Uwe Boll might well be the world’s most vilified director but, in person, he is one of the most honest and down-to-earth subjects that any interviewer could wish for. Calum Waddell caught up with Deutschland’s leading B-movie buff for the following exclusive chat.

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is your biggest film to date, is that correct?

Yeah, it cost $60 million, and that is why I needed a good deal on the American release. I needed to get a deal where we still make money on our gross. I always say, “Forget giving me a big advance - I need gross from the DVD, from theatrical and from television.” That is how I can make some money. At one point we considered releasing this as two separate films – a bit like Kill Bill – because it is a very epic story. You should see a longer cut when it comes out on DVD.

You worked with the stunt-coordinator from Hero, Tony Ching on this film. What was that like?

Tony Ching actually took on some of the camerawork too! Tony is great. He shoots very quickly and he is very harsh with the crew. I don’t like that so much – but the fight scenes that he created were very impressive. Even someone who watches the trailer will notice that.

House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark and Bloodrayne all made the top 50 bottom movies on the IMDb at one time. How did you react to this?

That site is written by people who just want to get the word out so that others won’t buy tickets or DVDs. This is the strategy of some of these internet guys and this is kind of unfair. I also see these things, “Worst director of all time”, but I think a good critic would write “The most hated director of all time.”

I do not know how Dungeon Siege will be accepted but we have a great cast and the movie looks good – we mainly shot in original locations. It is my best film yet and I hope that people will give it a chance.

You have also directed a film, based on an original idea, called Seed. What can we expect from this?

The point of Seed was to make a movie that is completely uncompromising. It is about a serial killer who survives his execution and comes back to attack those who sentenced him. We have a scene where one victim is beaten over and over again with a hammer. I think even the hardcore horror fans will walk out of the cinema over this because it is really disgusting!

You are perhaps most infamous for miscasting Tara Reid as a scientist in Alone in the Dark. Care to defend this?

She got pitched and she had name value after American Pie and she told me she wanted to do a serious horror movie and was very into it. I made a mistake.

She got a lot of press – she was on talk shows everywhere for the movie – but she was not helping to sell it. It became the opposite - when she was on Jay Leno they showed a scene from Alone in the Dark with her in it but, because of that, no one wanted to see it. If they had shown Christian Slater, who was in London doing One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and a great action scene I am sure more people would have gone to see the movie. I am still in shock that Alone in the Dark did so badly at the box office.

Why did you beat up four of your critics in a boxing match?

I did it because I was so annoyed by the bad press. When these final four people came up I thought, “Okay, well I cannot pussy out – even if I have nothing against some of these contenders.” If I got knocked out I would have to stand up again and still continue making movies but that is the risk that you take in boxing. Everybody has the chance to get in a lucky punch or, after three fights, maybe I’d have been exhausted and the last guy would have had a better shot.

At the end of the day you make good money directing movies. Why should you care what the critics say?

I think overall it would be wrong to say that you should look away from the critics. As a filmmaker how do you get your feedback? You get your feedback from people you meet but basically you get it from what people write. If the impression is that everyone is trashing your movies – and not saying one good thing about them – it is not good. I read everything.

I do go less and less to message boards. At a time it was interesting to see what was going on, but after the boxing matches I recognise that they are saying the same shit as before. People are defending me but the majority of posters on IMDb are still trashing me: “He went and beat up four people and now he feels good about himself” and blah, blah, blah. So, no matter how the boxing matches went I knew that it would not be to my advantage…

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is currently on general release in the US.