He's been off-radar since 2006's excellent Black Book, but an interview on Dutch talkshow Zomergasten has seen Paul Verhoeven reveal that his next intended project is** The Hidden Force, based on the novel by Louis Couperus.
Couperus, dubbed the Dutch Joseph Conrad by more than one reviewer, wrote The Hidden Force in 1900. It's set fifty years before the collapse of the Dutch colonial empire, and involves the disastrous attempts of an official in the East Indies (now Indonesia) to impose Western mores on the fractious "natives". Verhoeven says it's about "rebellion against colonial rule, the emergence of fundamentalist Islam, the behavior between people, adultery and psychic powers."
So a classic Dutch novel (adapted once before for Dutch TV), rooted in Dutch history... It's safe to say this is not Verhoeven's return to Hollywood, which he left in FX-fatigued dudgeon after Hollow Man in 2000. Black Book seemed to be a serious re-charging of his batteries, channelling the energy of some of his earlier Rutger-fuelled successes like Soldier of Orange and Turkish Delight. It's something of a surprise that it's taken the director this long to follow it up, but The Hidden Force seems like a perfect opportunity for some mischievous Verhoeven political feather-ruffling.
The screenplay is by Verhoeven and his frequent collaborator Gerard Soeteman. No details of a start date yet, but if you want to revise, the novel's English translation is published in the UK by Quartet.