Paul Verhoeven Finds Backing And A Writer For Controversial Jesus Christ Movie
EXCLUSIVE: As Darren Aronofsky’s Noah gets ready to set sail and iconic directors Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg forge ahead with epics about Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, faithful Biblical epics are flourishing in Hollywood. It looks like there is even room for one that takes the most controversial look at the life of Jesus Christ since Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation Of Christ.
I’m told that Muse Productions’ Chris Hanley, whose credits include American Psycho, has stepped up to finance development of a film about Christ. It will be based on Jesus Of Nazareth, a book that director Paul Verhoeven co-wrote after immersing himself in the history and researching the subject for nearly two decades. Verhoeven plans to direct the film, which will be written by Roger Avary. Avary shared the Academy Award for Best Original Script with Quentin Tarantino for Pulp Fiction.
Verhoeven’s take on the life of Jesus Christ discounts all the miracles that inform the New Testament. That includes the virgin birth and the resurrection. Verhoeven doesn’t believe any of them happened. I wrote about Verhoeven’s ambitions in spring 2011, as he and his reps at ICM first tried to find funding — no small feat given some of the theories he put forth in the book.The most controversial: that Jesus might have been the product of his mother being raped by a Roman soldier, which Verhoeven said was commonplace at the time, and that Jesus was a radical prophet who performed exorcisms and was convinced he would find the kingdom of Heaven on earth, and did not know he would be sentenced to die on the cross by Pontius Pilate. That, and the discounting of the miracles that pepper the New Testament, has made this a daunting project to set up. But while Verhoeven’s film credits include Showgirls (as well as hits like Robocop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct), he isn’t trying to tantalize here. He is fixated on Christ not for the miracles depicted in the blockbuster film The Passion Of The Christ, but rather in the enduring power of the message Christ preached which has kept him first and foremost in the minds of Christians for 2000 years. Verhoeven feels too many take Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins as a free pass to misbehave, because they think they don’t have to take responsibility for their actions. He feels that the value of Christ’s journey is the opportunity to emulate his life and the values he held dear, like forgiveness.
“If you look at the man, it’s clear you have a person who was completely innovative in the field of ethics,” Verhoeven told me last year. “My own passion for Jesus came when I started to realize that. It’s not about miracles, it’s about a new set of ethics, an openness towards the world, which was anathema in a Roman-dominated world. I believe he was crucified because they felt that politically, he was a dangerous person whose following was getting bigger and bigger. Jesus’ ideals are about the utopia of human behavior, about how we should treat each other, how we should step into the shoes of our enemy.”
Elsewhere on the movie Bible belt, Prometheus director Scott and his Scott Free have become attached to Exodus, a project that had already been set at Fox with Chernin Entertainment. It’s from a script by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, the Tower Heist scribes who reinvented themselves with this project and a version of Moby Dick that Timur Bekmambetov has been developing.
That puts Fox and Warner Bros in competition on Moses movies, as Steven Spielberg continues to circle Gods And Kings, the Stuart Hazeldine- and Michael Green-scripted epic. Now, both directors have more films than they know what to do with, but I’m told this has become a real race. Scott is prepping his next film The Counselor, the Cormac McCarthy-scripted drama with Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz for Fox. Spielberg, who is in post production on Lincoln, is readying Robopocalypse at DreamWorks as his next film. There seems a great opportunity to update The Ten Commandments, but I doubt there is room for more than one.
The other major ancient religious-themed project, the film about Judah Macabee that Mel Gibson set at Warner Bros with the intention of directing a Braveheart-style film about the events that are commemorated at Hanukkah, seems to have imploded because of discord between Gibson and the screenwriter he hired, Joe Eszterhas. They had a falling out, one I’ve heard stemmed from Eszterhas showing up without having put in the work to transfer Gibson’s ideas for the movie to the page. Eszterhas, in turn, taped Gibson getting angry and yelling at him, and the formerly highly paid scribe has turned the controversy into what seems like a plea for attention, even publishing an e-book about his experiences with Gibson. But if Gibson said even a portion of the things Eszterhas claims he said about Jews, Gibson should find another subject for his next directing assignment because he is missing a sensitivity chip, along with more than a few marbles.
Verhoeven doesn’t have that kind of baggage coming into the Jesus Christ project, but he is treading on territory that Christians universally would label as blasphemous. The film seems to have landed in the appropriate place, as a gritty and controversial independent film. Both Verhoeven and Avary are repped by ICM Partners, which did not comment, nor did Hanley return my call.
