“Probably the worst film I’ve ever done”: Paul Verhoeven names the low point of his career
For a while, Paul Verhoeven was one of the hottest directors in Hollywood, which makes it easy to forget that his detour to America was a relatively brief chapter in a long career.
It’s been more than 50 years since Verhoven made his feature-length debut with 1971’s Dutch comedy Business Is Business, and he’s helmed a further 16 movies since then. Less than half of them were made in the United States, and all of them happened within a 15-year span.
Not only that, but it’s been well over two decades since he took the reins on a production outside Europe, making his association with Stateside cinema a short one that started incredibly strongly before fizzling out just as quickly. He eventually grew weary of the politics and machinations that came with it, so it’s little surprise the film he called the worst he’s ever made hailed from that period.
Historical adventure Flesh and Blood marked an inauspicious arrival when it tanked at the box office, but RoboCop was Verhoeven at his best. Slick, subversive, stylish, and violent, the dystopian action classic allowed him to paint his favoured thematic sensibilities on a larger canvas than ever before, with those hefty profit margins launching him towards the upper echelons of studio wish lists everywhere.
He struck commercial gold twice over in quick succession with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s riotous sci-fi Total Recall and the controversially salacious Basic Instinct, which is as high as he got. Showgirls might have found new life as a camp cult favourite, but it was initially viewed as a potential career-killing disaster. In addition, it took everyone far too long to cotton onto the charms of Starship Troopers.
In his own estimation, Verhoeven bowed out of Hollywood with what he described to The Playlist as “probably the worst film I’ve ever done” when he decided to reinvent HG Wells’ The Invisible Man for the modern age. The visual effects were undeniably impressive, but the filmmaker was hardly being too harsh on himself by lamenting Hollow Man.
The story of a scientist flying too close to the sun and then becoming infatuated with their newfound power was tailor-made for Verhoeven’s distinctive blend of social commentary, jet-black comedy, and gruesome set pieces, but the Kevin Bacon-starring sci-fi slasher was shockingly formulaic by the director’s standards, ultimately devolving into a rote horror where the killer gets their comeuppance.
With the benefit of hindsight, Verhoeven viewed Hollow Man as “the first movie that I made that I thought I should not have made,” not that he had any issues spending an estimated $95million of studio Sony’s money at the time. It turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, with Verhoeven swearing from that point on he’d never work in Hollywood again, and he’s been a man of his word.
