PAUL VERHOEVEN - VERHOEVEN FEARS CHRISTIAN BACKLASH

VERHOEVEN FEARS CHRISTIAN BACKLASH

Director PAUL VERHOEVEN is too terrified to adapt his ideas for a Jesus biopic because he fears a Christian backlash. The SHOWGIRLS filmmaker is writing a book about the life of Christ as a man, charting the political and social landscape of his time and largely ignoring Christianity's emphasis on his spirituality. But even if the work proves popular, Verhoeven is wary of adapting it for the big screen because of the controversy it could attract. He tells Empire magazine, "My scriptwriter told me not to do the movie in the United States because they (Christians) might shoot me. "It's not a joke at all. I took that very seriously. So I took his advice and decided to write a book about it first."