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Paul Verhoeven closer to making his long-awaited Jesus movie?

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http://www.aintitcool.com/node/44621


Merrick AICN said:
For quite a while, Paul Verhoeven has been interested in making a Jesus movie.

While the film itself hasn't come about yet, Verhoeven has incorporated his assessment of Jesus (man, circumstancem, etc.) into a recently published book called, simply, JESUS OF NAZARETH. If his Jesus film project ever gets going, this book gives us a sense of how he might approach the material.

...Verhoeven argues that Jesus was consistently persecuted throughout his life, surrounded by enemies and forced to flee at every turn. While the director admits his portrait of Jesus may be perceived as provocative, he describes his portrait of Jesus as a work of scholarship.

"Is it controversial?" he said. "It's the truth."

...says Verhoeven HERE. The same MTV piece offers the director's take on Mel Gibson's PASSION OF THE CHRIST project - an interpretation to which he does not subscribe.

[link to MTV interview with Paul Verhoeven]

You can find Paul's book, JESUS OF NAZARETH, HERE.

Evidently, this isn't available for either iPad or Kindle - beginning to think none of the titles want to read will ever be.

FINALLY. I have been waiting for this for almost 15 years.

Did not know about the book. Will read.
 

Chipopo

Banned
I'm no Jesus scholar, but I'm not really clear on how that's supposed to be a controversial understanding of Jesuses life.
 

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
I love Verhoven, but...

Verhoeven constructs a new vision of Jesus as a child born from the rape of Mary by a Roman soldier, as a spiritualist who performed exorcisms by screaming and spitting in the mouths of the possessed to drive out demons, and as a militant revolutionary who urged his followers to arm themselves.

...this sounds incredibly dumb. :lol
 
Chipopo said:
I'm no Jesus scholar, but I'm not really clear on how that's supposed to be a controversial understanding of Jesuses life.

Well, one of PV's beliefs regarding the resurrection, IIRC, is that Jesus's body was dug up by wild dogs.
 
God damn, this sounds like typical Verhoeven ridiculous-awesomeness.

Still, I don't think I'll like it close to as much as Last Temptation or Passion of the Christ.
 

winter

Member
chubigans said:
I love Verhoven, but...



...this sounds incredibly dumb. :lol

So how exactly is that "the truth." I mean, I'm no fan of Christianity, but is there a single shred of evidence to suggest the validity of any of this?

Also, isn't this the same fucktard that directed Show Girls?
 
Count Dookkake said:
Well, one of PV's beliefs regarding the resurrection, IIRC, is that Jesus's body was dug up by wild dogs.
Well . . . . dog is god spelled backwards!
I have no idea what that means.
 
So basically he is mishmashing the viewpoints included in many NT apocryphal stories, Islamic stories, and Talmudic stories. But of course, his is "true". Ehh, I prefer The Last Temptation of Christ since at least that was original.
 
winter said:
So how exactly is that "the truth." I mean, I'm no fan of Christianity, but is there a single shred of evidence to suggest the validity of any of this?

Also, isn't this the same fucktard that directed Show Girls?

That same fucktard also directed Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange, The Fourth Man, Flesh + Blood, Robocop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Black Book and Starship Troopers.

As for evidence, Verhoeven has long been involved with a group of theologians called the Jesus Seminar. The meet twice a year and examine the 'evidence' of the various things reputed to be done or said by Jesus. They have an interesting voting system that scores votes by something along the lines of "totally true," "might be true," "might be false" and "totally false." For a while, I'm pretty certain Verhoen was the only layman accepted into the group.

In short, this fucktard is proabably more qualified to spout his opinion than you are.

chubigans said:
Bwahaha :lol

He's not joking. Verheoven has called Robocop his American Jesus. It does feature things like:

1) 'Crucifixtion'
2) Resurrection
3) Walking on water
 

swoon

Member
...Christianity is nothing more than one of many interpretations of reality, neither more nor less. Ideally, it would be nice to believe that there is a God somewhere out there, but it looks to me as if the whole Christian religion is a major symptom of schizophrenia in half the world's population: civilizations scrambling to rationalize their chaotic existence. Subsequently, Christianity has a tendency to look like magic or the occult. And I liked that ambiguity, because I wanted my audience to take something home with them. I wanted them to wonder about what religion really is. Remember, that Christianity is a religion grounded in one of the most violent acts of murder, the crucifixion. Otherwise, religion wouldn't have had any kind of impact. With regards to the irony of the violence, much of that probably comes from my childhood experiences during and immediately following the Second World War. In fact, if it hadn't been for the German occupation and then the American occupation, I would have never been a filmmaker.

oh paul
 

Ether_Snake

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chubigans said:
I love Verhoven, but...



