Reply to Topic
All the news and views on the Master of Sex, Violence, Sex-And-Violence, the unflinching outlook on Graphic Violence, Ultraviolence, Graphic-Ultraviolence… and the all-round unburdened visionary and cinematic pioneer known as Paul Verhoeven, who broke many a mould, and shaped countless others…
... welcome, to the Paul Verhoeven Fan Club Master Thread.
"Would you like to know more?"
I’ve taken a lot of this from Wiki, edited it, and done all the hard work of bolding some text and removing links and stuff.
There’s also a load of other stuff that Wiki never bothered to include… including a full filmography.
Hard to believe that in his 57 year career, he’s only made 15 feature length movies.
Early Life
Paul Verhoeven was born on 18 July 1938 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is the son of school teacher Wim Verhoeven and hat maker Nel van Schaardenburg. Although he was born in Amsterdam, the family lived in the village of Slikkerveer.
In 1943 the family moved to The Hague, the location of the German headquarters in the Netherlands during World War II. The Verhoeven house was near a German military base with V1 and V2-rocket launchers, which was repeatedly bombed by allied forces. Their neighbours' house was hit and Verhoeven's parents were almost killed when bombs fell on a street crossing. From this period, Verhoeven mentioned in interviews, he remembers images of violence, burning houses, dead bodies on the street, and continuous danger. As a small child he experienced the war as an exciting adventure and compares himself with the character Bill Rowan in Hope and Glory (1987).
Verhoeven's father Wim Verhoeven became head teacher at the Van Heutszschool in The Hague, and Paul Verhoeven attended this school. Sometimes they watched informative films at home with the school's film projector. Paul Verhoeven and his father also liked to see American films that were in the cinema after the liberation, such as The Crimson Pirate (1952). They went as many as ten times to see The War of the Worlds (1953). Paul Verhoeven was a fan of the Dutch comic Dick Bos (nl). The character Dick Bos is a private detective who fights crime using jujutsu. Verhoeven himself liked comic drawing; he created The Killer, a grey character in a detailed story full of revenge. Other fiction he liked were Frankenstein and the Rice Burroughs Barsoom series.
Verhoeven attended public secondary school Gymnasium Haganum in The Hague. Later, beginning in 1955, he studied at Leiden University, where he joined the elite fraternity Minerva.
Verhoeven graduated with a Doctorandus [Magister Scientiae] (Master Of Science Degree) with a double major in mathematics and physics.
1960-1969
Verhoeven made his first film A Lizzard Too Much for the anniversary of his students' corps in 1960. In his last years at university Verhoeven also attended classes at the Netherlands Film Academy.
After this he made three more short films Nothing Special (1961), The Hitchhikers (1962) and Let's Have A Party (1963).
Verhoeven never used his maths and physics degrees, opting instead to invest his energies in a career in film.
After his studies he entered the Dutch Navy as a conscript. He made the documentary Het Korps Mariniers (The Royal Dutch Marine Corps, 1965) about the Navy, which won the French Golden Sun award for military films.
In 1967 Verhoeven married Martine Tours, with whom he had two daughters, Claudia (b. 1972), and Helen (b. 1974).
When he left the Navy, Verhoeven took his skills to Dutch television. First, he made a documentary about Anton Mussert named Mussert (1968). His first major success was the 1969 Floris television series, starring Rutger Hauer. The concept of Floris was inspired by foreign series like Ivanhoe and Thierry La Fronde.
1969-1983
Verhoeven's first feature film Business Is Business was released in 1971 and was not especially well received. His first national success did not come until 1973 with Turkish Delight, starring Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven.
This film is based on a novel by bestselling Dutch author Jan Wolkers and tells the passionate love story of an artist and a liberal young girl from a rather conservative background. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974. In 1999 the film won a Golden Calf for Best Dutch Film of the Century.
Verhoeven's 1975 film Katie Tippel again featured Hauer and van de Ven, but it would not match the success of Turkish Delight.
Verhoeven built on his reputation and achieved international success with his Golden Globe nominated film Soldier Of Orange (1977), starring Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé. The film, based on a true story about the Dutch resistance in World War II, was written by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema. Soldier of Orange received the 1979 LA Film Critics Award for best foreign language film. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1980.
