Wednesday, August 5, 2009

As IF There Was a Virgin in 16th-Century Mexico...


It seems frightening, multi-millionaire screenwriter Joe Eszterhas has finally shaken his Showgirls curse and has a new project underway about the Virgin of Guadalupe.

While the story sounds boring beyond belief and the last person I would want to write any movie is a one-trick pony who found Jesus post-throat-cancer, I'll cut him a little slack in light of Flashdance and Basic Instinct.

After all, Paul Verhoeven followed up the Showgirls turd with the fabulous, widely-misunderstood satire Starship Troopers and then knocked it out of the park recently with Black Book--probably the only movie about WWII that I've ever enjoyed (well, besides his 1977 effort, Soldier of Orange).

But I suppose Verhoeven's oeuvre has always been far more diverse than Joey E. I guess we'll just have to hold our breath and see what happens. Start...now!

_

2 comments:

Schuyler Gracht said...

man, Turkish Delight has always been a favorite. Not that I've ever had a girlfriend die on me (spoiler!) but I have dated some fucking nutters.
It's too bad Robert Evans phoned in a maudlin Hollywood remake, but imagine what shit Eszterhas might have made of it...

Goodtime Charlie said...

Well, 'Love Story' was actually made three years before 'Turks Fruits.'

Whether or not Pauly saw 'Love Story'--or read the book it was adapted from--and then made a far better, European version, is a question for his biographer, I suppose.

Either way, Verhoeven handled young love far better than Hollywood ever has, with the possible exception of Mike Nichols ('The Graduate' and 'Carnal Knowledge').

Interestingly enough, 'Turks Fruits,' although released in 1973, has STILL sold more tickets than any other Dutch movie ever made--25% of the Netherlands went to see it.

If only Evans had the foresight to hire Eszterhas to loosely adapt 'Love Story' and a yet-to-be-born Goodtime Charlie to lustily direct, he might have had a real classic on his hands.

Oh, well...