Basic Instinct is one of the most iconic films of all time, and this can heavily be credited to director, Paul Verhoeven. He has made a reputation for himself as quite the unconventional filmmaker, not only due to his cinematography. His movies famously strike up a lot of conversation and controversy, specifically films like Total Recall, RoboCop, and the Sharon Stone classic, due to the times that they were released.
It would seem, however, that there was one film that Verhoeven tried to make, that crossed boundaries that even he wasn’t willing to.
When it comes to making films about religion, a lot can go wrong regarding the audience. The perfect example of this is the 2004 film Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ, which stirred much controversy among religious groups. Despite this, Verhoeven wanted to make his own film surrounding Jesus. This, however, did not happen and the Dutch filmmaker was forced to write a book instead.
Basic Instinct Director Wanted To Make A Film About Jesus
Paul Verhoeven recently gave an interview with Deadline for the promotion of his recent film, Benedetta, a film about a queer nun. During this, he was asked about a book that he published in 2007, Jesus of Nazareth, and if it inspired this film in anyway. As the interviewer put it, the book, stripped the miracles from his story, along with the idea that Christ expected to realize his kingdom on earth before he was betrayed and crucified. The book can be referred to as a controversial piece of literature as it changed some very core themes of his story, which has never sat right with anyone when it comes to religion.
“Well, first of all, I tried. I worked with Jean-Claude Carrière, a scriptwriter for Luis Buñuel. Amy Pascal, who at that time was the head of Columbia, was interested, but our efforts, even to write a basic outline, failed.” he went on, “We couldn’t find a common vision on how that movie should be done, so, ultimately, we gave up and Jean-Claude Carrière, who had gotten $50,000 from Sony for writing the outline, sent his fee back. That, I think, was class.”
Verhoeven revealed that originally, he planned on making this as a film rather than a novel, working with scriptwriter, Jean-Claude Carrière, and Amy Pascal, who was the head of Columbia Picture, to help make this happen. Unfortunately, during the scriptwriting process, he and Carrière were unable to come up with an outline for the film and had to let it go.
Why Did The Basic Instinct Director Kill The Film?
During this interview, Paul Verhoeven explained why the film did not get made, stating that both him and his friend, Jean-Claude Carrière were far too different to make a film such as this together. The two had a difference of opinion which he credits to their differing religious and spiritual beliefs. Carrière follows the religion of Buddhism, where as Verhoeven identifies as an agnostic or an atheist. While this is not fact that comes in the middle of filmmaking very frequently, it seemed to here considering the themes of the film itself.
” I think it was because Jean-Claude Carrière was a Buddhist, and with me being… call it agnostic or atheist, whatever, I’m not a Christian.” he went on, I think that somebody said we were just too different from each other. In [Carrière’s] outline, Jesus was never even seen talking, he was just there, a person that didn’t open his mouth. For me, what Jesus has to say in his parables was very important to the rest of civilization. But, out of friendship, we decided not to do it. Then, many attempts later, I really felt that I honestly didn’t know exactly how to do it as a movie, and that that’s probably why I wrote a book [instead].
The two had very different directions where they wanted to take the movie. Carrière wanted to use a unique approach where Jesus, as a character, did not speak a word throughout the duration of the movie. On the other hand, Verhoeven believed that what Jesus said would be very important as it shaped a lot of humanity’s thinking as a whole. The Basic Instinct director went on to write a book on the subject instead.
