Paul Verhoeven on Total Recall, Robocop and Starship Troopers remakes

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

When it comes to the TOTAL RECALL remake, what was obvious to most of us even before it came out was made apparent to the producers when the film flopped at the box office: a remake isn’t needed when the original film is a) not even that old, b) so unique and peculiar and c) still quite beloved.

It’s too late to put the brakes on that other remake of a Paul Verhoeven classic, ROBOCOP, but the same cannot be said of the proposed STARSHIP TROOPERS reboot that the producers of TOTAL RECALL have in their hands. One person who seems to believe that there’s no reason to go any further with it is Verhoeven himself, who spoke briefly to The Playlist about all these darned remakes.

Said Verhoeven: “I don’t know if they’re going to do ‘Starship Troopers’ after the failure of ‘Total Recall.” Yes, they bought the rights, we know that, but I really thought they made a mistake when they did the remake by making it so serious. I’m not so sure [that approach] will work for [Starship Troopers’] either. I think all of these films are accepted because they don’t take themselves so seriously. There’s a lightness, you believe it, but we also know it’s not true.”

As for ROBOCOP, Verhoeven isn’t wavering on his position: “It’s the same thing. It’s very difficult to make this story realistically.”

The wild Dutch director had an amusing observation regarding TOTAL RECALL: “Critics were a lot more complimentary to me and Arnold about the original after the remake came out than they had been before it.”

Isn’t that always the case? You don’t know how good you’ve got it until it’s gone…