Thankfully his career didn't end with Kevin Bacon running after Elisabeth Shue in a tired "Invisible Man" redux.

It couldn't end that way for Paul Verhoeven, acclaimed director of "RoboCop," "Basic Instinct" and, yes, even "Showgirls." In the end, the most damning criticism about the Dutch filmmaker's last Hollywood film, 2000's "Hollow Man," was that it was boring. At least "Showgirls" still plays to rabid midnight audiences.

But Verhoeven is back at long last, returning to his roots with "Black Book," a World War II thriller about a Dutch resistance fighter who takes up with a Nazi officer. Verhoeven spoke with MTV News about his latest flick, whether he'd ever return to sci-fi and who Sharon Stone would have gone toe-to-toe with in his "Basic Instinct" sequel.

MTV: It's been nearly seven years since your last film. Why the long wait?

Paul Verhoeven: There were several reasons, in fact. The strongest one is to be found inside myself. After "Hollow Man," I felt I had to make a change in my life. "Hollow Man" was not much of a personal movie. It was more studio-oriented. I had made four science-fiction movies in the United States, so I had to go back to something else. I had to go back to something that had to do with real life. Of course, that's something that slowly starts to dawn on you. In the meantime, I tried to set up a movie about an interesting woman in the 1870s called Victoria Woodhill. She was a proto-feminist, prostitute and a clairvoyant. But I didn't get that off the ground. The script for "Black Book" was ready in 2003. The financing in Europe took time. It fell apart financially in 2004, and then we finally shot it in September 2005. It was a long journey, but I think it was worthwhile. You can call it a long sabbatical. It was not one I foresaw.

MTV: Does it feel like you've come full circle with this, back to your European roots?

Verhoeven: Yes, that's what I think it is. But I think there is something added to it compared to the Dutch work I did before 1985 when I emigrated to the United States. It's a combination of everything I learned in the United States and what I had done before.

MTV: War is a frequent subject matter in your films. What are your memories of World War II?

Verhoeven: My memories are not very dissimilar to those in John Boorman's [1987 movie] "Hope and Glory." I have a very strong feeling for the period, how things looked, the clothes, how people behaved. I lived in the Hague, the same city you see in the movie, and I was thrown into the middle of the bombing and executions. I saw that and I think that's the basis of my interest in the period.

MTV: As if there was any doubt this was a Verhoeven film, there is a bit of sex involved.

Verhoeven: Holland has become more conservative in many ways. Still, asking a Dutch actress to take her clothes off is a lot different than asking an American actress. I didn't have to do all these things you have to do for an American movie where you have to describe all the nudity in every detail and sign off on every detail. Nudity for me has never been a problem, having been educated during the sexual revolution back when everybody would instantaneously and without any questions just take off their clothes.

MTV: Does it feel like Hollywood is less accepting of your work than it used to be?

Verhoeven: I've been typecast as a science-fiction director. And then the aftermath of "Showgirls" didn't help either, did it? I don't know how much has been forgiven. After "Showgirls," I felt I was in a bit of a Hollywood prison. I hope ["Black Book"] changes it a little bit.

MTV: Would another sci-fi film interest you?

Verhoeven: I'm a bit fed up with all the fantasy and escapism and the enormous emphasis on entertainment. I became a director because I thought, naively, that film was art. [He laughs.] For a long time, I was protected by small studios. These things have become so difficult because the entertainment aspect of the industry has become so dominant.

MTV: Why do you think sci-fi came so naturally to you?

Verhoeven: I had been a big fan of comic books in my youth. I always felt when I came to the U.S. and I did those movies that I was using that part of myself, the childhood part. I always felt that "RoboCop," "Total Recall" and "Starship Troopers" had another layer underneath, which was meaningful to me. For "RoboCop," it was urban or Reagan politics. In "Starship Troopers," it was clearly about the United States. It was futuristic, but it now comes close to pretty much what's happened since Iraq. And "Total Recall" was interesting, like, what is real life? Is it a dream? The top layer in these was always straight science-fiction and action, but I would underpin it with things that I felt were important. I feel like I lost that possibility with "Hollow Man."

MTV: Have you ever been tempted to direct one of the sequels that have emerged from your films?

Verhoeven: I have always been trying to get out of that. Sometimes the seduction is strong because they give you these enormous salaries. I worked on the sequel to "Total Recall," which was called "Total Recall 2: The Minority Report." We had adapted Philip K. Dick's story, and later that became Spielberg's film ["Minority Report"]. "Basic Instinct 2" was offered to me several times. Ultimately I refused it because they were not willing to pay for another actor on the level of Michael Douglas. I told the producers that Sharon [Stone] is so brilliant in the first one because Michael is so good. He was constantly challenging her and forcing her to dig deep into herself. This demon she brought out was provoked by the challenge that Michael as a person and an actor put in front of her. I knew that Sharon would be raised to great heights if there was a strong charismatic person in front of her that she wouldn't be able to walk over.

MTV: Who would you have wanted to play against Sharon Stone?

Verhoeven: It would have to have been someone on the level of George Clooney. They were not even willing to consider that. They didn't want to spend that much money on a second actor. Ultimately I said this is not possible, and I escaped in time.

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