In 1980 Verhoeven made the film Spetters with Renée Soutendijk and Rutger Hauer. The story is sometimes compared to Saturday Night Fever, but the film has more explicit violence and sexuality (in this case also homosexuality), which are sometimes seen as the trademarks of Paul Verhoeven.
Verhoeven's film The Fourth Man (1983) is a horror film starring Jeroen Krabbé and Renée Soutendijk. It was written by Gerard Soeteman from a novel by the popular Dutch writer Gerard Reve. This film would be Verhoeven's last Dutch film production until the 2006 film Black Book.
1983-2000
Gerard Soeteman also wrote the script for Verhoeven's first American film, Flesh and Blood (1985), which starred Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Verhoeven moved to Hollywood for a wider range of opportunities in filmmaking. Working in the U.S. he made a serious change in style, directing big-budget, very violent, special-effects-heavy smashes RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990). Both RoboCop and Total Recall won Academy Special Achievement Awards, for Sound Effects Editing and for Visual Effects respectively.
Verhoeven followed those successes with the equally intense and provocative Basic Instinct (1992), an erotic thriller. The ninth-highest-grossing film of the year, the movie was a return to themes Verhoeven had explored in Turkish Delight and The Fourth Man. The film's most notorious scene shows Sharon Stone's character in a police interrogation, where she uncrosses her legs, briefly revealing her vulva (she does not wear underwear underneath her skirt). The film received two Academy Awards nominations, for Film Editing and for Original Music.
Verhoeven's next film was the poorly received, NC-17 rated Showgirls (1995), about a stripper in Las Vegas trying to make a career as a showgirl. The film won seven Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Film and Worst Director.
Verhoeven became the first director in the history of the Awards to accept his "award" in person.
Afterward, the film enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers.
After Basic Instinct and Showgirls, Verhoeven returned to the science fiction, graphic violence, and special-effects tropes that had marked his earlier films with Starship Troopers (1997), adapted from the controversial novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein, and Hollow Man (2000).
Each film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.
2000-Present
After around 20 years of working and living in the United States, Verhoeven returned to the Netherlands for the shooting of a new film. Together with his screenwriter Gerard Soeteman, Verhoeven made Black Book (2006).
The director was hailed by the host of the Netherlands Film Festival with the words "The return of a hero".
Black Book eventually won six Golden Calves at this festival, including Best Director.
When the shooting of Black Book was delayed due to financial issues, there was speculation about a new production. The film Beast Of Bataan had been announced, but once the shooting for Black Book resumed, the other film was never realized.
Since his return to European cinema in 2006 with Black Book, Verhoeven has been connected to a large number of projects, but for the moment none of them has come to fruition. Some of those titles were produced with other directors at the helm, such as The Paperboy.
Just after 2006’s Black Book, Verhoeven was to direct a film adaption of the novel The Winter Queen written by Russian author Boris Akunin.
Filming was set to start in 2007 with Milla Jovovich playing the role of Amalia Bezhetskaya. Jovovich however fell pregnant, and the movie was pushed to a 2010 shoot, then pushed to 2011.
The movie, with Verhoeven at the helm was then postponed again.
Anjelica Huston And David Thewlis were then also attached to the movie in 2013, with Verhoeven replaced by Russian director Fyodor Sergeyevich Bondarchuk.
Since 2013 though, the film has vanished from the radar and is no longer appearing on anyone’s filmographies.
In April 2010, Verhoeven hinted that his next potential film project would be an adaptation of a computer game set in 1914. In an interview, Verhoeven said, "I am working on a movie now that is situated in 1914. Basically, Indiana Jones-ish you could say, but also Hitchcockian."
Although he would not reveal the title, there was speculation that the project might be an adaptation of The Last Express, a 1997 videogame designed by Prince Of Persia creator Jordan Mechner.
In October 2011, Verhoeven confirmed The Last Express as the identity of the game in question, and revealed that he is even considering filming it in 3D.
Since 2011, there has been no other news on the movie.
In 2012, Paul Verhoeven was part of a crowd sourced project called The Entertainment Experience, in which two movies were made at the same time, but using the same script which was written by Verhoeven.
The first movie was directed by numerous teams of amateur filmmakers. Each team would take a chapter of the script and film it.
The second movie was directed, in whole, by Verhoeven.
