Director Uwe Boll with actress Kristanna Loken at a party for "BloodRayne" in early 2006.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia
(AP) -- Tired of the criticism of his films, controversial German film
director Uwe Boll took on four of his critics in a Vancouver boxing
ring, and ended each bout with a knockout.
The director of the
vampire flick "BloodRayne," based on a video game and starring
Kristanna Loken and Ben Kingsley, issued a fight challenge to his
critics several months ago. Fifteen responded.
"I like now the
critics," Boll told a news conference after the fights on Saturday.
"Everybody who was in the ring showed (guts). Nobody dived.
"If
they write about my movies without even seeing the movies then it's
really annoying. If you make a movie like 'House of the Dead,' a zombie
movie, what are they expecting? 'Schindler's List'?"
First in the
ring with the director -- now dubbed "Raging" Boll -- was Richard
Kyanka of Lee's Summit, Missouri, webmaster of www.somethingawful.com.
He entered the ring clad in Stars and Stripes shorts.
"You are
harboring a terrorist," he said of Boll to the Canadian crowd of about
600. "You are all guilty." Boll, grim-faced, KO'd him in the first
round.
Jeff Sneider of Los Angeles, a journalist with Ain't It
Cool News, went down in a technical knockout in the first round after
his trainer threw in the towel.
He said Boll, 41, had told him it was just a joke, a public relations stunt.
"Then
he started beating the crap out of my head," he said. "I think he's a
jerk. This might be PR but I don't want to keep getting punched in the
head."
Chris Alexander of Toronto, Ontario, a horror-move
journalist with Rue Morgue radio and magazine, also went down in a
knockout, but not before making an artistic statement.
While on
the receiving end of a series of blows to the head, Alexander took Boll
aback when a stream of blood spewed from his mouth. It turned out
Alexander had taken a page from Boll's filmmaking book; the blood was
fake.
"I had the fake blood in reserve," he explained.
"I
spat it out. I freaked him out exactly like I wanted to do, it was
poetry. It was my Jedi mind trick to try and disorient him."
He
said he got in a punch for each of Boll's bad films. "I think I got him
once in the face for 'Alone in the Dark' and I got maybe one or two for
'BloodRayne.' " he said. " I have absolutely no ... regrets. ... This
is the weirdest pop culture bizarre journalism stunt I've ever been
involved in."
Nelson Chance Mintner, a web site critic from
Frederick, Maryland, was the youngest fighter at 17. He also lost by
technical knockout.
Actress Loken was in the audience for the bouts. "It's absolutely ridiculous. That's why I love him," she said.
Boll's next picture is "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale."
Like
"BloodRayne," it's also based on a video game. It features Loken again
as well as Jason Statham, John Rhys-Davies, Ray Liotta, Matthew
Lillard, Leelee Sobieski, Claire Forlani and Burt Reynolds.
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