Director Uwe Boll, best known for his poorly received video game adaptations like BloodRayne, Far Cry, and Postal, announces his retirement from filmmaking.

Uwe Boll, the film director best known for his terrible video game adaptations, has announced his retirement today. Though no one would blame Boll for calling it quits as a result of critical hate or a lack of financial success at the box office, the director cites the economics of filmmaking as a major reason for hanging up the towel.

Although many gamers might not know Uwe Boll’s name, they have likely heard of at least one or two of his films. Boll “burst” onto the scene with an adaptation of the horror shooter House of the Dead, and then followed that up with video game adaptation after video game adaptation. Titles like BloodRayne, Postal, and Far Cry were all the work of Uwe Boll, whose sensibilities tend to lean towards the tongue-in-cheek and unintentionally cheesy. But while they might have been cheesy, Boll’s video game adaptations still attracted some mid-tier acting talent like Jason Statham and Ron Perlman. It’s possible that these actors might not have realized what they were getting into, but at the very least Boll deserves some credit for his ability to pitch actors on a project.

Moreover, it’s hard not to give Boll credit for pursuing his passions and for finding creative ways to make video game movies for cheap. The director has been using his own money to fund his films since 2005, which is unheard of these days. Unfortunately, it’s unheard of because very few directors make a return on their investment. And it's now the reason Boll is hanging up the towel.

"I’ve been using my money since 2005 and if I hadn’t made the stupid video game based movies I would never have amalgamated the capital so I could say, 'Let’s make the Darfur movie,' I don’t need a Ferrari, I don’t need a yacht. I invested in my own movies and I lost money."

Most directors have sworn off adapting video game movies simply because the vast majority of them turn out so bad. And interestingly enough, when gamers cite really bad video game projects they likely pick out one or two of Boll’s films.

It may only be a coincidence, but it’s interesting to note that as Boll announces his retirement the video game movie adaptation profile continues to grow. This year saw the release of a Warcraft film and December will bring Assassin’s Creed, one of the first films made in conjunction with a video game studio, and there are even more projects in the pipeline than ever. Microsoft is working on a Gears of War movie with Universal, a Splinter Cell movie has been in the works with Tom Hardy for a while now, and just this week the Uncharted movie found a new director.

Granted, there have been many video game films to reach similar points in development and fizzle out, like Halo or BioShock, but it appears studios are going to give it a true effort this time around. And if nothing else, Uwe Boll can take pleasure in knowing that his films will always stand alongside those movies.

Source: Metro News