...this sounds incredibly dumb. :lol

I remember an old reference about Jesus being the son of a roman soldier who had an affair or raped Mary. This is nothing new.

I think this movie, if done, will show him as a sort of cult leader who was changing his views constantly over time. That's what would make it controversial, but probably closer to the truth.
 

winter

Member
Count Dookkake said:
That same fucktard also directed Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange, The Fourth Man, Flesh + Blood, Robocop, Totall Recall, Basic Instinct, Black Book and Starship Troopers.

As for evidence, Verhoeven has long been involved with a group of theologians called the Jesus Seminar. The meet twice a year and examine the 'evidence' of the various things reputed to be done or said by Jesus. They have an interesting voting system that scores votes by something along the lines of "totally true," "might be true," "might be false" and "totally false." For a while, I'm pretty certain Verhoen was the only layman accepted into the group.

In short, this fucktard is proabably more qualified to spout his opinion than you are.



He's not joking. Verheoven has called Robocop his American Jesus. It does feature things like:

1) 'Crucifixtion'
2) Resurrection
3) Walking on water

Oh, didn't he also direct that abortion of a film called Hollow Man?
 
Ether_Snake said:
I remember an old reference about Jesus being the son of a roman soldier who had an affair or raped Mary. This is nothing new.

Very true.

Life of Brian even makes a joke about this.

winter said:
Oh, didn't he also direct that abortion of a film called Hollow Man?

Yes, he did direct the biggest-budgeted slasher movie of all time.
 

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
Count Dookkake said:
He's not joking.
And I'm still laughing. Because it's funny and I can see why that would be true.

I remember an old reference about Jesus being the son of a roman soldier who had an affair or raped Mary. This is nothing new.
First I've seen of it. Still pretty stupid.

Bring back 80s/90s Verhoven plz. :(
 
Whoompthereitis said:
I'm confused.

I thought Robocop was Verhoven's take on Jesus....
I was playing with a response like that but it was more over the lines of "I thought every movie he already made was about Jesus." I don't think Showgirls would fit in there though.
 
Count Dookkake said:
That same fucktard also directed Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange, The Fourth Man, Flesh + Blood, Robocop, Totall Recall, Basic Instinct, Black Book and Starship Troopers.

As for evidence, Verhoeven has long been involved with a group of theologians called the Jesus Seminar. The meet twice a year and examine the 'evidence' of the various things reputed to be done or said by Jesus. They have an interesting voting system that scores votes by something along the lines of "totally true," "might be true," "might be false" and "totally false." For a while, I'm pretty certain Verhoen was the only layman accepted into the group.

In short, this fucktard is proabably more qualified to spout his opinion than you are.

And lets be clear that the JS from the get go throws out any sort of statement by Jesus that they believe a 1st century Jew wouldn't make. The JS reads the NT account with the preconceived notion that any miraculous or faith-based statement should be disregarded. While that is fine and dandy, let us not believe that they are any less guilty of reading the NT account with any less of a bias or preconceived notion than those who read it through a faith-based lens.

I do find it interesting that folks like Crossan choose to ignore the miraculous of the gospel accounts and yet hang on to the Gospel of Thomas and even use the Gospel of Peter as reasons to discount the 4 gospels. The JS is no better than the religious folk when it comes to finding out who Jesus truly was.
 
chubigans said:
And I'm still laughing. Because it's funny and I can see why that would be true.

Oh, its okay to laugh, because it is funny.

I just wasn't sure if you understood it to be the truth or just a silly joke.

speculawyer said:
I was playing with a response like that but it was more over the lines of "I thought every movie he already made was about Jesus." I don't think Showgirls would fit in there though.

Actually, there are a number of references to Christ in most of his films, Showgirls included.
 

Mistouze

user-friendly man-cashews
The shit he got for Starship Troopers will be nothing compared to what he's going to stir with this. Though I hope he'll get to make it, love (most of) his movies.
 

