Says theaters snubbed his black comedy over politics
Controversy magnet Uwe Boll says "political correctness" among the big theater circuits doomed his quest for a wide release on "Postal," a farcical black comedy with references to Sept. 11, President Bush and Osama bin Laden.
Originally targeted for up to 1,500 playdates, it now appears the film will unspool Friday in just 13-15 locations, with distribution limited to New York, Los Angeles and a half-dozen or so other markets.
"This is for me very disappointing, to be honest," Boll said Wednesday. "They don't like the political content. This is my personal feeling after trying for four or five weeks to get the distributors to book it. It's a ruthless comedy and makes jokes about Sept. 11 and all kinds of stuff, but at the same time I feel like it's my best-received movie so far."
A spokesman for the AMC theater chain said, "We carefully evaluate the movies that we choose to play in our theaters and elected not to put this film in our theaters because we feel is does not have potential for commercial success in the U.S."
To date, Boll has been identified mostly with horror films disparaged for low production values and high gore content. The German-born Vancouver resident said he was pleased with the audience reaction to "Postal" at screenings at festivals in Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco and elsewhere.
"People were laughing their asses off," he said. "It works very well for the young male audience. It's a Monty Python kind of comedy, and I think that kind of product is missing right now because of political correctness."
Actual reviews of the film are quite another matter, however, with RottenTomatoes.com listing the film with just 33% positive reviews to date.
Boll is self-distributing "Postal" through his North American company Event Film. Vivendi Entertainment holds ancillary rights to DVD and other post-theatrical windows on the film.
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