Twenty years ago, the movie world was a very different place. Young actress Elizabeth Berkley was trying to use her popularity in the sitcom "Saved By The Bell" as a launchpad to a big screen career, while someone named Charlize Theron hadn’t even made feature film yet. However, both of their stars would cross, however briefly, in the audition room for Paul Verhoeven‘s disasterpiece, "Showgirls."
In case you’re wondering, Theron’s first credited role was in the post-"Pulp Fiction" crime flick "2 Days In The Valley," and before that she appeared far less memorably in "Children Of The Corn III: Urban Harvest." Either way, it’s safe to say she dodged a bullet.
Meanwhile, it pays to remember that at the time, big things were expected from "Showgirls." The duo of Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Esterzhas had collaborated on the wildly successful "Basic Instinct" three years earlier, no naturally, there was some chatter of a "Showgirls" sequel…..before it turned out to be a box office bomb and utter embarrassment.
"… we had actually been working on the sequel to ‘Showgirls’ which was going to be called ‘Bimbos’ and was going to be ‘Nomi does Hollywood’, but after ‘Showgirls’ was released there was no way anyone was going to give me money for that," he said. "If we could just make Elizabeth Berkley 20 years younger now I would love to make ‘Bimbos’ today."
No word yet if Verhoeven has seen the parody-ish sequel, "Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven," written, directed and starring Rena Riffel aka Hope from the original movie, but I think he’d get a kick out of it.
