Director Paul Verhoeven, currently in Europe to promote his latest feature Hollow Man, has said he is considering two projects that would take him back to his native Holland: a Dutch-language thriller and an English-language adaptation of French author Guy de Maupassant's short story Mont Oriol.

Former Endemol chief Joop van den Ende, who produced Verhoeven's 1980 Dutch-language feature Spetters, is producing both projects through his new Amsterdam-based outfit Solo. Gerard Soeteman, who scripted many of Verhoeven's Dutch-language features, is writing both scripts.

Verhoeven's name is currently attached to several other projects including Other Powers, about suffragette Victoria Woodhull, which is being developed by Cruise Wagner Productions for Sony, and French production company Legende Enteprises' $50m Rasputin.

However the Dutch director, whose credits include such Hollywood fare as Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Showgirls, said he relished a return to working on character-driven pictures. "Europe is a far better breeding ground for such films than Hollywood," Verhoeven said.