Biography for
Paul Verhoeven (I)

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Date of Birth

Mini Biography

Paul Verhoeven graduated from the University of Leiden with a degree in math and physics. He entered the Royal Netherlands Navy, where he began his film career by making documentaries for the Navy and later for TV. In 1969 he directed the popular Dutch TV series "Floris" (1969), about a medieval knight. This featured actor Rutger Hauer who has appeared in many of Verhoeven's later films. Verhoeven's first feature, Wat zien ik (1971) (trans. "What do I See?"), was released in 1971. However it was his second, Turks fruit (1973), with its combination of raw sexuality and a poignant story line, that gained him great popularity in the Netherlands, especially with male audiences. When his films, especially Soldaat van Oranje (1977) and Vierde man, De (1983), received international recognition, Verhoeven moved to the US. His first US film was _Flesh & Blood (1985)_, 1985, but it was RoboCop (1987) and especially Total Recall (1990) that made him a big box office success. Sometimes accused of portraying excessive violence in his films, Verhoeven replies that he is only recording the violence of society. Verhoeven has co-scripted two of his films: Soldaat van Oranje (1977) and _Flesh & Blood (1985)_. He also directed an episode of the HBO "The Hitchhiker" (1983) TV series. Several of his films have been photographed by Jost Vacano including the hit cult film Starship Troopers (1997) starring Casper Van Dien.

Esposo/a

Trade Mark

Famous for his extremely violent, yet intelligent, science fiction films

Frequently works with screenwriter Gerard Soeteman (on his Dutch films, that is)

Often shows fictional TV news clips in his movies to move plot.

Heavy use of Christian symbolism

Trivialidades

Was a member of the Leiden students body "Minerva", which played a central role in his famous Soldaat van Oranje (1977) ("Soldier of Orange" / "Survival Run"), after Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema's book), produced by Rob Houwer.

Rutger Hauer has appeared in several of his films: Turks fruit (1973), Keetje Tippel (1975), Soldaat van Oranje (1977), Spetters (1980) and Flesh+Blood (1985).

Became the first nominee ever to actually show up at the Razzie Awards, when he personally accepted his Worst Director "award" for Showgirls (1995).

Of all his films, claimed that Starship Troopers (1997) was the only one he would be interested in revisiting for a true sequel (the 2004 Phil Tippett directed Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004) (V) did not involve him) but at one point he wanted to do Minority Report (2002) (directed by Steven Spielberg) as a follow-up to his Total Recall (1990).

A lot of his films include media coverage of some kind, ranging from real archive footage (Soldaat van Oranje (1977) ) to fictional news (RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Starship Troopers (1997)) and sportscasts (Spetters (1980)).

Says he declined the offer to direct three back-to-back sequels to The Fast and the Furious (2001) and 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003).

Frequently works with photographer Jost Vacano.

Was set to direct a (then record) $150-million epic called "Crusade" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1995 for Carolco. Being an independent company, Carolco couldn't take two risks at the same time and preferred Renny Harlin's Cutthroat Island (1995), which made Verhoeven decide to do Showgirls (1995) first. Harlin's swashbuckler flopped and bankrupted Carolco, so "Crusade" never got made. Given the current position of Schwarzenegger as governor of California (and who still owns the rights to the screenplay) and the recent Ridley Scott film Kingdom of Heaven (2005), it is unlikely "Crusade" will ever be made, although Verhoeven is still often quoted as saying he'd be interested.

Drinks Cola light

Likes to relax on music from the German hard rock band Rammstein.

His only Hollywood film that has not yet had a sequel is Showgirls (1995). All his other Hollywood epics (RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Basic Instinct (1992), Starship Troopers (1997) and Hollow Man (2000)) have had one or more sequels made. He did not direct any of them.

When he picked up his Razzie in person for Worst Director for Showgirls (1995), he also accepted the Worst Picture award for that film.

2007: Member of the jury at the 64th Venice Film Festival.

Considers John Landis as his only friend in Hollywood.

Personal Quotes

People seem to have this strange idea that films can influence people to be violent, but in my sincere opinion film only reflects the violence of society.

As a director, my goal is to be completely open. Just look at how I portray sex in my films. They're considered shocking and obscene because I like to carefully examine human sexuality. It has to be realistic. I really like documentaries, therefore, reality is important to me when I do fiction. It is often related to my own life, my Dutch background. The art scene in Holland has always attempted to be realistic. The Dutch painters of 400 years ago were meticulously realistic. The example I always like to use is a marvelous painting by Hieronymus Bosch titled "The Prodigal Son". It is a painting of a brothel, and in the corner is a man pissing against a wall. You would never, never find something like that in an Italian, French or English painting of that epoch. The Dutch have always been more scientific, interested in detail; certainly less idealistic and more realistic. The sex scenes in Vierde man, De (1983) ["The Fourth Man"] and Turks fruit (1973) {"Turkish Delight"] were based on real experiences I had or a friend had. It's very personal. Of course, I must admit that I love to shock audiences.

Vierde man, De (1983) [["The Fourth Man"] has to do with my vision of religion. In my opinion, Christianity is nothing more than one of many interpretations of reality, neither more nor less. Ideally, it would be nice to believe that there is a God somewhere out there, but it looks to me as if the whole Christian religion is a major symptom of schizophrenia in half the world's population: civilizations scrambling to rationalize their chaotic existence. Subsequently, Christianity has a tendency to look like magic or the occult. And I liked that ambiguity, because I wanted my audience to take something home with them. I wanted them to wonder about what religion really is. Remember that Christianity is a religion grounded in one of the most violent acts of murder, the crucifixion. Otherwise, religion wouldn't have had any kind of impact. With regards to the irony of the violence, much of that probably comes from my childhood experiences during and immediately following the Second World War. In fact, if it hadn't been for the German occupation and then the American occupation, I would have never been a filmmaker.

The sooner we admit our capacity for evil the less apt we are to destroy each other.

People love seeing violence and horrible things. The human being is bad and he can't stand more than five minutes of happiness. Put him in a dark theater and ask him to look at two hours of happiness and he'd walk out or fall asleep.

[on his Total Recall (1990) star and good friend Arnold Schwarzenegger] Arnold has no ego. You can say anything to him. In fact, during his first day on the set [of "Total Recall] he sat me down and told me, "I won't be offended if you talk to me in a direct manner. Say what you feel". That made it easy, because I wouldn't have to be diplomatic and say, "Arnold, could you perhaps move over here and give me a different angle?" I could just go, "Arnold, this is bad. You look stupid!"

It's still difficult if you are a European director and your first language is not English to be exactly aware what the nuances of the American language are. Even after fifty, sixty years you are basically kind of a little bit retarded there.

[On his filmmaking style] American critics always complain about the blandness of mainstream movies, but when you do something more ambiguous and ironic, they are pissed off too. I like putting certain aspects of American society under the magnifying glass and showing them for what they are.

There is a fear about sex in motion pictures, as if sex would undermine morality.

Salario

Where Are They Now

(May 2004) Developing a dozen of projects, most notably the Dutch war-thriller "Zwartboek (2005)" with filming expected to start in the fall.

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