Ether_Snake

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chubigans said:
And I'm still laughing. Because it's funny and I can see why that would be true.


First I've seen of it. Still pretty stupid.

Bring back 80s/90s Verhoven plz. :(

Found it:

http://judaism.about.com/od/beliefs/a/jesus.htm

A story about a man named Yeshu can be found in the Talmud. There is debate whether this Yeshu in the Talmud is the same Jesus who later became a Christian divinity.

According to the Talmud, Yeshu was the son of a Jewish woman named Miriam who was betrothed to a carpenter. "Betrothed" means she was legally married to him, but she was not yet living with him or having sexual relations with him. The story says that Miriam was either raped by or voluntarily slept with Pandeira, a Greek or Roman soldier. Miriam than gave birth to Yeshu, who was considered a "mamzer" (bastard), a product of an adulterous relationship. The Talmud describes Yeshu as a heretic who dabbled in sorcery and lead the people astray. Later, the Sanhedrin (the Jewish "Supreme Court") ordered Yeshu stoned to death and his dead body was hung from a tree until nightfall after his death, in accordance with the ancient Jewish punishment for heretics.

While some believe there is no connection between the Talmudic Yeshu and the Christian Jesus, others believe there is a connection. The main inconsistency between the Talmudic and Christian story is that during the time that Jesus was killed, the Romans ruled and the Sanhedrin did not have the power to impose the death penalty. Thus, some Jews believe that today's popular Christian ideas about Jesus are based on a melding of the Talmudic story of Yeshu and the historian Josephus' writing about Jesus, which included his execution by the Romans.
 
Count Dookkake said:
That same fucktard also directed Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange, The Fourth Man, Flesh + Blood, Robocop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Black Book and Starship Troopers.

As for evidence, Verhoeven has long been involved with a group of theologians called the Jesus Seminar. The meet twice a year and examine the 'evidence' of the various things reputed to be done or said by Jesus. They have an interesting voting system that scores votes by something along the lines of "totally true," "might be true," "might be false" and "totally false." For a while, I'm pretty certain Verhoen was the only layman accepted into the group.

In short, this fucktard is proabably more qualified to spout his opinion than you are.



He's not joking. Verheoven has called Robocop his American Jesus. It does feature things like:

1) 'Crucifixtion'
2) Resurrection
3) Walking on water

I remember watching Robocop as a kid and having my mom point out subtle crucifixes appearing in the background of certain shots...things like telephone poles and shadows and things like that.
 

n0n44m

Member
lol wtf in a Dutch interview 2 days ago he said he was done with the whole Jesus thing after writing a book about it, and has no interest in doing a Jesus movie as well

instead he said he wanted to do a Golden Age movie, as no movies about that period had been made and it would be a fitting end to his career

make up your mind Jan ! (or make a good Starship Troopers sequel :D )
 
I've been thinking s'more about Robocop because of this thread.

Man, that movie is a fucking classic. I last saw it about a year and a half ago, so I know I'm not looking through nostalgia goggles. Such great characters...especially the villians.

The guy who played Clarence was such a a great and unconventional choice.

Even all the stop-motion effects for ED-209 still have a lot of charm.

Best scene has to be the first person montage of Murphy waking up at various points in his 'ressurrection' as Robocop. Love the drunken New Years party.
 

RiZ III

Member
chubigans said:
I love Verhoven, but...



...this sounds incredibly dumb. :lol


That isn't far from what the modern scholarship concludes about Jesus though. It's pretty much what James Tabor says in his book The Jesus Dynasty.
 

RiZ III

Member
LovingSteam said:
Ahh by scholarship you mean folks who agree with you.

No. I mean scholars. Very educated people who have dedicated years if not decades researching the subject.

The Jewishness and humanity of Jesus has been well known for almost two centuries now. I recommend "Jesus, Interrupted" by Bart Ehrman.
 
RiZ III said:
No. I mean scholars. Very educated people who have dedicated years if not decades researching the subject.
As do I. Folks who teach on the subject of who Jesus was. What the historical record tells us about the culture during the 1st century movement. Folks like David Scholer, Craig Evans, Richard Beaton.

The Jewishness of Jesus is incredibly valuable, interesting, and critical to understanding the early movement. However, the account that this guy is pushing (him being the result of rape) etc., is a result of centuries later stories.
 
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