Verhoeven, who turns 70 in July, has had a lifelong ambition to make a film about Jesus, based on scientific research.
70 is way to close to the grave make a living as a heretic.
And just what "scientific research" led him to this conclusion? The Roman soldier rape theory is hardly something new.
I don't believe that. There's lots of evidence to the contrary. They found some writings...
Raised a Catholic, I'd been trained to believe that Jesus went to the cross in measured steps, fully aware of where he was heading. But after reading histories of the bureaucratic hot-potato game the various Judean authorities played with the case of Jesus, the Crucifixion seems more like a ghastly mistake on behalf of three parties: the Romans, the Jews, and Jesus himself. "The Jesus Seminar describes it as 'a car accident,'" Verhoeven says. "My guess is that Jesus was a Jewish cynic, witty and sharp, but then he had a change of mind and believed that the Kingdom of God was approaching. Remember that he was crucified for being king of the Jews, as a crown pretender... " The message of Jesus is the way he lived. That he ultimately was killed was something that just happened. By seeing it as a sacrifice we diminish the importance of what he's thinking. Putting the Cross and the Resurrection at the heart of the story has diminished the importance of Jesus's message...""I ask Verhoeven if he believes in the Resurrection. "I believe in the Resurrection of the Word," he says. "I believe the disciples felt that Jesus was with them again. The [story of the] fingers in the wound I doubt, but I think the disciples felt a strong force around them, though the Church has postulated Jesus resurrected in body and came back. The Jesus Seminar has clearly stated that Jesus was buried and his body was decomposed."
ROTFLOL! He sounds like a sophomore in high school who hasn't even read the Cliff Notes, let alone the original source.