Plaza of Nations. One night only–Saturday 23 September. It’s the Uwe Boll battle royale.

The story: Uwe Boll is a German film producer and director with the dubious distinction of having all three of his three most recent films–BloodRayne, Alone in the Dark, and House of the Dead, all video-game adaptations–being on the Internet Movie Database’s bottom 100. Fed up with the ubiquitous bad reviews, in June of this year, Mr Boll issued a challenge to film critics to PUT UP OR SHUT UP! The terms of the challenge were that five of the most outspoken critics would be given the opportunity to fight Mr Boll in a 10-round boxing match. All travel and accommodation would be paid for, and they would also be given a chance to be an extra in an upcoming film of Mr Boll’s, Postal.

One of the fights has already taken place. Earlier this month, Uwe Boll fought Carlos Palencia, webmaster of Cinecutre. (Available on YouTube: video of the Boll-Palencia match.) But the other four fights are taking place in Vancouver, where Mr Boll is filming Seed.

The card is:

Uwe Boll vs Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, webmaster of Something Awful
Uwe Boll vs Jeff Sneider, journalist at Ain’t It Cool News
Uwe Boll vs Chris Alexander (of Toronto), journalist &amp radio announcer for Rue Morgue Magazine & Radio
Uwe Boll vs Nelson Chance Minter, Maryland blogger

I’ve not been able to figure out whether this event is open to the public or not, and if it is, how much are tickets. It doesn’t appear on the Plaza of Nations/Edgewater Casino‘s Upcoming Events calendar. Apart from everything else, it is also part film shoot. Footage from the matches will be incorporated into Postal. The series of fights is also a pay-per-view event. In any case, I expect videos of the fights to be up on video-sharing sites like YouTube, oh, within a half-hour or so after they end. Chances are the video will also be available from more official sources too before long, as the challenge and fights are so obviously a publicity-seeking event.

Vancouver. Hollywood North. This event is a bonus for the city; it’s happening here only because Vancouver’s such a popular location for movie shoots, and (in)famous producers and directors like Uwe Boll are filming here, and so hold other ‘projects’ of theirs in the city as well. As for Mr Boll having opponents at all, well, it’s something that Vancouver as a city could be proud of. It must be a nice city if multiple people are willing to take the opportunity to travel here for free in exchange for humiliating themselves by accepting an absurd challenge and taking the chance of being injured or at the least defeated soundly in the ring–Uwe Boll is a former boxer–and have all of it recorded for a tv event, put on the Internet, and incorporated into a future film. That says something about Vancouver. Doesn’t it?

In any case, Vancouver’s playing host to a somewhat bizarre sports event/movie shoot this evening. Another feather in Vancouver’s cap.