Paul Verhoeven will direct the big-screen adaptation of Pete Dexter's novel The Paperboy, which former cinematographer Jan de Bont will produce.

The Dutch collaborators will reunite for this $27m (Euros 20m) drama about three people being influenced by the execution of a presumed killer. Shooting is scheduled in a couple of months in Florida and Louisiana. No actors are attached yet.

Director Verhoeven previously joined forces with De Bont as his director of photography on Turkish Delight, The Fourth Man, Flesh + Blood, and Basic Instinct. Paperboy will be their first collaboration in more than 15 years.

Other projects Verhoeven is developing are tsarist Russian crime romp The Winter Queen, produced by Seven Arts Pictures and starring Milla Jovovich, and a Dutch-language adaptation of Jan Siebelink's biography Kneeling on a Bed of Violets for NL Film & TV.

Jan de Bont just started shooting his $40m action thriller Stopping Power, starring John Cusack. Principal photography kicked off with two days in Amsterdam before now moving to Berlin.

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