Finally, in a rather unexpected twist, Verhoeven followed Black Book by directing a movie in French: Elle (2016) an adaptation of a novel by Philippe Djian, mostly known as the author of 37°2 Le Matin.
The film by Verhoeven, a psycho-thriller where Isabelle Huppert plays a rape victim, was selected in the Official Competition at the Cannes International Film Festival, where it obtained very favourable reviews.
Verhoeven has been a Knight in the Order Of The Netherlands Lion since 2007.
In December 2016 it was announced that Verhoeven would be the President of the Jury for the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, scheduled to take place in February 2017.
Future
Paul Verhoeven is rumoured to be directing WWII epic Lyon 1943.
The film will be set over several months in 1943 and will follow the French Resistance.
Date of release is as yet unknown, as the movie is still in the early writing stages.
Outside Of Film
Verhoeven is a member of the Jesus Seminar, and he is the only member who does not have a degree in biblical studies.
Since he is not a professional biblical exegete, his membership in the Jesus Seminar has occasionally been cited by opponents of the Seminar as a sign that this group is less scholarly than it claims.
On the other hand, some Jesus Seminar members were unhappy with Verhoeven's portrayal of Jesus as an eschatological prophet.
In 2007 Verhoeven wrote the book Jezus Van Nazaret (Jesus Of Nazareth) about the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The book reviews the ideas of Jesus of Nazareth and the alleged corruption of these same ideas over the last 2,000 years. Co-written with Verhoeven's biographer Rob Van Scheers, the book is the culmination of the research Verhoeven conducted in preparation for Jesus: The Man, a motion picture about the life of Christ. The book tells about the Jewish uprising against Roman rule and characterizes Jesus as a radical political activist, downplaying any supernatural events and miracles as unproved or unprovable.
Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait was released in September 2008 in Dutch and was published in English in May 2010 by Seven Stories Press.
Robert J. Miller, author of Born Divine, said about Jesus of Nazareth, "Verhoeven breaks down the gospels...and reassembles them into a unique reconstruction of the historical Jesus."
... welcome, to the Paul Verhoeven Fan Club Master Thread.
"Would you like to know more?"
I’ve taken a lot of this from Wiki, edited it, and done all the hard work of bolding some text and removing links and stuff.
There’s also a load of other stuff that Wiki never bothered to include… including a full filmography.
Hard to believe that in his 57 year career, he’s only made 15 feature length movies.
Early Life
Paul Verhoeven was born on 18 July 1938 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is the son of school teacher Wim Verhoeven and hat maker Nel van Schaardenburg. Although he was born in Amsterdam, the family lived in the village of Slikkerveer.
In 1943 the family moved to The Hague, the location of the German headquarters in the Netherlands during World War II. The Verhoeven house was near a German military base with V1 and V2-rocket launchers, which was repeatedly bombed by allied forces. Their neighbours' house was hit and Verhoeven's parents were almost killed when bombs fell on a street crossing. From this period, Verhoeven mentioned in interviews, he remembers images of violence, burning houses, dead bodies on the street, and continuous danger. As a small child he experienced the war as an exciting adventure and compares himself with the character Bill Rowan in Hope and Glory (1987).
Verhoeven's father Wim Verhoeven became head teacher at the Van Heutszschool in The Hague, and Paul Verhoeven attended this school. Sometimes they watched informative films at home with the school's film projector. Paul Verhoeven and his father also liked to see American films that were in the cinema after the liberation, such as The Crimson Pirate (1952). They went as many as ten times to see The War of the Worlds (1953). Paul Verhoeven was a fan of the Dutch comic Dick Bos (nl). The character Dick Bos is a private detective who fights crime using jujutsu. Verhoeven himself liked comic drawing; he created The Killer, a grey character in a detailed story full of revenge. Other fiction he liked were Frankenstein and the Rice Burroughs Barsoom series.
Verhoeven attended public secondary school Gymnasium Haganum in The Hague. Later, beginning in 1955, he studied at Leiden University, where he joined the elite fraternity Minerva.
Verhoeven graduated with a Doctorandus [Magister Scientiae] (Master Of Science Degree) with a double major in mathematics and physics.
1960-1969
Verhoeven made his first film A Lizzard Too Much for the anniversary of his students' corps in 1960. In his last years at university Verhoeven also attended classes at the Netherlands Film Academy.
