A hat tip to the folks over at JoBlo for picking up on this one.
According to the German news site, Extratipp, a sequel to the infamous cinematic bomb “Showgirls” is in the works. For those of you too young to remember, “Showgirls” was the notorious Paul Verhoeven film about the seedy world of stripping that promised lots of nudity, girl-on-girl action and came stamped with an NC-17 rating. The result was a trainwreck of bad acting and ludicrous plotting and worst of all, it was so boring, no amount of exposed flesh could save it. Since its release, the film has gained dubious quasi-cult status, even inspiring a deluxe edition DVD set complete with shot glasses, a blindfold, and pasties. But it seems no one is buying it as we’ve found it in chain store dump bins for $9.99.
Anyway, Marc Vorlander — who is apparently a writer/director, though IMDB has never heard of him — has developed a sequel based around the character Hope, played in the original by model/actress Rena Riffel. Vorlander has even apparently conned convinced two producers to pony up an astonishing $25 million to make this thing, with production supposedly taking place in Frankfurt under the breathtakingly original title: “Showgirls: Story Of Hope.” There’s no word on release dates or casting, but we can’t imagine Riffel would turn this one down since she’s largely been making the rounds on the B and C-list film circuit of budget horror and comedy films (though to be fair, she does have a credit in David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive”).
We’re taking this whole story with a grain box of salt. If this thing gets made, you’re more than likely to find it one day while wandering the dark nooks and crannies of your local Blockbuster, sitting alongside other direct-to-video “sequels” to “Robocop” and “Starship Troopers” (side note: what is it about Paul Verhoeven films that inspires a glut of DTV crap?) than on your local cineplex screen. That said, $25 million is one helluva budget for something that would go direct to video, so we’ll wait to see how this develops.
