Quotes

[about his favorite book, Gustavus Myers' "The History of American Fortunes"] If you follow the money, like the writer did - the history of the Rockefellers and so on - you find out about real history. In that book you learn that the Civil War was not about freeing the slaves, it was all about the money, etc.

[about what he learned from his disastrous experience with Alone in the Dark (2005)] That a script matters.

[on fighting--and winning--against all of his critics in a boxing ring] You see what happens when people get hit in the head? They like my movies!

[asked about how game developers are involved in the making of Postal (2007)] Yeah, they were very involved, this time too much involved, I wrote the script, it's their baby. They liked the treatment, but they didn't like the approach of some stuff, they thought it was too funny, but I said the only way to tell a story like "Postal" is to do it funny, let people laugh. I don't want a movie like Taxi Driver (1976) where a guy is killing everybody, too many movies like that. "Postal" is a movie where everybody is running amok, everyone has good reasons to run amok from the welfare office guy to the police officer. Coming up in two to three weeks, they will be really happy, like our cast . . . I think it will be hilarious.

I want to make good movies. Of course, I want to make entertaining movies for the younger audience, and this is a lot of times not working with film critics who are more into drama or art-house movies. But on the other hand, I always try to make solid movies.

The German press is not friendly to me. I can compare it to the US press. I had 25% really bad reviews, like, "Oh, a Boll movie. Typical trash." But some said it was "by far Boll's best movie." They compared it to, not The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), but something weaker like Eragon (2006).

Maybe you know it, but it's not so easy to finance movies in total. The reason I am able to do these kind of movies is I have a tax shelter fund in Germany, and if you invest in a movie in Germany you get basically 50% back from the government.

[on Hollywood] That is the most bullsh*t business with bullsh*t idiots, one after the other lined up behind each other. You know, they are all fu*king each other in the asses and nobody makes any decisions. All the actors I ever worked with, Ben Kingsley, whatever, are fu*king pussies, nothing else! They are in the as*holes of their managers, agents and publicists and attorneys...[June 2015]

I do not play video games at all.

If a genre film is made in Germany, like Anatomy (2000) back then, it's all harmless. It will be produced so it can be broadcast during prime time on television. It's not comparable with the level of violence we know from Asia or the USA. In my opinion, genre films are not possible in Germany because of that. What is sponsored in Germany? Mostly TV co-productions with the handbrake engaged. For example, nobody will be hired who could make blood effects. Next to that, there is still the underground in Germany, formerly with directors like Jörg Buttgereit or Olaf Ittenbach, now with Marcel Walz and Timo Rose. Those are splatter guys who make some sorts of films for 50.000 or 100.000 Euros, which can never reach a broader audience, but remain C-list festival products.

[on how his film Postal (2007) got a 16 rating in Germany] There was a school class during a test screening. The students laughed hysterically, hence the 16 rating. Previously, I was absolutely sure that Postal would receive 18 or "KJ". The film shows a scene with a completely naked man and overall, everything went beyond standards. In regards to violence, it was all reduced to explosions and shootouts, but with political content. With suicide attacks and jokes about Auschwitz, I would've expected nothing less than "KJ". But no, 16. That's neither fish nor meat.