John Marston Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_(film) 105 million R rated sci fi action satire movie no A list stars and the director coming off the massive bomb Showgirls? Very interesting. Unsurprisingly, the movie bombed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Well, probably some combination of: - famous science-fiction novel - space! action! Genre fans love space action! - studio didn’t realize how satirical it was gonna be - Verhoeven had a pretty solid record for hits, Showgirls aside - 100m was a lot, but not insanely expensive back then 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barnack Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 2 hours ago, John Marston said: and the director coming off the massive bomb Showgirls? That a way to spin this that is very disingenuous, because Showgirls is not the reference you use for the record of director that goes into a blockbuster SCi-fi, total Recall-RoboCop seem way more relevant, both giant success. I imagine it was perceived as a big risk, it seem to have been split in 2 with 2 studio sharing it a la Braveheart/Titanic: Sony Pictures Releasing (North America) Buena Vista International (International) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tree Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Total Recall and Basic Instinct were both huge hits, I think it's a little reductionist to refer to him as "The guy coming off Showgirls". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmlover Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 6 hours ago, Plain Old Tele said: Well, probably some combination of: - famous science-fiction novel - space! action! Genre fans love space action! - studio didn’t realize how satirical it was gonna be - Verhoeven had a pretty solid record for hits, Showgirls aside - 100m was a lot, but not insanely expensive back then Yeah, all of this. Plus Showgirls was considered an experiment (the first major NC-17 release) that failed big time and was easy for most to write off (if anyone's career really suffered from it, it was Elizabeth Berkley since it was supposed to be her "star is born" moment and ended up dooming her post-Saved by the Bell career to obscurity). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Marston Posted September 4, 2020 Author Share Posted September 4, 2020 (edited) Total Recall and Basic Instinct has big stars leading them. Starship Troopers has ... Casper Van Dien. And 105m was a lot back then. Cost more than The Lost World and Men In Black that year Edited September 4, 2020 by John Marston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilmac Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 Paul Verhoeven was a huge name back then. I very much remember the buzz around him (and Eszterhás) after Basic Instinct. I’m sure whatever project he wanted got greenlit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
