Uwe Boll launches lawsuit

Movie director Uwe Boll, best known for producing big screen adaptations of videogames such as Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead, has launched a lawsuit against the distributors of his latest film.

Back in February, you may recall, Boll told Eurogamer that he wasn't too happy about the fact that BloodRayne didn't appear in many cinemas, stating: "I tried it with a new theatrical distribution company, and they were not able to lock in all the theatres - that was the biggest problem we had. We were scheduled to go out on 2000 screens, and then we came out on 930 screens, and only sh**** screens, so it didn't work out."

Well, now he's taking distributor Romar Entertainment to court, alleging breach of contract - not only did the company fail to get the film on those 2000 screens, Boll claims, but they refused to pay producers their share of the gross profits, and didn't use the $10 million marketing budget provided by Boll's production company.

Romar co-founder James Schramm is having none of it though - in fact, he's announced plans to launch a lawsuit against Boll in return. Speaking to Gamespot, Schramm said that when it came to the DVD release of the film, Boll deleted the Romar name and logo from the box packaging, trailer and end credits.

He also alleges that Boll refused to pay Romar 1 per cent of the proceeds from the DVD sales, refused to let film critics see advanced screenings of the movie, and refused to arrange for the cast members to attend press events.

Schramm went on to claim that Boll's allegations are nonsense, stating: "He was informed months prior to the release that January 6 was not a good day for him to release a movie and he will not get 2000 screens. And he said, 'I don't care. Get me whatever you can get me.'"

He also reckons that Romar "made no money on this movie", which turned out to be "a complete financial loss. And he has the audacity to remove us [from the credits]."

So why did Romar agree to work with Boll in the first place? "He had such bad publicity that I felt bad, and I wanted to help him out," Schramm said - but he's learned his lesson.

"His behavior is so out of whack, I don't even care what other movies he's doing. I don't want to have anything to do with his company or him.

"Hollywood doesn't need someone who's coming in from another country and demanding their way of doing things, and then in dealing with honest people like us, just taking advantage of us. He complains so much about people stealing from him and taking from him, and the one and only company that's left in Hollywood, us, that have done good business with him, now he's screwing us."

Schramm concluded by saying that his lawyers are now in talks with Boll's lawyers to discuss settlement options.