Now when you speak about Paul Verhoeven, you do so about a man for whom I've great affection. The greatest 2 years of my life so far were between 2000-2002 when I worked in Verhoeven's small production office on the Columbia/Sony lot, starting during the post-production phase of "Hollow Man". I'll be the first to concede the man has delivered some real clunkers to Hollywood's doorstep, but he was an awesome boss. Hilarious, incredibly intelligent, and not at all the disturbing pervert some may assume he is.
Also (for those who care) I suppose the reason I thought to follow Oliver Stone with Verhoeven is that during my 2 years there, the Directors Guild held a meeting that was attended by a great deal of major A & B-list directors working in Hollywood, one of the major topics was something getting a lot of ink at the time, a beef that the WGA had about directors getting dual credit on a movie. That is, the infamous "A Film By" credit.
And what's the point here? Well, Paul and Oliver Stone were the only directors in the room who voted that at the end of the day they didn't give a shit about getting that credit, that bear in mind if you see it in their films, it was stipulated by the releasing studio, not the men themselves (whereas, many directors do in fact have that clause in their contract, to make sure they're given the "a film by" credit). Paul and Stone were the only guys in the entire room that said take it away, it matters not to them.
Anyway, as both a writer and eventual director, I thought that was kinda cool. Thought I'd share.
Let the voting begin. Oh, and FYI... hardcore film fans (especially those of Verhoeven's) will notice that "Soldier Of Orange" and "The 4th Man" are a couple of Paul's Dutch films, done when he was quite a bit younger, before he ever even came to Hollywood to make these "mainstream" studio features. "Flesh & Blood" was the first Hollywood film he directed (some people assume that honor went to "Robocop", since F&B came and went pretty quietly). True, there are a couple other of his Dutch films that I left off here, but to make 10 choices, c'mon I just
couldn't leave off "Showgirls"
For those interested in Paul's next project, he's returning to the Hollywood system for an interesting mix. Technically it's a sequel to "The Thomas Crown Affair" remake with Pierce Brosnan, but as best I understand it, the story they're using for the sequel is in fact a quasi-remake of the Jules Dassin film "Topkapi". For those who have seen "Topkapi", you might recognize one of the centerpieces of the film, the thieves using a long thin wire/rope with which to quietly climb down into the room they wish to rob, a sequence that Brian DePalma heavily borrowed from for the first "Mission Impossible", Tom Cruise dangling on a wire in the isolated CSI room with the super important computer.