“It Should Be the Biggest Movie of All Time”: We’ll Never See This $100 Million Epic Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger

In 1990, Paul Verhoeven made the visionary Philip K. Dick film adaptation ‘Total Recall’ together with Arnold Schwarzenegger. If the director of ‘Benedetta’ had had his way, the collaboration with the Styrian oak would have continued immediately – there was even a script for ‘Crusade’, a bloody historical epic somewhere between ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ and ‘Cannibal Holocaust’. ” should be. But unfortunately, it will probably forever be left to our imagination what kind of movie this could have made…

To this day, many fans regret that “Crusade” could not be filmed. After ‘Total Recall’ and ‘Terminator 2’, Schwarzenegger was one of the biggest stars ever, and Verhoeven a highly sought-after filmmaker, not least because of the erotic thriller hit ‘Basic Instinct’ (1992). Moreover, the Dutchman had already proven with the medieval film ‘Fleisch und Blut’ (1985) that he understands dark, brutal historical material.

But Even Verhoeven could not guarantee the producers that the film, which at the time would have required a huge budget of $100 million, would ultimately be profitable. And so the project did not get the green light from the studio.

A setting like “Gladiator”, more brutal than “The Passion of the Christ”

The script has now made its way to the internet and is described by many who have read it as follows: While the setting is reminiscent of ‘Gladiator’, the cinematic content is far more brutal than ‘The Passion of the Christ’ – and stars Schwarzenegger basically reprising his role from ‘Conan the Barbarian’. Of course, a lot of fans would care a lot to see the result…

That’s how they feel Robert Englundwhich horror fans especially love as Freddy Krueger from the “Nightmare on Elm Street“Know the series. Because the genre icon would play the second leading role next to Schwarzenegger in ‘Crusade’. “I worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the mid-1970s,” Englund recalled in an interview with Dread Central (via ) – in “Mister Universe” (1976) he stood in front of the camera next to the “Predator” star. “At the height of his fame he would make a film for Paul Verhoeven entitled ‘Crusade’. Paul was also at the height of his powers, and It might have been the best movie of all time.”

But the risk of a flop was simply too great and so Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger had to go their separate ways. While Schwarzenegger scored the next hit with James Cameron’s “True Lies”, Verhoeven actually directed a commercial failure: “Showgirls”, which was long considered one of the worst films of all time, but has now long been rehabilitated and is a cult film. . Would ‘Crusade’ have had a similar experience? Unfortunately we will never know…