even that doesn't intrigue me as much as the budgets that Uwe Boll has managed to cobble together. According to IMDb, Alone In The Dark (2005) was reported to have a budget of $20 million. BloodRayne (also 2005) took it one step further by managing to rake in $25 million. And of course, In The Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007) had a whopping budget of $60 million! Of course, adjusting for inflation, that would amount to nearly $83 million!
Now, you might say: "His films suck big time, but they make money and if they make money, that's enough for the studios." To that I say, not even close. To quote Stuart Wood (link to the article): "House of the Dead cost $22,000,000 including marketing costs. Its worldwide gross was $13,818,181. That's a LOSS of $9,000,000 by my calculator. Alone in the Dark cost approx $32,000,000 including marketing costs. To date, its worldwide gross is $6,040,827. That is an even more impressive LOSS of $26,000,000." To add insult to injury, let me state that In The Name of the King's worldwide gross was $13.1 million. That equates to a near $47 million loss! Of course, that's not taking into account the marketing costs, which, for the sake of argument, we'll say are $20 million. That raises the loss to $67 million loss!
How the hell can this guy still be making multiple multi-million dollar films after multiple multi-million dollar losses? How can anyone of respectable caliber agree to work in his films? How the hell did this guy ever have a career to begin with?
Well...
This is where the film incentives come in. It is the title of the article after all, so... Anyways, I was intrigued and I did a Wikipedia search on the man and I found that, on the Alone in the Dark DVD Commentary, he talks on the financing. More specifically, he talks on a "tax shelter fund in Germany" where you could get "fifty percent back from the government" just for investing in a German movie. I did a little more research and found out that this was attributed to a German loophole that got closed in 2006, but I was too intrigued. I had to delve further into the subject.
That's when I learned about a little something called German tax shelters. So, the story goes like this: As of 2022, Anything above €277,826 euros means that you have to pay 45% federal income tax. If you make €100 million, that means you'll have to pay €45 million. You would then start a shell corporation in Germany (this deduction only works if you have a German film company) and buy the rights to my film for €90 million. On the remaining €10 million, you would only have to pay €4.5 million.
Now, as for recouping the remaining €90 million, you would charge me €80 million so that I can have the rights to my film back. So, basically, I get €10 million to invest in my movie and you have €85.5 million. Sure, that's not exactly €100 million, but it's much more than €30 million above what you would normally pay. On top of that, the film is most-usually bound to make some sort-of money at the box-office and you, the rich German, might be able to see some of that.
Pre-sales to foreign countries like Japan or United Kingdom based on the star-power and/or the video game recognition can also help quite a bunch with raising money. Film your movie in Vancouver where you can take advantage of the lower value of the CAD in comparison to the USD (which is 1.31 CAD to 1 USD as of 8/28/2022) and, in turn, pay the extras and PAs less. Of course, the plan wouldn't even be complete without utilizing the tax incentives you'd get for filming in Vancouver. Well played, Uwe. Well played.
Oh, I almost forgot about that time when the German government basically restricted this scheme to native German filmmakers with their own German-headquartered film company. Ach du lieber! I guess my plan for funding my first film has completely gone down the toilet. Same with Paramount Pictures, who apparently pocketed between $70 and $90 million from this method alone. Not the case for Uwe Boll, who was born in Wermelskirchen, and whose company, BollKG, is headquartered in Bergrheinfeld, Bavaria. Seems to fit the criteria quite well.
Where Is Uwe Boll Today?
Seems he's doing quite well for himself. Apparently, he's amassed a $10 million net worth and his more recent projects are more lower-budget, self-financed movies which are not as bad as his earlier works. Although, it seems to be just a personal thing for Uwe as he can still command decent budgets. Take for example his upcoming project, Ness, about Elliot Ness of course, which is projected to have a budget of around $25 million. Alongside that, he's been adding to his new YouTube channel, including a video titled "f*ck you all" in which he basically goes on a rant because Kickstarter wouldn't finance a Rampage movie of his.
In closing...
It's not secret that Uwe Boll is a strange man. This being the same man who challenges critics to a boxing match and this being the same man who's only made movies which never rise above 5% on Rotten Tomatoes. He's no Ed Wood; Ed Wood was a man who loved movies but just didn't quite have the ability to make them, but I don't think I can say the same for Uwe Boll. He's just in the industry so that he can make a good paycheck and he knows it and he relishes in it. If I had to say one nice thing about him, it's that he never tried to be what he wasn't.
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