It’s funny how the movie industry works. One minute you can’t pay someone to hire you for a project, the next you can’t stop the offers from rolling in. Such is the reality of a hit-driven industry where “what have you done for me lately” isn’t just a saying but a credo. There’s no better example than that of Paul Verhoeven. The filmmaker went from arthouse acclaim for his lurid Dutch productions (Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange) and brainy Hollywood blockbusters (Robocop, Basic Instinct), to career suicide with the reviled Showgirls, and back again with the universally acclaimed WW2 epic Black Book. An industry outcast for six years following Hollow Man, he’s now the Dutch Scorsese attaching himself to projects like he’s trying to make up for lost time. The director is adding yet another to the pile with The Forgotten Soldier, based on Guy Sajer’s World War II memoir.
The story, which has drummed up quite a bit of controversy with questions of its historical accuracy, is Sajer’s “autobiographical” account of his experiences as a French youth fighting with Germany’s Eastern front and the ambiguities between war and life. Michael Frost Beckner, who’s major writing credit to date is the underwhelming Tony Scott thriller Spy Games, adapted the novel and is on as a producer with his brother John and Verhoeven. Thomas Augsberger of Eden Rock Media is exec producing.
Verhoeven is juggling quite a few projects at the moment so it’s unclear what he will be doing first. He’ll likely be globetrotting with Pierce Brosnan’s Bond-lite The Thomas Crown Affair 2 for MGM later this year. Then there’s either Azazel with Mila Jovovich, adaptations of Peter Dexter’s The Paperboy and Jan Siebelink’s Kneeling on a Bed of Violets, or this Sajer project. Maybe he’ll just pin them all on a board and throw darts. The producers plan to shoot The Forgotten Soldier in 2009 but they might want to double-check with Verhoeven.
