‘Benedetta’ Director Paul Verhoeven on Sex, His Jesus Fascination and Hollywood Puritanism

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaImax may not have returned to pre-pandemic levels, but the cinema company got a lift during its most recent quarterly earnings from the renewed interest in moviegoing, as well as the arrival of a few well-timed blockbusters.For the three-month period ending in June, revenues at the company climbed to $51 million, a 475.4 percent jump from the $8.9 million that Imax reported in the year-ago quarter.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIn the summer of 1992,  “Lethal Weapon 3” was dominating the box office, but audiences didn’t leave the theater talking about the outrageous stunts or Mel Gibson and Danny Glover’s buddy act. Rather, it was Rene Russo, a model-turned actress with a few minor roles in films like “Major League,” who stole the movie right out from under her A-list co-stars.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAbby Quinn will star in an upcoming Blumhouse and Epix movie set in Nashville opposite Shiloh Fernandez and Joshua Leonard. They join the previously announced Alexxis Lemire and Katey Sagal in the film, which has the working title of “Tattered Hearts.” The movie centers on a promising up-and-coming country duo who seek out the secluded mansion of their idol (Sagal), a former country music star and “Music City” royalty turned recluse.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaKevin Lewis will follow up “Willy’s Wonderland” by directing “The Accursed,” a new horror movie about demonic possession that its creators predict will be like if “Sam Raimi and Dario Argento had a love child and James Wan was its uncle.”Mena Suvari (“American Beauty”), Sarah Grey (Netflix’s “The Order” and DC’s “Legends of Tomorrow”), and Alexis Knapp (“Pitch Perfect” franchise) head up the cast, which also includes Meg Foster (“The Lords of Salem”)

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaNicolas Cage instinctively knew how to play Rob, the melancholic truffle forager at the center of “Pig.” The indie film explores Rob’s connection to his pet pig and his tortured relationship with his past celebrity as a renowned chef.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaNicolas Cage has played a wide range of eccentrics over the course of his career, but Joe Exotic will not join the actor’s list of meme-worthy roles.The Oscar-winning actor, who is currently earning rave reviews for his performance in “Pig,” revealed that he is no longer scheduled to play the “Tiger King” in a series from Amazon, which, he implied, has been shelved for now.

his latest film Benedetta.Speaking after critics questioned some of the scenes, including one where an effigy of the Virgin Mary is used as a sex toy, Verhoeven said (per Variety): “I don’t really understand how you can really blaspheme about something that happened, even in 1625.“You cannot change history, you cannot change things that happened, and I based it on the things that happened.

CANNES, France -- The veteran provocateur Paul Verhoeven premiered his lesbian nun drama “Benedetta” at the Cannes Film Festival with a solemn vow to resurrect sexuality in movies.“Benedetta” predictably stirred the French Riviera festival over the weekend. In it, the Belgian actor Virginie Efira stars as Benedetta Carlini, a 17th-century French nun who communicates directly with Jesus and who falls in love with a farm girl saved by the convent (Daphné Patakia).

At the Cannes Film Festival press conference for Paul Verhoeven’s competition title Benedetta this morning, director and cast fielded a series of questions about the film’s use of nudity and sex while Verhoeven bristled at the suggestion Benedetta is in any way blasphemous. “I do not understand really how you can be blasphemous about something that happened… You cannot basically change history after the fact.

K.J. Yossman “Basic Instinct” director Paul Verhoeven slammed the new “puritanism” he perceives has taken over cinema during a charged Cannes press conference for his latest film “Benedetta,” saying critics “don’t want to look at the reality of life.”The Belgian auteur has received a generally positive response to his risqué new film, which stars Virginie Efira and Daphne Patakia as two nuns embarking on an illicit lesbian affair in their convent.

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For just a moment, as a particularly sepulchral stretch of Anne Dudley‘s liturgical score plays over a solemn black screen emblazoned with the words “inspired by real events,” you might think Paul Verhoeven‘s gone and gotten serious on us, and that “Benedetta,” his hotly lusted-after Cannes title is going to be, whisper it, tasteful.

Ever the bad boy even into his 80s, director Paul Verhoeven stirs the pot and turns the heat up to the boiling point in Benedetta, a medieval brew of religious fervor, illicit lesbian sex in a convent, Catholic church politics and — to incidentally add a contemporaneous touch — a plague sweeping the land.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorRacy sex in a convent? Explicit dreams about Jesus Christ? A coming-of-age lesbian love story? Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” featured all that and more, leaving its premiere audience at the Cannes Film Festival searching for words to describe the movie they’d just seen.But in the end, the French approved.

Sharon Stone recently shocked everyone with her comments related to the filming of one of Basic Instinct's explicit scenes. The actress in her recently released memoir opened up about the infamous interrogation scene and suggested that she was tricked into it.

Basic Instinct‘s famous leg-crossing scene.In her recent memoir The Beauty Of Living Twice, Stone stated Verhoeven tricked her into shooting the scene without underwear – among various other anecdotes about sexism and intimidation in the industry – by suggesting that Stone’s underwear was reflecting the light poorly, and asking her to remove them with the caveat that no frontal nudity would appear in the final film.“My memory is radically different from Sharon’s memory,” the director told

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven (“RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Elle“) will finally debut his erotic lesbian nun drama “Benedetta” at the Cannes Film Festival this week, following a year of waiting around for the COVID-19 pandemic to subside. READ MORE: Watch 3 Clips From Paul Verhoeven’s Erotic Lesbian Nun Thriller ‘Benedetta’ Premiering At Cannes During the pandemic, the director seemingly had a lot of time to consider his next couple of movies.

He shocked the Netherlands in the ’70s and ’80s and scandalized Hollywood in the ’90s. Now Paul Verhoeven is bringing his lesbian nun saga to Cannes. What could go wrong?