Basic Instinct is getting an ‘anti-woke’ reboot courtesy of its original screenwriter

by Ryan Lambie |
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Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas is said to be writing a reboot of his own 1992 erotic thriller, Basic Instinct, in a deal worth $4m.

Basic Instinct, one of the highest-grossing films of 1992, is getting a reboot. The erotic thriller will be dragged out of the 1990s by Amazon MGM Studios, who’ve also made a deal with the first film’s screenwriter, Joe Eszterhas, to write the script.

Continuing Eszterhas’s form as one of the best-paid screenwriters in Hollywood history, the deal is said to be worth some $4m, with the screenwriter receiving $2m upfront and the rest if the film gets made. The script for the original Basic Instinct sold for $3m following an aggressive inter-studio bidding war, which indie studio Carolco eventually won.

After that, Eszterhas received about $1.7m for jotting down a brief story idea on the back of a napkin. The idea eventually became 1995’s Showgirls.

But we digress.

According to TheWrap, which first reported on the story, the new Basic Instinct could bring back Sharon Stone, who became a global star thanks to the 1992 film. And then things get a little bit weird. The outlet reports that the reboot will be ‘anti-woke’, though it isn’t clear what that means, exactly.

Then there’s a curious statement from Eszterhas himself, which goes like this:

“To those who question what an 80-year-old man is doing writing a sexy, erotic thriller: the rumors of my cinematic impotence are exaggerated and ageist. I call my writing partner the TWISTED LITTLE MAN and he lives somewhere deep inside me. He was born 29 and he will die 29 and he tells me he is ‘sky high up’ to write this piece and provide viewers with a wild and orgasmic ride. That makes me very happy.”

Directed by Paul Verhoeven, Basic Instinct saw blankly amoral cop Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) investigate the case of one Catherine Trammell (Stone), a successful novelist accused of murder, only to fall wildly in lust with her. It was a wild, wilfully excessive film, as trashy as a dog-eared airport thriller but filled with Verhoeven’s usual intensity. It was also controversial: in the build up to its release, Basic Instinct was beset by protests from LGBTQ+ groups, who argued that its depiction of Trammell as a bisexual murderer perpetuated a damaging stereotype.

All that controversy probably helped rather than hindered Basic Instinct’s box office – it eventually made over $350m, placing it above major franchise films released in 1992: Lethal Weapon 3 and Batman Returns, and not far behind Home Alone 2: Lost In New York.

A wave of copycat erotic thrillers followed, and Basic Instinct itself got a pretty woeful sequel in 2006. Rather wisely, neither Eszterhas nor Verhoeven were involved in it.

In more recent times, the erotic thriller has enjoyed a minor resurgence, with recent examples including Babygirl, Love Lies Bleeding and Deep Water. Blumhouse even plans to give the genre a sci-f spin with next year’s M3GAN spin-off Soulm8te.

It isn’t the early 90s, though, and it’s unlikely we’ll see an expensive, saucy film like Basic Instinct breach the box office top 10 again. Which makes us wonder: how much will Amazon MGM spend on the new Basic Instinct? Will it get a cinema release, or go straight to streaming? And what on earth does an ‘anti-woke’ Basic Instinct even look like, given the original wasn’t what we’d call politically correct?

We’ll have to wait until Eszterhas and his Twisted Little Man deliver the answer.

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