Will Paul Verhoeven ever get to make his planned next picture, “Young Sinner“? According to World Of Reel (via Radio France), the 87-year-old Dutch auteur still wants to do the project, provided he secures funding from someone who wants to see him film what sounds like his swan song.
“I’m working on a new movie, “Young Sinner,” Verhoeven told Radio France in an interview promoting a new biography of the filmmaker. “It’s political. With my screenwriter of “Robocop’ and “Starship Troopers” [Edward Neumeier]. It’s about an Evangelical Christian girl who really likes sex. She believes in Jesus.” That sounds like it’s right in Verhoeven’s wheelhouse: a dash of “Bennedetta,” his last film from 2021, but also “Elle,” “Basic Instinct,” and “Black Book.” Verhoeven has compared “Young Sinner” to “Black Book” before, calling it an “erotic thriller set in Washington DC,” that’s “more explosive, and more open-minded to a big audience” than this 2006 film.
But it’s the political element of “Young Sinner” that should excite fans of the director. The backdrop of the nation’s capital would make the film, should it get made, Verhoeven’s first American picture in 25 years. And then there’s the spycraft of the film’s plot, a genre trapping Verhoeven has never explored in his career. Here’s a brief synopsis supplied by Neumeier supplied to MovieMaker four years ago: “Our heroine, a young staffer who works for a powerful Senator, is drawn into a web of international intrigue and danger, and of course, there is also a little sex.” Neuimeier also told the outlet that he and Verhoeven consulted ex-intelligence officer Ron Mark “about Capitol Hill and the spy business.” “Satire always seems to emerge when Paul and I work together, so I expect our new adventure will have a light tone,” he added.
An ingenue descending into the shadowy worlds of sex and spycraft sounds incredible, so why hasn’t Verhoeven shot “Young Sinner” yet? It’s above all a matter of financing. Verhoeven has relied on French funders to make his last couple of films, both critically regarded, but he hasn’t made a film in the US since 2000’s “Hollow Man.” It’s not as if the director is a persona non grata stateside. Rather, it’s more akin to the creative issues another erotic thriller specialist, Brian De Palma, has had in recent years securing producers. Both he and Verhoeven are masters, but operating beyond their heyday, and also uncompromising in their creative vision. Unfortunately, that connotes a risk in today’s cinematic landscape for major studios, which is a shame, considering the world needs dearly needs more De Palma/Verhoeven projects and less generic and vanilla crowdpleasers.
But maybe “Young Sinner” will get find someone to back it before Verhoeven’s age forces him to retire. That synopsis alone make the project sound like an opus for the director, and one fans of his would surely latch onto.
