God gave this world the cinematic genius of director Paul Verhoeven, and now the man wants to give some back to the maker.

The man who helmed such sex-driven, violence-fuelled, satire-laced action thrillers as "Robocop", "Total Recall", "Starship Troopers", "Showgirls" and "Basic Instinct" wants to do a Jesus movie it seems.

Empire Magazine reports that Verhoeven is rumoured to be developing "Christ, the Man" which explores the idea that Jesus Christ was merely a mortal.

Much of the story will be based on Verhoeven's work as a member of the Jesus Seminar, a research team of several hundred academic New Testament scholars whose purpose is to use historical methods to determine what Jesus, as a historical figure, may or may not have said or done.

Their findings portrayed him as a wandering sage who did not found a religion or rise from the dead, but preached in startling parables and aphorisms, often turning common ideas upside down and confounding the expectations of his audience.

Of course some extreme Christian fundamentalist groups might get upset with the project, something Verhoeven himself is keenly aware of - "My scriptwriter told me not to do the movie in the United States because they (Christians) might shoot me. It's not a joke at all. I took that very seriously. So I took his advice and decided to write a book about it first".

Verhoeven, no stranger to controversy, expects some fall out - "I think he's going to be getting a lot of focus and heat over this, if it's true, and there will be groups who will be protesting quite heavily against this".