Paul Verhoeven

Film Director

Verhoeven, director of films such as the steamy Basic Instinct and Showgirls as well as science fiction offerings like the Starship Troopers is rumored to be a biblical scholar as well as a film director.

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A quote found at the Internet Movie Database site (http://us.imdb.com):

"The Fourth Man has to do with my vision of religion. In my opinion, Christianity is nothing more than one of many interpretations of reality, neither more nor less. Ideally, it would be nice to believe that there is a God somewhere out there, but it looks to me as if the whole Christian religion is a major symptom of schizophrenia in half the world's population: civilizations scrambling to rationalize their chaotic existence. Subsequently, Christianity has a tendency to look like magic or the occult. And I liked that ambiguity, because I wanted my audience to take something home with them. I wanted them to wonder about what religion really is. Remember, that Christianity is a religion grounded in one of the most violent acts of murder, the crucifixion. Otherwise, religion wouldn't have had any kind of impact. With regards to the irony of the violence, much of that probably comes from my childhood experiences during and immediately following the Second World War. In fact, if it hadn't been for the German occupation and then the American occupation, I would have never been a filmmaker."

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Back in July (1998?) it was reported that Verhoeven is in talks with Columbia pictures to direct Houdini where Tom Cruise would likely play the role of the famous magician and debunker of spiritualism.