Paul Verhoeven Returns to Hollywood for The Surrogate

The last time Paul Verhoeven directed a Hollywood movie, it was 2000’s “Hollow Man”. Before that, the Dutch filmmaker was famous for movies like “Starship Troopers” and “Basic Instincts”, and infamous for “Showgirls”. After abandoning Hollywood for his native Netherlands with 2006’s “Black Book”, Verhoeven seems ready to give Hollywood a second chance, and will be returning to America to direct the thriller “The Surrogate”, not to be confused with the Bruce Willis sci-fi actioner “Surrogates”.

THR reports that Verhoeven will be adapting the novel by Kathryn Mackel, about a desperate, childless couple who finds the perfect surrogate to carry their child to term, only to realize she’s out of her flippin’ mind. You know, batshit crazy. Verhoeven will be directing from a script by Roderick Taylor and Bruce Taylor.

Originally set up at its genre arm Fox Atomic, Fox has now moved the project over to its main studio, 20th Century Fox. Ralph Winter will produce.

Also in the oven for Verhoeven, the period thriller “The Winter Queen” with Milla Jovovich.

Below: “Hey, Paul, remember me? You never call anymore. What up with that?”