One of the last films that anyone would ever think could spawn a sequel would have to be Paul Verhoven's 1995 cult classic, Showgirls. Yet somehow, the time seems right to the iconoclastic director, and we might just see his follow up to Nomi Malone's conquest of Vegas. That is, if the right studio comes along.
The New York Daily News recently had a conversation with Verhoven, discussing various facets of the film in honor of its 20th anniversary. With the cult of fandom surrounding Showgirls growing slowly, but surely, it turns out that the director of Robocop wouldn't mind returning to the seedy underbelly of entertainment again. Where would he go this time? The original plans for a sequel are recounted below:
I would not do a 'Showgirls' remake — one movie was definitely enough! But we had actually been working on the sequel to 'Showgirls' which was going to be called 'Bimbos' and was going to be 'Nomi does Hollywood', but after 'Showgirls' was released there was no way anyone was going to give me money for that. If we could just make Elizabeth Berkley 20 years younger now, I would love to make 'Bimbos' today.
While it's no surprise that studios won't shell out their hard earned cash for a sequel to a film that released 20 years ago, there's possibly a way that Bimbos could work out in the long run. Of course, while time has been much kinder to the Joe Eszterhas scripted classic of ironic delight, it still didn't make up for Elizabeth Berkley's career crashing and burning as it had after Showgirls' initial release. Paul Verhoven himself feels responsible for Berkeley's turn of ill fortune, and knowing how gracious he is with his leads, it wouldn't be at all surprising if Nomi could come back for the sequel after all.
The two key ingredients to any successful Showgirls sequel are Elizabeth Berkeley and Joe Eszterhas. To match the over-the-top performance of Berkeley, and the batshit insane writing of Eszterhas, would be a near impossible feat. Though keeping Verhoven's remarks about the age requirement for Bimbos, the film could focus on a new, fresh faced lead. Our new lead would find herself in the Hollywood machine, trying to keep a grasp on her reality as it's slowly perverted to the industry standard. Then, out of the blue comes a guardian angel. Someone who's been there before, and lived to tell the tale. Nomi Malone would become a sort of dark fairy godmother to our new protagonist, and together the two of them would shake the town to its very foundation.
With the important team members in play, a sequel to Showgirls could play well in this modern age of nostalgic revival. If anything, MGM could release it as a direct-to-VOD title, capitalizing on the home audience that helped make the film an eventual success. The budget would be minimal, but the return could be great if they spun it the right way. Sadly, at least for now, Bimbos is still just a pipe dream that Paul Verhoven will probably continue to tease audiences with over the years. In which case, we'd recommend going back to the original Showgirls, as it's currently on DVD and Blu Ray.
