Paul Verhoeven: Last News

Christopher Vourlias Heretic has acquired world sales rights to “Sweet Dreams,” the sophomore feature from award-winning Bosnian Dutch director Ena Sendijarević (“Take Me Somewhere Nice”). Set on a remote Indonesian island during the waning days of the colonial era, the film centers on Dutch sugar plantation owner Jan and his wife, Agathe, who sit atop the local food chain — until the night when Jan, returning from a visit to his native concubine, Siti, suddenly drops dead in front of his wife. Desperate to hold onto her privileged lifestyle, Agathe forces her estranged son, Cornelis, and his pregnant wife, Josefien, to travel from Europe and take over the family business. Those plans are upended by a worker’s uprising, as Cornelis and his progressive ideals must confront the uncomfortable reality that his father’s will places Siti at the helm of the family estate, setting in motion a cat-and-mouse game that puts those ideals to the test.

EXCLUSIVE: Isabelle Huppert (Elle) and Finn Wittrock (Luckiest Girl Alive) have closed deals to star in Free Radicals, an English-language home invasion thriller based on the same-name short story originally published in The New Yorker by Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Arianna Bocco has stepped down as president of IFC Films. She will be replaced on an interim basis by Scott Shooman, who currently serves as head of acquisitions. Bocco left the company on Thursday. IFC, which is owned by AMC Networks, will conduct a search for a permanent replacement for Bocco, a longtime executive at the company and a major force in the world of independent film, respected for her keen taste and strong relationships with top talent. Bocco took the reins at IFC in 2020 after her predecessor Lisa Schwartz stepped down. But she had been at the company for more than a decade before making that leap. “IFC Films is a vibrant and vital part of our business and we will continue to acquire, produce and distribute films across our IFC Films, Shudder and RLJE Films ecosystems,” AMC Networks said in a statement. “We have full and total confidence in Scott’s ability to run the business as interim head and know that our film team will not miss a beat as it proceeds forward with a robust slate of releases and acquisitions.”

Another day, another unfortunate story of the gender wage gap…

The Laundromat and The Flight Attendant, the actress is still quite well known some of her earlier movies, particularly her Golden Globe-nominated turn as Catherine Trammel in Basic Instinct, one of the truly iconic ‘90s movie roles. Unfortunate, the 1992 erotic thriller ended up negatively impacting the custody case over her son when a judge asked the boy if he knew Stone made “sex movies.

Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s London-set, neo-noir thriller Femme, starring George MacKay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, world premieres in the Berlinale’s Panorama section this year.

EXCLUSIVE: Cinedigm has acquired all North American rights to four-part docuseries RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop. 

Gaumont Lands Debut Channel 5 Drama ‘Under Her Skin’

Showgirls veteran Elizabeth Berkley, 48, made a rare red carpet appearance with husband of 15 years, artist Greg Lauren, on Thursday for the Ralph Lauren Spring 2023 Fashion Experience event in San Marino, California.The blonde beauty - who came to fame on Saved By The Bell and went on to star in Showgirls and CSI: Miami - sizzled in a plunging white top that made the most of her curves as she added a black jacket and slacks. Black platform heels added seven inches to her height.Together the power couple have one child, 10-year-old son Sky Cole Lauren.  Elegant: Showgirls veteran Elizabeth Berkley, 48, made a rare red carpet appearance with husband of 15 years, artist Greg Lauren, on Thursday for the Ralph Lauren Spring 2023 Fashion Experience event in San Marino, California  Smart set: The blonde beauty - who came to fame on Saved By The Bell and went on to star in Showgirls and CSI: Miami - sizzled in a plunging white top that made the most of her curves as she added a black jacket and slacksElizabeth rose to prominence on Saved By The Bell as high school girl Jessie Spano, a role tailored especially to her strengths.

For many years now Venice has been a respectful platform for those big-name directors of the 1970s and early ’80s who are happy to go back into the fray long after those juicy studio budgets dried up: Brian De Palma, William Friedkin, Paul Verhoeven, John Carpenter and — to a lesser extent — George Romero all found a home here for their late-period passion projects. Walter Hill, now 80, joins their ranks with an improbably youthful horse opera, and while it shows up the limitations of both writing and shooting a Western in the modern age (concessions to modern sensitivities have to be made, and digital cinematography somehow just doesn’t cut it with the subject matter), it’s nevertheless a wickedly enjoyable genre romp and full of violent surprises.

Blended families, where children alternate between parents and spend their lives with an assortment of half-siblings or kids from their parents’ previous relationships, are now so normal that it’s easy to overlook how painful the blending process can be. Bitter separations, disrupted households, new beds and new people appearing in them, the resentments children feel for the grown-ups’ failures and the interloping new partners pawing at the mom or dad who is rightfully theirs: none of this is easy, even in splits later described smoothly as “amicable.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After taking a break from his filmmaking career to preside over the French film promotion org Unifrance, Jean-Paul Salomé has made a big comeback with a pair of films with Oscar-nominated French actor Isabelle Huppert. The latest one, “The Sitting Duck,” is world premiering at Venice in the Horizons section. Adapted from Caroline Michel-Aguirre’s book “La Syndicaliste,” “The Sitting Duck” tells the true story of Maureen Kearney, the head union representative of a French multinational nuclear powerhouse who becomes a whistleblower, denouncing top-secret deals that shook the French nuclear sector. One day, Kearney is found in her home, tied to a chair, the letter “A” carved into her abdomen, and a knife handle inserted into her vagina. Traumatized, she has no memory of the assault. However, after an investigation, the police accused her of staging the attack herself.

