Paul Verhoeven has just signed on to adapt the Dutch novel The Hidden Force.
You’ve likely never heard of the novel by Louis Couperus (first
published in 1900) but it was apparently very influential in Dutch
literature. The author’s time spent growing up in the Dutch East Indies
helped him construct this tale of “a colonial official
who is undone by his willful application of reason to a culture that is
steeped in the mystical and irrational.” Expect a film full of
mysticism, adultery and a doomed protagonist!
While Verhoeven will always be dear to
us thanks to his many classic genre offerings (RoboCop, Starship
Troopers, Total Recall, etc.)
he’s always gone back and made his Dutch films like Black Book
and The Fourth Man.
It’s likely that this will be a Dutch-language film as well.
Expect
The Hidden Force
to be released in winter 2011.