After this he made three more short films Nothing Special (1961), The Hitchhikers (1962) and Let's Have A Party (1963).
Verhoeven never used his maths and physics degrees, opting instead to invest his energies in a career in film.
After his studies he entered the Dutch Navy as a conscript. He made the documentary Het Korps Mariniers (The Royal Dutch Marine Corps, 1965) about the Navy, which won the French Golden Sun award for military films.
In 1967 Verhoeven married Martine Tours, with whom he had two daughters, Claudia (b. 1972), and Helen (b. 1974).
When he left the Navy, Verhoeven took his skills to Dutch television. First, he made a documentary about Anton Mussert named Mussert (1968). His first major success was the 1969 Floris television series, starring Rutger Hauer. The concept of Floris was inspired by foreign series like Ivanhoe and Thierry La Fronde.
1969-1983
Verhoeven's first feature film Business Is Business was released in 1971 and was not especially well received. His first national success did not come until 1973 with Turkish Delight, starring Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven.
This film is based on a novel by bestselling Dutch author Jan Wolkers and tells the passionate love story of an artist and a liberal young girl from a rather conservative background. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974. In 1999 the film won a Golden Calf for Best Dutch Film of the Century.
Verhoeven's 1975 film Katie Tippel again featured Hauer and van de Ven, but it would not match the success of Turkish Delight.
Verhoeven built on his reputation and achieved international success with his Golden Globe nominated film Soldier Of Orange (1977), starring Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé. The film, based on a true story about the Dutch resistance in World War II, was written by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema. Soldier of Orange received the 1979 LA Film Critics Award for best foreign language film. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1980.
In 1980 Verhoeven made the film Spetters with Renée Soutendijk and Rutger Hauer. The story is sometimes compared to Saturday Night Fever, but the film has more explicit violence and sexuality (in this case also homosexuality), which are sometimes seen as the trademarks of Paul Verhoeven.
Verhoeven's film The Fourth Man (1983) is a horror film starring Jeroen Krabbé and Renée Soutendijk. It was written by Gerard Soeteman from a novel by the popular Dutch writer Gerard Reve. This film would be Verhoeven's last Dutch film production until the 2006 film Black Book.
1983-2000
Gerard Soeteman also wrote the script for Verhoeven's first American film, Flesh and Blood (1985), which starred Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Verhoeven moved to Hollywood for a wider range of opportunities in filmmaking. Working in the U.S. he made a serious change in style, directing big-budget, very violent, special-effects-heavy smashes RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990). Both RoboCop and Total Recall won Academy Special Achievement Awards, for Sound Effects Editing and for Visual Effects respectively.
Verhoeven followed those successes with the equally intense and provocative Basic Instinct (1992), an erotic thriller. The ninth-highest-grossing film of the year, the movie was a return to themes Verhoeven had explored in Turkish Delight and The Fourth Man. The film's most notorious scene shows Sharon Stone's character in a police interrogation, where she uncrosses her legs, briefly revealing her vulva (she does not wear underwear underneath her skirt). The film received two Academy Awards nominations, for Film Editing and for Original Music.
Verhoeven's next film was the poorly received, NC-17 rated Showgirls (1995), about a stripper in Las Vegas trying to make a career as a showgirl. The film won seven Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Film and Worst Director.
Verhoeven became the first director in the history of the Awards to accept his "award" in person.
Afterward, the film enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers.
After Basic Instinct and Showgirls, Verhoeven returned to the science fiction, graphic violence, and special-effects tropes that had marked his earlier films with Starship Troopers (1997), adapted from the controversial novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein, and Hollow Man (2000).
Each film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.
2000-Present
After around 20 years of working and living in the United States, Verhoeven returned to the Netherlands for the shooting of a new film. Together with his screenwriter Gerard Soeteman, Verhoeven made Black Book (2006).
The director was hailed by the host of the Netherlands Film Festival with the words "The return of a hero".
Black Book eventually won six Golden Calves at this festival, including Best Director.
When the shooting of Black Book was delayed due to financial issues, there was speculation about a new production. The film Beast Of Bataan had been announced, but once the shooting for Black Book resumed, the other film was never realized.
