Paul Verhoeven has spent decades weaponizing sex, politics, and religion against the thin veneer of civility. From Basic Instinct's leg-crossing interrogation to Benedetta's blasphemous nuns, his films don't just push boundaries—they dynamite them. Now, with Young Sinner, he's poised to go further. But in an era where financiers flinch at controversy, the project's future dangles by a thread.
“No question of watering down anything,” Verhoeven told Libération, a declaration that sounds less like a promise and more like a dare. The script, penned by Robocop collaborator Ed Neumeier, follows a devoutly Christian woman in the U.S. whose faith and eroticism collide. It's classic Verhoeven—transgressive, polarizing, and utterly disinterested in moral hand-holding. Yet even for him, this might be a bridge too far. “It's much more extreme this time,” he warned.
The irony is palpable. Verhoeven, who turned 87 this July, operates with the audacity of a filmmaker with nothing to lose. But the industry's risk-averse climate has tightened like a noose. Benedetta—a film featuring lesbian nuns and stigmata-as-orgasm—barely scraped together funding despite its director's pedigree. Young Sinner, with its incendiary mix of religion and raw sexuality, could be the ultimate test of what's still permissible in cinema.
Meanwhile, his other project, the French thriller Sans Compter, collapsed after a fallout with producer Saïd Ben Saïd. That leaves Young Sinner as Verhoeven's lone battleground. The script's final draft arrives in a month; its fate hinges on whether any studio will gamble on a film that refuses to apologize.
Verhoeven's career is a litany of scandals that aged into acclaim. Showgirls was reviled, then reclaimed. Starship Troopers was misread as fascist propaganda, later hailed as satire. Young Sinner might follow the same arc—if it gets made. The real question isn't whether Verhoeven still has the nerve (he does), but whether the world still has the stomach.
Header image idea: A split-screen of Verhoeven at Cannes, mid-controversy, juxtaposed with a stark, suggestive still from Benedetta.