He’s a hate figure among gamers, and his films are widely reviled by critics, but German director Uwe Boll has managed to to make a career out of making what are generally regarded as awful films. Now, he has turned to Kickstarter in order to fund a sequel to his ‘controversial’ comedy Postal, and he’s looking for half a million dollars.

The Kickstarter page, featuring slightly broken English, states the sequel is inspired by Julian Assange and Edward Snowdon [sic], and  “it's a fact that we make this movie definitely if we reach at least $500,000. That's the amount we need to start the shooting.” Two days into his two month campaign, Boll has made just over $8,400.

After starting off making small German language features, Boll began to attract attention in 2005 when his cinematic adaptation of popular game series Alone in the Dark was unleashed on unsuspecting viewers. The film holds the dubious honour of having a rating of 1% on review site Rotten Tomatoes.

The release was followed by equally unpopular adaptations of games such as House of the Dead, Far Cry, Bloodrayne, Dungeon Siege (adapted as In The Name of the King with Jason Statham and Burt Reynolds) and Postal.

The films were usually box office flops. However, for Boll this didn't matter. His productions were predominantly funded through an unusual German tax loophole that allowed funders to claim 100% of their investment as a tax write-off - a loophole closed in 2007. However, Boll has continued making films, including sequels to Bloodrayne and In The Name of the King, as well as non-videogame projects.

Critics

The films themselves have been the foundation of his bad reputation - one widely-publicised campaign has seen fans petition Boll to stop making films, with one American chewing gum company promising a free pack of gum to everyone who added their name to the petition. It has attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures since 2008, but Boll maintains it would have taken millions of participants for him to seriously consider quitting.

Boll’s off-screen activities have earned him an equal amount of infamy. He has frequently made inflammatory statements about other directors as well as his own detractors.

In his most widely publicised stunt, he invited some of his harshest critics to boxing matches, all of which Boll won. The Vancouver event was described by Wired as “a crass and cynical spectacle, poorly planned and maddeningly chaotic, full of gratuitous violence, unintentional hilarity, and shameless posturing. An event that made you feel sad and angry, even as you laughed. In other words, it was a typical Uwe Boll production.”

If you would like to help fund the next Uwe Boll production, you can do so here.

(Image: Jeff Hitchcock)