Showgirls star Elizabeth Berkley looked almost unrecognizable as she stepped out for a very casual outing in Los Angeles, California on Thursday.The 50-year-old actress - who shot to fame on Saved By The Bell and is known for her glam appearances - appeared to be off-duty and dressed down for her day out in LA.Teaming a simple black tank top with a matching pair of trousers, she wore her signature blonde hair back and kept her mask on. Stepping out: Showgirls star Elizabeth Berkley was spotted enjoying a stroll as she surfaced in Santa Monica this ThursdayElizabeth rose to prominence on Saved By The Bell as high school girl Jessie Spano, a role tailored especially to her strengths.She and Tiffani Amber Thiessen had both auditioned for one of the other roles, and after Tiffani got that part, the character of Jessie was created for Elizabeth.The show ran from 1989 to 1993, after which Elizabeth secured the most infamous gig of her career - the 1995 movie Showgirls.Showgirls was directed by Paul Verhoeven from a script by Joe Eszterhas, after the two men collaborated on the hit erotic thriller Basic Instinct.

‘Love Island’ Snapped Up In Greece

EXCLUSIVE: Filming has quietly begun on Dutch comedy Happy Ending, which is being produced by Amsterdam-based production company Topkapi Films, known for movies including Halina Reijn’s Instinct and Lukas Dhont’s Girl.

Ben Croll To the degree that a global sales division can shape its own image, Pathé’s international arm has built and bolstered its current brand around strong IP, recognizable faces and unbelievable but true stories.To see those elements in play, one need only look to last year, when projects including Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” and Martin Bourboulon’s “Eiffel” lifted from world and film history as they showcased stars such as Virginie Efira, Romain Duris and Emma Mackey, while collectively finding homes in more than a hundred international territories. (In the U.S., for example, “Benedetta” sold to IFC Films, while “Eiffel” went to Blue Fox Entertainment.)To witness those same imperatives, but supercharged, one need only glimpse Pathé’s 2022 slate, which goes long on hometown IP and star power.

Jamie “James Bond” Dornan?

Benedetta on Good Friday.The film, directed by Paul Verhoeven, is based on the real-life 17th-century nun Benedetta Carlini, and is released this Friday (April 15).“This movie is a fraud and nothing more than a blatant attack on the Catholic faith,” Damien Murphy, a spokesman for the Irish Society for Christian Civilisation told Belfast Telegraph.Despite the film being released across Ireland and the UK this Friday, Murphy pointed at the Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast, saying: “To launch this film on Good Friday is a calculated insult to Christians everywhere.“And shame on the Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast for permitting this showing at any time, but especially on this highly significant religious occasion.”The petition, addressed directly to the film’s producer and to MUBI, the distributor, reads: “I strongly oppose and condemn your distribution and promotion of Paul Verhoeven’s film Benedetta. It offends God, and countless Catholics all over the world.”They go on to hit out at the fact that the film “blasphemously” features “several Jesus-on-nun intense ‘make outs’”, “a statuette of Mary Most Holy used as a sex-toy”, and “voyeuristic lesbian nuns’ ‘pornography’”.

James Bond franchise for not including any sex scenes in No Time To Die.The Benedetta director shared his thoughts on the 007 films following the news that Daniel Craig will be retiring from the role, saying many Hollywood studio films today are sexless.“It’s about crashing and blowing up,” Verhoeven said of franchises like 007, in an interview with The Sunday Times.“Sometimes these movies are fun, but the narrative tells you nothing about us now. I don’t see any other thought in Marvel or Bond movies.”Verhoeven shared his thoughts on what his own Bond film would look like, saying “I’d go back to reality” with “cars that don’t leap up into the sky.”The filmmaker went on to criticise No Time To Die for scrapping any intimate scenes between Bond, after praising the ones in Craig’s debut as 007 in Casino Royale.“There was always sex in Bond!” Verhoeven said.

Paul Verhoeven is expressing his feelings about the newest films in the James Bond franchise or Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Zack Sharf James Bond producers have yet to announce which actor will replace Daniel Craig as the new 007 following “No Time to Die,” but filmmaker Paul Verhoeven is probably more interested in whether or not sex scenes will come back to the long-running spy franchise. Verhoeven, who has crafted memorable sex scenes in films such as “Basic Instinct” and “Showgirls,” expressed frustration to The Sunday Times over many of today’s Hollywood studio releases being completely sexless.“It’s about crashing and blowing up,” Verhoeven said about studio films these days.