Then we have him killing one guy while accessing the room killing another guy and he comes out and then knocks down BloodRayne
Director Uwe Boll
So begins our interview with director Uwe Boll who is currently in Romania shooting BloodRayne . We call in the early hours of the morning as they are workng night shoots. There is constant hustle and bustle during the call as horses and knights battle, Uwe has to keep shouting directions during the interview, since they are filming some scenes with Michael Madsen during the climatic battle.
UB: Now I', ready!
JW: OK, great.
UB: We are doing the biggest massacre in the movie right now, so we have five knights in this monastery in Romania right now and a huge battle with like one shot after another where people get killed or cut and half and stuff.
JW: Sounds hectic!Alien Vs. Predator has done well at the box office has this raised your expectations for how BloodRayne will be do?
UB: Yes, absolutely. Basically BloodRayne is a completely different movie to my previous ones. It is a video game based movie sure, but far more story orientated. I thought it would be good to move the story back and to tell the prequel really. To show how BloodRayne became BloodRayne in the 1700's. A franchise really, so maybe we can move a hundred years into the future for the next one, then later with the game story with the Nazi's and all that stuff, we can do it in part two or part three.
JW: Oh right so you plan to continue?
UB: Yes, but in general it was very exciting with House of the Dead making good money in the territories and elsewhere. Also in the UK I think we plan the release it at Halloween with the French also putting out the movie.
JW: Is that Redbus?
UB: Yes that’s right Redbus are doing it.
Kristanna Loken stars as Rayne
JW:
UB: I don’t mind we can do the Nazi story but I tried to start with a real explanation like who is Kagan, what are the roots of the whole vampire story. I want to do BloodRayne as really bloody period piece. It makes more sense to tell the whole story also where the Brimstone Society origins are and then we can make that jump to the story that plays in the time of the Nazi's.
JW: Well that makes sense I guess given some people are not familiar with the game.
JW: Why did you cast Ben Kingsley as Kagan? Did you have him in mind or...?
UB: I think Ben Kingsley is a great choice. He is finished up already so he is gone, we have done all his scenes. I must say it was a great honour to work with Ben Kingsley he is a great actor. He makes the part very believable. He plays a real evil king basically. Not like Gary Oldman, though he could have made a great Kagan as well. But he was more a dirty vampire; Ben Kingsley is more like an aristocrat, like the Sir Ben Kingsley (laughs). He plays it very cool. Which makes it even more evil and its good to have to have the very emotional Kristanna Loken playing against the real ice cold Ben Kingsley.
So in the scenes we have done everything worked very very well, some really strong scenes between these two.
Ben Kingsley on set as Kagan
JW:
UB: Yes he did sword fighting and some action scenes. Obviously we have stunt doubles too, with all the actors. I always try to get the best our of the actors with stunt scenes with people like Matt Davis, Will Saunders, Michelle Rodriguez and Kristanna they are very capable with these things. They are getting better and better with things like horse riding, shooting bows and crossbows and fighting with swords. But some stuff is too dangerous.
JW: What about Kristanna Loken is she really getting into her character? How is she finding playing Rayne?
UB: I am really happy to have her in the movie. She is tall and strong, very sporty. She grew up in a zoo basically...her father had like a pet zoo in New York State. So she has a very good relationship with nature and with horses. So she could do all the riding stuff on her own. Plus with the other work she did on Terminator 3 and more recently in South Africa with Kingdom in Twilight , she was already trained in using sword in a way as well as being used to action scenes. So a really good start.
JW: Your quite an animal lover yourself, I was reading on your diary page about some dogs you rescued?
UB: Yes, many dogs, I have two running around me right now. Romania has loads of street dogs and basically I am a big dog friend I guess. I even brought my own dog with me from Germany. But it is touching to see all the dogs starving, I cannot stand it so I bought food and I feed them when I can. So now I have two dogs and will be taking three dogs back to Germany. Plus one other guy on the crew is taking one as well.
JW: Well it’s good you're doing something about it most people just talk about it!
UB: Yes...it’s...different.
This is not going to be a PG
JW:
UB: Well...Oh wait Michael Masden just came and I have to shoot a shot with him, but we can finish this question and then continue
The point is we would not have gotten all these great actors for the film with only an action movie. It's the best cast in a video game movie ever. Not only Michael Madsen, Michelle Rodriguez and Kristanna Loken, also Udo Keir newly cast, he comes in as a Regal Monk. Michael Paré will also be in the movie, we have Geraldine Chaplin in the movie, daughter of Charlie Chaplin.
Really tons of stars and I think this is because of Guinevere Turner she wrote great script and it’s more character driven than an action movie. I think this is what attracted the actors you will never see Ben Kingsley in a House of the Dead type movie, lets say. He would not play in that kind of movie, it must be a good part with a solid back-story.
JW: Ok thanks, I'll call you back in 30 mins.
Call again,
JW: Hi, you good to go?
UB: Yeah I am back, Michael just has to throw this guy down the steps and then we keep going with the next shot.
JW: So Michelle Rodriguez plays Katarin is that right?
UB: Yes, Katarin, she plays one of the Brimstone warriors. One of the chiefs of the vampire hunters and the Brimstone Society and works together with Michael Madsen and Matt Davis.
Rayne starts as a novelty in a circus
JW:
UB: Yeah we have a fortune teller in the movie; she knows what the future brings and tells BloodRayne what she has to look for. She has to get the talisman, we have like three talisman. Ben Kingsley wants to get the talisman, so she sends Rayne off to get them before he does. Also Rayne wants revenge on Kagan and this is the basic story. She gets killed in the movie but she was really great to work with and part turned out well.
JW: I was looking at the crew list, now James Steuart he is your production director?
