Paul Verhoeven To Adapt ‘The Last Express’?; ‘Treme’ Gets Renewed After One Episode & More

There’s not many directors you could rightfully call “eclectic,” but Paul Verhoeven fits right in. With his collection of ultra-violent genre pics like “Robocop” and “Starship Troopers,” the defining sexual thriller of the 90s “Basic Instinct,” and most recently the World War II spy thriller “Black Book,” not to mention the infamous “Showgirls,” its not surprising to see the Dutch director delving into video games for his next work. Verhoeven dropped a few hints in an interview with MTV’s Josh Horowitz, but refused to name the game outright. He did mention it would be set in 1914 and would be “Indiana Jones-ish you could say, but also Hitchcockian.” However, /Film’s Peter Sciretta thinks he may have the answer: “The Last Express”, from “Prince of Persia” creator Jordan Mechner. With that film set to be released next month, it seems to be an fairly strong educated guess that another of Mechner’s games is being optioned. The setting certainly fits. The game takes place on the Orient Express prior to World War I and is a murder mystery that is said to be like a cross between “The Maltese Falcon” and “Pepe Le Moko.” Verhoeven doing a chamber mystery noir? Sign us up.

It looks like Katherine Heigl has picked her next project, after considering a few options on her plate. First announced Columbia Pictures’ adaptation of Janet Evanovich’s “One for the Money,” the first entry of the ever-popular Stephanie Plum novels now has a director and seems likely to be Heigl’s next project. Julie Ann Robinson (“The Last Song” and a variety of British and American TV shows) will sit in the director’s chair while Heigl will annoy us to pieces in front of the camera playing an unemployed lingerie buyer who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet. Seriously, that’s what this thing is about. As for Evanovich she doesn’t really care about the project because she already got paid, “The most important thing I would want anyone to know is that it’s [the studio’s] project. They bought the book. I only want this movie to be a success, but I’m not proprietary about the project. The deal is, if they make a movie and it’s fantastic, everyone will go out and buy the book. And if they make a movie and it sucks, everyone will say, ‘The book was really much better than the movie.’ So I don’t see how I could lose on this.”

Yeah, we know its really television news, but when the movies let us down, the brilliant mind of David Simon is there to pick us up. “Treme,” the latest show from the creator of “The Wire” had its season premiere last Sunday and HBO has already re-upped and officially renewed the show for a second season. The show chronicles life in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and boasts an amazing cast led by Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters, Bunk and Freamon in Simon’s previous show, and also includes Steve Zahn, Melissa Leo, Rob Brown, John Goodman and Kim Dickens.