Sunday, July 5, 2009

How to Lose $60 Million Without Really Trying

I am watching something called In the Name of the King: A
Dungeon Siege Tale
on Showtime. The movie stars Jason
Statham and the cast includes such stellar actors as Ron
(Hellboy) Perlman, Ray (Goodfellas) Liotta - shamelessly
chewing up scenery as Gallion, the prolific John Rhys-Davies,
Burt (Smokey and the Bandit) Reynolds, Claire (Meet Joe Black)
Forlani, Leelee (Deep Impact) Sobieski and Brian J. White
(The Shield, Moonlight) wearing a nasty looking scar as
the nubian warrior, Commander Tarish.

The movie is directed by German born schlockmiester Uwe Boll,
best known for his BloodRayne movies.

I had never heard of this movie so I went to IMDB, Box Office
Mojo and Wikipedia and discovered In the Name of the King
cost $60 million and grossed a robust $13 million worldwide.
Then I discoverd the first BloodRayne cost $25 million and
grossed a whopping $2.42 million. WTF!!!!!

Then I discovered that Boll is very successfully manipulating a
lucrative loophole in German tax laws. Boll is able to acquire
funding thanks to German tax laws that reward investments in
film. The law allows investors in German-owned films to write
off 100% of their investment as a tax deduction; it also allows
them to invest borrowed money and write off any fees associated
with the loan. The investor is then only required to pay taxes on
the profits made by the movie; if the movie loses money, the
investor gets a tax writeoff.

Imagine, thought I, if black filmmakers were able to exploit such
a loophole? Everybody KNOWS black films don't make money.
What an excellent opportunity to make all the black epics everyone
dreams of but nobody dares risk the money to make.

What a bonanza! You could hire all the known but under utilized
black actors and actresses - pay them top dollar - WTF? We are
TRYING to lose money after all!

Let Vin Diesel make his "Hannibal." Let Spike Lee make his
"Tuskegee Airmen." Let the Hughes Brothers make whatever
they want. Hell, let me film The World Ebon. Shoot, I could burn
through a coupla hundred million dollars real quick!

Imagine the mishmash of casts you could come up with! What
would be your dream project?

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