Rejoice, readers! For Paul Verhoeven is getting dirrrty again!
Yes, the Dutch genius who gave the world Sharon Stone’s wardrobe malfunction in Basic Instinct, an invisible man fondling Rhona Mitra in Hollow Man, and the astounding sight of Elizabeth Berkeley giving Kyle MacLachlan a very happy ending in Showgirls, is at it again.
The film in question is a currently untitled thriller by writer Wendy Miller (taking a break from Trumpton, presumably) that has been set up over at Relativity Media. The plot (yes, there is a plot) revolves around a college intern who embarks on a dangerous affair with the boss’ wife. Silly boy.
The film has been described as a cross between Fatal Attraction and Risky Business, which can mean only one thing: there’ll be tons – tons – of shagging. We fully expect Russell Brand to announce he’s playing the lead any day now.
All this rutting and rogering certainly makes a change – the erotic thriller has been conspicuous by its absence in the last few years, with big-name stars reluctant to get their kit off on camera, and studios notoriously reluctant to expose films to the rigours of the MPAA, which seems to shrug its shoulders at violence, but will come down hard (no pun intended) on anything involving willies and foo foos.
But Verhoeven – who says the word ‘vagina’ with more gusto than anyone this reporter has ever met - could well be the man to change all that.
Miller is currently rewriting the script, under Verhoeven’s direction (“More vaginas! More schweating! Yesh! Yesh! Yesh!”), with an early 2009 start date looming large. Hopefully, this will do well and then the old Dutch Master will turn his attention to the other genre that preoccupied him during his first American period – sci-fi.
But for now, we wish him well in his return to the sexy thriller. In fact, we'd applaud him, but we'd rather not stand up right now.