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Even worse news was in store for the director. Germany has closed many of the tax shelter options that allowed Boll to finance pictures on the scale of this one. The failure of the Dungeon Siege movie means that no one will give him the money to make big-budget films. Boll has promised (threatened?) to keep going with smaller scale films like "Postal," so we aren't done with him, but at least he's no longer a financial burden to the good citizens of Germany.

Gamers love to complain that games are never made into good movies, and, conversely, that movies are hardly ever made into good games. With so much of the game-to-movie category in the hands of a hack like Boll, it's hardly surprising that the catalog of game movies is crowded with dreck. Chris Taylor, developer of the game that inspired "In the Name of the King," argues that only certain types of games are well-suited to the film treatment.

"It probably comes down to developing a good story from a game that otherwise has a story which doesn't lend itself to a linear medium," says Taylor. "The writer would have to make tough choices. For example, imagine the film adaptation of Knights of the Old Republic... what path would the writer go down?

"I think action games with really strong, well-defined lead characters would make great movies. I also think a unique art style helps a lot, because movies can take visuals to extreme levels; this is a place to exploit the game's property."

Does Dungeon Siege fit that mold? Little of the material that made the game distinctive, and, in spite of the result, Taylor found some personal positives to point to in the process. "I always felt that if you wanted to make a movie you would have to spend some effort trying to contact a studio. You couldn't just sit back and wait for someone to call you. [The development] was a really great surprise.

"The whole experience has been a ton of fun and we have learned a lot. A bunch of different aspects of filmmaking, visiting the set, etc. But I also met a lot of people in the business, and it all helped to fill in bits and pieces about the business I didn't know."

What's next for Boll? His Vietnam War movie "Tunnel Rats" is in post-production, as is his newest videogame adaptation Far Cry. And for Taylor? Space Siege will continue the x-Siege name into the final frontier later this year.

In Other News

The troubled production of a film version of American McGee's Alice got a bit of a boost when Sarah Michelle Gellar told Sci-Fi.com that she wasn't giving up on the idea. A "regime change" at Universal had put the project on hold but Gellar calls "Alice" both "a passion project" and "the frustration of my life." She's a little concerned that Buffy may be too old to play the lead role if the movie ever gets made, but no other names are attached. So, gentle readers, who's a better choice?