Paul Verhoeven wants to bring Jesus of Nazareth to the big screen
This may seem a little ironic considering yesterday was Easter Sunday in which many celebrated the resurrection of Jesus, but Deadline is reporting that Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Totall Recall) is looking to bring his book Jesus of Nazareth to the big screen. Verhoeven co-wrote the book after doing research for twenty years, and is currently looking for financing. The problem is the book shows Jesus as more of a human figure, and was birthed after his mother was raped by a Roman Soldier. The book also portrays Christ as an ethicist, radical prophet and exorcist. This has caused his book to attract a lot of controversy as it doesn’t follow the New Testament’s portrayal of Jesus.
This doesn’t mean Verhoeven is trying to just stir up controversy to sell tickets, and he is a member of the Jesus Seminar, which is a group devoted bringing an accurate portrayal of Christ. “If you look at the man, it’s clear you have a person who was completely innovative in the field of ethics. My own passion for Jesus came when I started to realize that. It’s not about miracles, it’s about a new set of ethics, an openness towards the world, which was anathema in a Roman-dominated world. I believe he was crucified because they felt that politically, he was a dangerous person whose following was getting bigger and bigger. Jesus’ ideals are about the utopia of human behavior, about how we should treat each other, how we should step into the shoes of our enemy,” he said. This also isn’t the first time Verhoeven has attempted a film about Jesus as he attempted to get a project moving in the early-90s with Mel Brooks.
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