Since his return to European cinema in 2006 with Black Book, Verhoeven has been connected to a large number of projects, but for the moment none of them has come to fruition. Some of those titles were produced with other directors at the helm, such as The Paperboy.
Just after 2006’s Black Book, Verhoeven was to direct a film adaption of the novel The Winter Queen written by Russian author Boris Akunin.
Filming was set to start in 2007 with Milla Jovovich playing the role of Amalia Bezhetskaya. Jovovich however fell pregnant, and the movie was pushed to a 2010 shoot, then pushed to 2011.
The movie, with Verhoeven at the helm was then postponed again.
Anjelica Huston And David Thewlis were then also attached to the movie in 2013, with Verhoeven replaced by Russian director Fyodor Sergeyevich Bondarchuk.
Since 2013 though, the film has vanished from the radar and is no longer appearing on anyone’s filmographies.
In April 2010, Verhoeven hinted that his next potential film project would be an adaptation of a computer game set in 1914. In an interview, Verhoeven said, "I am working on a movie now that is situated in 1914. Basically, Indiana Jones-ish you could say, but also Hitchcockian."
Although he would not reveal the title, there was speculation that the project might be an adaptation of The Last Express, a 1997 videogame designed by Prince Of Persia creator Jordan Mechner.
In October 2011, Verhoeven confirmed The Last Express as the identity of the game in question, and revealed that he is even considering filming it in 3D.
Since 2011, there has been no other news on the movie.
In 2012, Paul Verhoeven was part of a crowd sourced project called The Entertainment Experience, in which two movies were made at the same time, but using the same script which was written by Verhoeven.
The first movie was directed by numerous teams of amateur filmmakers. Each team would take a chapter of the script and film it.
The second movie was directed, in whole, by Verhoeven.
Finally, in a rather unexpected twist, Verhoeven followed Black Book by directing a movie in French: Elle (2016) an adaptation of a novel by Philippe Djian, mostly known as the author of 37°2 Le Matin.
The film by Verhoeven, a psycho-thriller where Isabelle Huppert plays a rape victim, was selected in the Official Competition at the Cannes International Film Festival, where it obtained very favourable reviews.
Verhoeven has been a Knight in the Order Of The Netherlands Lion since 2007.
In December 2016 it was announced that Verhoeven would be the President of the Jury for the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, scheduled to take place in February 2017.
Future
Paul Verhoeven is rumoured to be directing WWII epic Lyon 1943.
The film will be set over several months in 1943 and will follow the French Resistance.
Date of release is as yet unknown, as the movie is still in the early writing stages.
Outside Of Film
Verhoeven is a member of the Jesus Seminar, and he is the only member who does not have a degree in biblical studies.
Since he is not a professional biblical exegete, his membership in the Jesus Seminar has occasionally been cited by opponents of the Seminar as a sign that this group is less scholarly than it claims.
On the other hand, some Jesus Seminar members were unhappy with Verhoeven's portrayal of Jesus as an eschatological prophet.
In 2007 Verhoeven wrote the book Jezus Van Nazaret (Jesus Of Nazareth) about the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The book reviews the ideas of Jesus of Nazareth and the alleged corruption of these same ideas over the last 2,000 years. Co-written with Verhoeven's biographer Rob Van Scheers, the book is the culmination of the research Verhoeven conducted in preparation for Jesus: The Man, a motion picture about the life of Christ. The book tells about the Jewish uprising against Roman rule and characterizes Jesus as a radical political activist, downplaying any supernatural events and miracles as unproved or unprovable.
Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait was released in September 2008 in Dutch and was published in English in May 2010 by Seven Stories Press.
Robert J. Miller, author of Born Divine, said about Jesus of Nazareth, "Verhoeven breaks down the gospels...and reassembles them into a unique reconstruction of the historical Jesus."
__________________
Rodent's Reviews: Delivering The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly In Film
Rodent's Reviews: PART DEUX!
Rodent's 1950-Present Sci-Fi And Futuristic Fantasy Movies
Rodent's Reviews: PART DEUX!
Rodent's 1950-Present Sci-Fi And Futuristic Fantasy Movies
Resident Evil: Retribution was my one-pointer
Last edited by The Rodent; 03-17-17 at 11:57 AM.
I have a massive amount of writing accumulated on that movie, I was hoping that would be one of your films here to watch. You should add it.