I wonder when “brave” Hollywood will make a “controversial” biopic denegrating and attacking Mohammed and the Islamic faith
As soon as you stop perpetuating the stereotype of crazy Christians living in the south, Scott of Tampa.
Huh????
brixnation, you are stupid
Just as soon as you stop perpetuating the stereotype of crazy Christians living in the south, Scott of Tampa.
Looks like you cower to the followers of the prophet. Scottbtampa has a legitimate point that the rest of us get completely.
Am w/you Scott. There is nothing brave or controversial about hitting the broadest target. There is only the sort of fellowship that people who have a common object of hatred feel for each other. On my coast we call people like that “bigots”.
Because “brave Hollywood” would get its figurative and literal head taken off, that’s why.
And that’s the truth, Ruth.
I can guarantee you I will not contribute to his dilusions of idiocy by paying to view this “movie” and i am an avid movie goer!
I am a believer in Christ. I believe they are missing the mark on Christ completely, but this is a great opportunity as with anything in life to show drastic differences between a Jesus that makes sense to those who don’t yet believe and a Jesus that had to do the things He did the way the Bible says with no exceptions for the very purpose of fulfilling the forgiveness that Verhoeven, so deeply wants to express. Encouragement to other believers out there. Show love to people where they are in life and present Christ and let God call them to salvation.
For the same reason they aren’t making movies about the Sikhs. This is a real simple business model, so get to know it if you want to change it: loudmouths promote films they hate by bringing attention to those films, so “brave” Hollywood looks for content that will piss off those sorts of loudmouths. Perhaps Muslims and Sikhs would blow some people up, sure. But more importantly, and this is what you need to grasp if you want this to change, Muslims and Sikhs don’t have much of a voice in this country, so they wouldn’t do much to market such films. If you want people to stop making films that are negative about your faith, stop creating the controversy and buzz that promotes the films you hate.
Preach it, Jared!
not true jared. very simple and stupid analysis.
And an even simpler rebuttal. Well done.
So if christians blew up pet shops and stabbed cartoonists over this, we wouldnt see any more of it?
Your comment seems logical and well-thought.
But it costs little to talk about Jesus and Muhammad or to draw a cartoon and even less to drop two books in a toilet.
Yet one is mocked and ridiculed and the other feared and protected and the reasons why do not fit into your theory. So if your theory is reduced to “one pisses off Christians and onMuslimsms to make money and that is the only difference” you need to come up with a better reason
Besides, this movie about Jesus, which ignores the Bible, will fail epically at the theater
If money had anything to do with it there would never have been another of the genre after “Last Temptation”. They didn’t make enough to pay the ushers. They just think it makes them look cool to diss Jesus. Maybe to their geek friends, but that’s all. Now, if they want to be really cool and look like anything but the cowards they are, just go ahead and make a blockbuster about that pervert Mohammed. Go ahead….they’ll make you famous.
Verhoeven and Avary aren’t “attacking” christianity at all, merely taking a closer look at it. Check out the history of the New Testament, and it’s origins.
Hard to credit serious religious analysis from maker of Showgirls.
We are known by our works…
Put down the Da Vinci Code and read some real history. While there are many, many more writings that could have been included in the New Testament, as to which the Bible itself offers clues, most did not make it either because they were legitimately lost, which was quite likely in a period of extreme persecution, or because they were brazenly blasphemous, and I don’t merely refer to the denial of the miracles. I personally do not believe that the people who assembled the Canon had the authority to do so, but that merely means they were guided by their own finite understanding of God’s purposes, not necessarily that they were consumed by a conspiratorial aim.
I have, and this aint it
Right? But I don’t see that happening anytime soon
you beat me to it Scottbtampa, not that anyone SHOULD attack any religious leader but Hollywood is SO gutless….I’ll still see these movies tho..
They just did, or rather, pretended they did. The film is a fake but the death and destruction being instigated by unknown agitators is real.
Sounds great. I’m in.
I hear the new Bill Rojas script being shopped around is called “Bezalel” – it’s a Rock’nRoll musical like Jesus Christ Superstar, but set in the last 90 Minutes before the Tabernacle ignites with the Shekinah Glory. Coverage is really hot…
If it were up to me — and it’s definitely not, all these projects would get made. Large canvas epics are ready to come back into vogue, I think. And some of our best movies/art/music derive from theological subjects. As far as any potential controversies, in the end, I think religions will find the discussion points raised by any of these movies to wind up being net positives.
That’s the weird thing. Verhoeven is looking to shrink The Greatest Story Ever Told into something small and squalid.
Life is so short, why would you spend twenty years
Putting aside all the theological baggage and controversy… Who the hell wants to see that?