UB: Yes, he has been doing the production design and he has done a great job. Things are not easy I must say here in Romania. Everything takes a long time, very slow they are not really used to doing films. Especially when we are far away from Bucharest. For instance we are really in the heart of Transylvania, in the mountains, right now and you can get nothing. Like I am here and my hotel...there is no hotel, no room service, no breakfast, At 6am I walk back to the hotel and then walk to the set in the evening for filming.
We eat on set and the food is not the best lets say.
JW: Yeah I heard some of the crew got food poisoning.
UB: Sure it’s an adventure to do the movie and under these condition James Steuart did a great job, a lot of work.
JW : Who do you think is your target audience for the film?
UB: I think it is a crossed audience now. Normally I would say the same people who go to see Resident Evil , Underworld and films like that. It is to an extent with all the BloodRayne fans and such. But because of the actors, the story and because its a period piece; it’s like a knight movie with vampires. It makes it more interesting for people who like films like King Arthur or The Lord of the Rings . This more period piece which is character driven.
That gives it a bigger potential audience than say a horror movie or typical video game based film.
JW: Is that one of the reason it will be different to a film like say Blade.
Bran Castle in Romania
UB:Van Helsing I think everything looks like they shot it in the Universal's studios instead of Prague. It does not look real.
So for me it was important for me that our movie looked more like Braveheart . Real castles and monasteries, the mountains, etc. The locations make it more realistic and in that atmosphere the brutal fights and a lot of gore, so will be definitely a R rated movie.
This is the type of movie I like personally; I am not a fan of cut down PG13 movies. So it’s a different approach. Also another point is BloodRayne herself, she is an ultra cool, really sexy woman in the video game. Now she is that in the movie too, but she is also a real woman and its interesting to see what’s going on with her character. She is not like a flat comic strip girl.
For example in Daredevil, the Elektra character, I am not a big fan of Daredevil at all. I think the movie was really bad and I do not want to see a film about her if its the same thing. Also Jennifer Garner is good but in the end it was flat. The characters were not like real people with any depth, same with Van Helsing and I think this is a little bit different.
So hopefully we will reach a broader audience and people who have no idea that BloodRayne is based on a video game.
JW: Is there any love interest in the film?
UB: Yeah we have a sex scene, a hot sex scene between Kristanna Loken and Matt Davis (laughs). So something will happen, I think. She is so sexy and in the game the character is too. So she needs some sex appeal.
JW: Yes, I remember you said early on the actor would have to be able to appear nude.
UB: ehhh....well we have not shot it yet, we will be doing it in two weeks and will see how far we can go (lot of laughs)
JW: OK a bit about Alone in the Dark , what's happening with that?
UB: We are now finished, I got the print yesterday. My first time to see the final movie basically. We showed it to some major companies this week (a load of horses start making a racket). But because I am here shooting BloodRayne I have not been able to go to Toronto or Venice for the festivals. The movie will definitely go out in the theatres in the USA February next year, we have also sold it to various other territories, so it will come out across Europe in the spring, summer and fall of next year. I am not sure who the US distributor will be yet. The thing is its all in the details. I cannot sign where I get the credit but no money. I want a contract where I can get some money back.
JW: I guess it’s about getting the best deal possible.
UB: Yes, that’s the point. It’s all about like if a movie is grossing $50 million and I only get $5 million and I paid for the whole movie then something is wrong. I want to secure my investment; it will take a couple of weeks. But then we will release who is distributing in the USA.
JW: Do you enjoy working the whole Hollywood business side of things or do you try and avoid it as much as possible?
UB: No I am not enjoying it, I don't live in Hollywood and I don’t want to live there. It’s the hardest thing. The most fun is having a creative team, make a great movie and this is what I really want to spend my time doing. But all this business bullshit is basically very bad. This why I don’t want to stay in LA, its all about business. The market value of people, actors are like pieces of meat and the agents and mangers are selling it. I don’t like it; there is a non-creative atmosphere in LA.
JW: What’s next for you, FarCry ?
UB: We are developing FarCry right now; I hope to get the first draft next week. We are also working on Fear Effect from Eidos, Dungeon Siege from Microsoft and also Hunter: The Reckoning . I must say the draft we have got for Hunter: The Reckoning is the best action game script I have ever read. I am very optimistic for that movie.
Hunter: The Reckoning may be next as a movie
JW:Hunter: The Reckoning ?
UB: Its like a team, with Drew Schneider, Enrich Brundown working with White Wolf (People who make the game). From the beginning they had a great pitch. Its a very good script with all the rot, ghouls, skin rider, and poltergeist all in the one movie. Its really working well and I really like it. I want do this as the next movie if it’s possible, we will see. But the next four weeks I have to finish shooting BloodRayne .
JW: Well you certainly seemed to have plenty lined up. So with BloodRayne so far, is it turning out as well as you hoped?
UB: Yeah, I am blown away with the location, design and the actors we have. The actors have giving us so much value. I mean for even the smallest parts we have great actors. It’s so good for the movie and it’s different. If you have Geraldine Chaplin as fortune teller you really want to hear what she tells you. Or if you have likes Udo Kier from Breaking the Waves , Blade and Armageddon playing a Regal Monk. If you have actors like this then it makes things really interesting.
It is a totally different setup, like say in Underworld you had Kate Beckinsale the lead but most of the other actors are less well known. It is always a problem with movie like these, but we have eight faces you definitely know.
JW: OK that’s great thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. Good luck with the shoot and the dogs
UB: (laughs) no problem get back to me anytime.
Thanks to Uwe for giving up his time in the middle of shooting and Heikie for hooking us up.
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K-9Sep 19th, 2004 - 00:04:50
Well, despite his last film HOTD, it cannot be any worse than Van Helsing. I will give this one the benefit of the doubt and wait to see it I think.
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