Over the summer, Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven while promoting his latest effort “Benedetta,” revealed that his next movie would be an American political/spy thriller set in Washington D.C. and would be his first U.S.-set film since the Kevin Bacon-led horror pic “Hollow Man” made way back in 2000.
Paul Verhoeven now tells MovieMaker that the project is “Young Sinner” and will be the vein of erotic thrillers such as his own “Basic Instinct” and the other big Michael Douglas film of this genre “Fatal Attraction.” Twenty years since he worked in the U.S., Verhoeven teased a “more explosive” film geared towards a bigger audience than some of his more recent work.
The new thriller will also see the director reunite with screenwriter Ed Neumeier, who previously worked with Verhoeven on his fantastic satirical action films “RoboCop” and “Starship Troopers.” Neumeier gave a brief description of the project that will take place at Capitol Hill and teased the spy angle too.
“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,” Neumeier told MovieMaker.
The writer also suggested the filmmaking pair will follow their satirical streak, “We have been consulting with a former intelligence officer, Ron Marks, who is trying to keep us real about Capitol Hill and the spy business, but satire always seems to emerge when Paul and I work together, so I expect our new adventure will have a light tone,” Neumeier said.
Fans of Verhoeven’s work should be excited to see him return to an American setting after focusing mainly on European projects. Hopefully, the satire won’t go far and overboard, ala “Showgirls, an example of an American cultural skewering that didn’t click with most audiences and set the stage for the filmmaker’s twenty-year hiatus from Hollywood.