In a recent interview with GameDaily, veteran actor John Rhys-Davies talked about Uwe Boll, the problem with videogame movies and how he managed to get tangled up in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.
Rhys-Davies plays Merick, the king’s magis, in the film, which also stars Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, Ron Perlman and Leelee Sobieski. He became involved with the film while waiting for the completion of his house, after hearing about Reynolds’ involvement. “The builders have not finished my house and I was going mad and I thought, this could be fun. Who else is in it? Burt’s in it? Oh, I’m on. Let’s go and see if we can make a success out of this one.”
While describing Merick as “not a terribly important character in this piece,” he nonetheless said it was a “joy” to be involved with the shoot. “There are none of the grumbling crises that slowly accumulate during the course of a production until you know that are you in production hell,” he said. “That’s really quite remarkable because this is a big shoot and it’s going to take a long time. And that’s probably a great tribute to the line producers who are making sure that everything slots into place very well.”
Rhys-Davies expresses despair about the current “infatuation” with movies based on videogames, calling it a “disaster” and saying, “If we had good writing, it would not happen,” but also claims personal affection for director Uwe Boll. “I like Uwe very much,” he said. “He knows what he wants. He is a remarkable producer. He hasn’t fired me yet, and that’s always a good thing as far as the actor’s concerned.”
Rhys-Davies, who you’d think wouldn’t be so desperate for work, is best known for playing the dwarf Gimli in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as Sallah in the Indiana Jones movies. The full interview is available here.