Awesome. It’s about time we got a film about Jesus as an historical figure instead of a religious one.
What about “The Gospel According to St. Matthew” (1964) by Pier Paolo Pasolini?
And look what happened to *him*…
LOL. A historical one vs. a religious one?
That’s the whole intent of careful, critical theology, exegesis and application of the N.T. texts, comparison of eyewitness accounts, Christo-claims and the nature of legends in the middle east during the 1st century.
I’ll go out on a limb here, but I’m pretty sure the director of Showgirls and Robocop isn’t the most reliable scholar or seminarian out there.
Hey! There’s more to both of those movies than most folks realize. Starship Troopers too. Not hours worth of discussion, but still more than what’s on the surface. I can think of worse to tackle it.
this movie is just another example of the FACT that the people of the US are getting further and further from God. the further they get from him, the worse conditions in this country get!
I hope the backer isn’t putting too much into Verhoeven’s movie, because it’s pretty much guaranteed to come and go at the box office like a popcorn fart in a hurricane.
Christians will avoid it, because while audiences will accept insults to their intelligence as long as its entertaining, they’re not going to spend money to sit through having their beliefs insulted. Other demographics, including people who are actively anti-Christian, will most likely avoid it because of lack of interest.
If I had money, I would back this project myself. It’ll be huge. If you can’t see that…
Your judgment explains why you don’t have the money…
I guess we know why you have no money.
Paul Verhoeven already made the best Jesus Christ movie ever – Robocop.
Lets’ see if his “extensive research” finally casts someone as Jesus with brown skin and brown eyes instead of the “blue eyed” fantasy depicted in most churches around the world. I’d praise him just for that! Taking bets that won’t happen. GT
you do know that Christ was Jewish, right? OH WELL, DETAILS!
No he was African like Cleopatra and all the other figures of history that revisionist like to try and recast in thier own image.
I hear your sentiment, Aleric, but just to stick with the facts, I am pretty sure Cleopatra was a Ptolemy of Greece. Even though she was born in Egypt, the Ptolemies were notorious for only breeding with each other, so I think it is safe to say she was of Greek lineage. You can always call up Stacy Schiff or Scott Rudin to verify. But whatever, I still hear your point.
Stick with the facts? Tell that to Verhoeven.
I’m skeptical, but I’ll go. Looks like they’ll get this believer’s money.
But honestly, if Martin Scorsese can make a film full of faith and love for the basic tenets of Christianity, and the Right STILL wanted him dead, what makes these backers think Paul Verhoeven can get away with a picture that denies Jesus’s divinity and assumes him to the product of rape???
Good luck with that…
Why rape? Certain ‘eyewitness’ accounts just mention an affair she had with a Roman soldier named Panthero – before she married Joseph. A number of Biblical scholars point it out as the probable explanation for certain lines, such as Jesus saying to Mary, ‘Woman, who are you to me?’ downright spurning her, and the chatter in Nazareth when he brought his disciples, ‘Isn’t this Mary’s son?’ (i.e., not Joseph’s). We also too easily forget that the ‘immaculate conception’ idea didn’t even appear till 400 years after Jesus died. None of the earlier church fathers or gospels mention it. (Which is a little strange, if it were true…) They borrowed that brainstorm from a plenty of older religions…
1. There are no “eyewitness” accounts of such a relationships. The entire idea comes from Talmud, written during a time period where Christians and Jews invented all sorts of slander to injure one another in the eyes of the Roman establishment. Verhoeven’s inclusion of it means that he’s not really interested in presenting the historical Jesus as understood by the best present scholarship, but just a different fanciful one that happens to suit his own aesthetic and cinematic preferences.
2. The idea of the virgin birth are present from Gospels of Luke and Matthew which date anywhere from the 60s CE (by the most conservative estimates) to the mid 2nd century CE by the most skeptical.
3. The immaculate conception =/= the virgin birth. The immaculate conception is a much later dogma that Mary was born free from original sin.
Oh goody. Another perverse “interpretation” of the life of Jesus, based on the biases of a not-so-good movie director.
Can’t wait (yawn).
I’m with you. Another egomaniac who is so clever, he has figured out how all the Scriptures and eyewitness accounts of Jesus are wrong and none he’s willing to lose millions of dollars to make his point. Wow.
Right, all the eye witness accounts that have not been translated, retold, or revised a hundred times over thousands of years. Sounds like a solid basis.
“Verhoeven feels too many take Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins as a free pass to misbehave, because they think they don’t have to take responsibility for their actions.”
Seriously? Umm, no one I go to church with each week believes this, nor anyone else I know who is actually a Christian.