In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Uwe Boll
Produced by	Uwe Boll Dan Clarke Shawn Williamson Wolfgang Herold
Written by	Doug Taylor
Starring	Jason Statham Leelee Sobieski John Rhys-Davies Ron Perlman Claire Forlani Kristanna Loken Matthew Lillard with Ray Liotta and Burt Reynolds
Music by	Jessica de Rooij Henning Lohner
Cinematography	Mathias Neumann
Editing by	Paul Klassen David M. Richardson
Studio	Brightlight Pictures Vivendi Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox (Germany) Freestyle Releasing (US)
Release date(s)	November 3, 2006 (2006-11-03) (AFM) November 29, 2007 (2007-11-29) (Germany) January 11, 2008 (2008-01-11) (United States)
Running time	127 minutes
Country	Germany Canada United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million[1]
Box office	$13,097,915[2]

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is a 2006 fantasy action film directed by Uwe Boll, inspired by the Dungeon Siege video game series. It was produced by Brightlight Pictures and distributed by Freestyle Releasing and Vivendi Entertainment in the United States and Canada. 20th Century Fox took distribution overseas. It premiered at the American Film Market on November 3, 2006. It was released in Germany on November 29, 2007 and was released in the United States on January 11, 2008.

Plot

Set in the kingdom of Ehb, the story follows a man called Farmer (Jason Statham), an orphan who was adopted by the village. When Farmer's wife, Solana (Claire Forlani), and his son leave to sell vegetables at the town of Stonebridge, his farm is attacked by creatures called Krug. With the help of his friend and mentor, Norrick (Ron Perlman), he fights off the Krug and travels to Stonebridge. However, the Krug kill his son and capture his wife. Accompanied by Norrick and Bastian (Will Sanderson), his brother-in-law, Farmer intends to find and rescue his wife.

The Krug are being controlled by the wizard Gallian (Ray Liotta) who is amassing an army to overthrow King Konreid (Burt Reynolds), with the assistance of the King's nephew, Fallow (Matthew Lillard).

Cast

• Jason Statham as Camden Konreid/Farmer
• Leelee Sobieski as Muriella
• John Rhys-Davies as Merick
• Ron Perlman as Norrick
• Claire Forlani as Solana
• Kristanna Loken as Elora
• Matthew Lillard as Duke Fallow
• Ray Liotta as Gallian
• Burt Reynolds as King Konreid
• Brian White as Commander Tarish
• Mike Dopud as General Backler
• Will Sanderson as Bastian
• Tania Saulnier as Talwyn
• Gabrielle Rose as Delinda
• Terence Kelly as Trumaine
• Colin Ford as Zeph

Loken previously played the lead role in Uwe Boll's BloodRayne. Will Sanderson has also been featured in all but one of Boll's video game-based films, starting from House of the Dead.

Production

The production budget was $60 million.^[1]

Parts of the film were shot in Robert Burnaby Park

Boll has said that two versions will be produced due to length. The first will run for 127 minutes as a single movie trimmed down for cinematic release. The second, a director's cut, will be for DVD and run for approximately 156 minutes.^[3]

The film was shot near the Municipality of Sooke, the westernmost area of the Greater Victoria, Capital Regional District (CRD), British Columbia. Locals and First Nations people were recruited as extras and for other duties.

Soundtrack

The German power metal band Blind Guardian recorded the movie's main theme, "Skalds and Shadows".^[4] The British progressive metal band Threshold contributed the song "Pilot in the Sky of Dreams" from their album Dead Reckoning. The Swedish power metal band, HammerFall, also contributed a track, "The Fire Burns Forever". Wolfgang Herold was the executive soundtrack producer.

Reception

Box office

In the Name of the King was a box office bomb, grossing $2.98 million in its U.S. opening, not cracking that week's top ten.^[5] As of February 13, 2008, it has grossed $10.3 million worldwide, including $2.47 million in Germany, $1.39 million in Russia and $1.22 million in Spain.^[6] Afterwards, Uwe Boll announced that this would be his first and last movie with a large budget.^[5]

Critical reception

The film received extremely negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 4% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 44 reviews. Not only that, it was ranked 49th in Rotten Tomatoes's 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s^[7] and in 2009, Time listed the film on their list of top ten worst video games movies.^[8] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 15 out of 100, based on 11 reviews — indicating "extreme dislike or disgust."^[9] Many critics bemoaned the film's close resemblances to other fantasy films, especially the popular Lord of the Rings films.^[1][10][11]

The film was nominated for five Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actor (Burt Reynolds) and Worst Supporting Actress (Leelee Sobieski), with Uwe Boll winning Worst Director.

Sequel

Main article: In the Name of the King 2

Despite being considered a bomb, Boll has begun work on a sequel.^[12] Filming began on December 1, 2010 for a 2011 release. Dolph Lundgren and Natassia Malthe are starring.

Home media

The DVD, released on April 15, 2008, does not include the 156-minute version. The Blu-ray release in December 2008 contains this edition. 813,147 units were sold, gathering a revenue of $14,865,984, more than its box office grossing.^[13]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} DVD Talk discusses the budget of In the Name of the King
2. ^ "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale". The-Numbers. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2008/DSIEG.php. Retrieved 2010-06-30. 
3. ^ Bloody-Disgusting - All Things Horror^{[dead link]}
4. ^ Blind Guardian in the movies: Rocking the King
5. ^ ^{a b} In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at Box Office Mojo. Accessed February 13, 2008.
6. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=inthenameoftheking.htm
7. ^ "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_the_name_of_the_king_a_dungeon_siege_tale/. Retrieved 2009-02-13. 
8. ^ "Top 10 Worst Video Game Movies". Time Magazine. 2008-10-20. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1851626_1851846_1851705,00.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
9. ^ "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/inthenameoftheking. Retrieved 2008-03-16. 
10. ^ "Hollywood.com Reviews". Hollywood.com. http://www.hollywood.com/review/In_the_Name_of_the_King/5039390. Retrieved 2008-05-12. 
11. ^ Kern, Laura. "New York Times: Movies". New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/330923/In-the-Name-of-the-King-A-Dungeon-Siege-Tale/overview. Retrieved 2008-05-12. 
12. ^ "AFM: Uwe Boll's In the Name of the King 2 "Coming Soon"". Twitchfilm. http://twitchfilm.com/news/2010/11/afm-uwe-bolls-in-the-name-of-the-king-2-coming-soon.php. Retrieved 2010-11-16. 
13. ^ http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2008/DSIEG-DVD.php

External links

• Official website
• Official website (Germany)
• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at the Internet Movie Database
• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at AllRovi
• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at Box Office Mojo
• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at Rotten Tomatoes
• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at Metacritic
• Interviews at Movieset.com