Verhoeven's Jesus project will piss of Catholics

From filmstalker, Some details have emerged about Paul Verhoeven's upcoming film which will portray the character of Jesus in a realistic manner, separated from the religious aspects of the bible and viewed as a real man in a real world.

It's been Verhoeven's ambition to write this story and it's about to come true as it gets published in Holland in September, and that takes another step closer to realising his film version of the story.

However this is sure to hit controversy, after all he's writing about the character of Jesus from one of the largest selling books of all time, the Bible. A book that is the basis for a number of organised religions, both big and small.

Not only that but according to The Hollywood Reporter through Rope of Silicon he's set to address some pretty big issues about the character.

His book, which comes from over twenty years of research and is co-written by his biographer Rob van Scheers, and will suggest that the miracles and statements that are often attributed to Jesus are in fact untrue.

One of the claims that the book will make is that Jesus was probably the son of Mary conceived after a Roman solider raped her during the Jewish uprising in Galilee, another will suggest that he was not betrayed by Judas Iscariot - already I can hear the blood boiling of religious people everywhere.

Although it's not totally confirmed, Paul Verhoeven has always wanted to turn this story into a film, something I think will most definitely be done outside the confines of Hollywood and the U.S. don't you think?

I'd be interested in reading the book, but unfortunately it will only be published in Dutch for the moment, however there are negotiations ongoing for an English language version, and I would suspect dependant on the sales of those we might see Verhoeven tackle the full film version of his reality based Jesus, and the controversy will follow.