Frankly, I would love to see Verhoeven’s take on this material.
I agree. I think it’s just the right sort of subject matter for his Robocop/Starship Troopers style over-the-top social commentary.
The problem with Rollerball was that director John McTiernan (who does have some great action films under his belt) took what was essentially a ridiculous premise and tried to make a serious action movie out of it. In this day and age, an absurd cross country death race can’t be played as anything but a social parody.