The Paul Verhoeven Jesus Film is to go ahead

For over eight years, I have been posting here on the NT Blog about the Paul Verhoeven Jesus film. Back in 2004 I was already wondering Whatever happened to the Paul Verhoeven Jesus Film Project, something that has been discussed since Verhoeven attended meetings of the Jesus Seminar in the 90s.

The story received some renewed interest when in 2008 Verhoeven published his own book on Jesus which looked like it might become the basis for the renewal of the film project.

Well, now comes the confirmation that the film is going to go ahead after all.  It's going to be made by Muse Productions who are headlining the news on their website, with a picture of Verhoeven's book and the following note:

MUSE’s Chris Hanley will back director Paul Verhoeven’s (Robocop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, co-writer of Pulp Fiction) new film based on his book ‘Jesus of Navareth.’ The project is the product of two decades of research by Verhoeven. Hollywood Deadline and Indiewire picked up the news, check their articles out here and here.

Roger Avary is to script the film and already there are some preparing for a fight, not least because it may feature the line that Mary was raped by the Roman soldier Panthera, a story that features in Verhoeven's book and which is derived from Origen's quotation of Celsus in Contra Celsum.  (Celsus was a pagan critic of Christianity writing in the mid second century whose work the third century Origen is refuting).  Mike Fleming writes in Deadline:

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.

There's no doubt that it would be controversial to put this particular tradition in the film.  I still remember Christians picketing cinema's when Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ came out in 1987 because it depicted Jesus hallucinating about having sex with Mary Magdalene ( a scene most of the critics misunderstood).

I remember the BBC getting into hot water for even reporting the Roman soldier tradition in a documentary called The Virgin Mary that I was on in 2002 (see further Mary).  The difficulty is that the vast majority of Christians have not heard about this piece of gossip that goes back at least to the second century and possibly also to the first.

My guess is that Verhoeven will find a way to represent the tradition without committing to it in order to avoid appearing deliberately sacrilegious.  It is worth remembering, though, that Scorsese used the controversy that his film stirred up in 1988 to provide a lot of free publicity.

This is a story that I will be watching with interest.

Verhoeven Jesus book -- bringing his film project closer?

Here on the NT Gateway Blog, we've been keeping an eye for some years on the proposed Paul Verhoeven Jesus film. There has been nothing to report for a long time, but now it seems that Verhoeven has published his own Jesus book as a step on the road towards his Jesus film. Predictably, the media has mainly latched onto some of the more sensational elements in the book. Matt Page, on Bible Films Blog, is, as usual, up to speed with developments.

The Verhoeven Jesus film

Over on FilmChat, Peter Chattaway mentions this New York Times piece:

Paul Verhoeven Goes to War One More Time
By DENNIS LIM

the second half of which turns to Verhoeven's oft talked-about desire to make a Jesus film (remember his involvement with the Jesus seminar, for example):

It is a firm belief of Mr. Verhoeven’s that nothing is sacred, and his next project will probably serve as ample demonstration. He is finishing a book on Jesus, to be published later this year. A self-described “non-Christian,” he has been involved since the mid-’80s with the Jesus Seminar, an association of Bible scholars devoted to investigating the historical authenticity of the words and deeds of Jesus.

Summarizing the contents of his monograph, Mr. Verhoeven said: “Thesis No. 1 is that Jesus was a man. That’s already a big thing, as opposed to what Christianity says, that he was the son of God.” The book will be based on a close reading of ancient texts, he said, “eliminating everything that’s not possible, in my opinion.” He added: “It’s impossible that Jesus would have multiplied all this bread, isn’t it? And the resurrection. All these things that are not possible are not possible.” . . .

. . . . Mr. Verhoeven said he hopes his Jesus book is the first step toward his dream project, a Jesus movie, one that he said would be like no other: “My hubris tells me it would be more normal and more real.” Dismissing “The Passion of the Christ” (“It’s just about torture”) and “The Last Temptation of Christ” (“Basically fictional”), he said the only such film he admired was Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Gospel According to St. Matthew”: “He gives it a Marxist spin, which made the Jesus more belligerent, much stronger, more like he really was, I think.”

He hastened to add that despite this confrontational stance, his Bible studies were motivated by an intellectual ardor. “I’m a big fan of Jesus,” he said. “I think Jesus was an extremely interesting, innovative, talented person, a theological genius, and as a poet, his parables are absolutely magnificent. He’s like Mozart.”

Mr. Verhoeven knows his approach is risky. “To do this movie in the U.S. might not be without personal danger,” he said. “The power of the screen is so enormous. That’s why I’m writing the book first. It gives me time to think if I want to get into hotter water than that.”

Well, if the film ever comes off, it should be fascinating.

Warcry article on Jesus Films

I received a copy of a colourful, double-page spread on Jesus films in the Salvation Army's WarCry weekly newspaper today. It seems that they have an on-line version too:

It's playback time for Jesus
Mark Goodacre gives guidance on Jesus movies on DVD and VHS
by Philip Halcrow

I am sure you will be sorry to hear that the on-line version does not include the little photograph of me that appears in the print version! This article is based on a phone call I had with the author a fortnight or so ago. I must admit that I had not quite realised that I was the only one being interviewed and that this was going to be so focused on my views. But thankfully there is nothing too odd. There is a mistake, though. When talking with the author, I had thought that Paul Verhoeven was to be one of the contributors to Jesus and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which was, I understand, one of the original intentions.

Whatever happened to the Paul Verhoeven Jesus film project?

Several years ago it was often reported that Paul Verhoeven, director of Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Robocop and Starship Troopers, was working on or planning a Jesus film. At one stage it was even hoped that he would be able to release it for the millennium. He was apparently a regular attender at meetings of the Jesus Seminar and appeared to be taking this project very seriously. I have heard very little about this recently, however. Has he given up the idea? Perhaps he could cash in on some of the hype surrounding The Passion of the Christ and at the same time make a very different film. He is apparently pretty interested in consulting Biblical scholars and clearly would want to focus much more on Jesus' life. The working title was Christ the Man. I thought it would be interesting to see if there is any more up to date news on the web concerning Verhoeven's project but googling only brings up older material. Perhaps the best round up of material on this is at PaulVerhoeven.net dating to October 1998:

Jesus and Verhoeven

But there is nothing more recent that I have heard. Anyone out there know anything?