Will Paul Verhoeven get a chance to make his long-in-development “Young Sinners“? Short answer: we’ll see. But one of his most infamous sexcapade thrillers will be getting the reboot treatment over at Amazon MGM Studios, albeit without Verhoeven’s involvement (for now).
The Wrap reports that the studio has a very expensive package in place with “Basic Instinct” screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for a new take on the 1992 film. The 80-year-old Eszterhas gets $2 million up front for a spec script, and another $2 million if it gets greenlit. Not a bad deal for a writer whose heyday ended about three decades ago, and hasn’t worked in Hollywood since 2006. What’s more, Eszterhas and others close to the project describe it as “anti-woke”: maybe not the smartest signifier to attach to it in this cultural climate, but it does promise that Amazon MGM plans their “Basic Instinct” to remain erotic, provocative, and dangerous.
But it’s Sharon Stone‘s circling the project to return as bisexual novelist Catherine Tramell that should raise eyebrows. Stone’s role in the 1992 film opposite Michael Douglas made her an instant A-lister, and is arguably one of the greatest actress roles in ’90s American cinema, if not the past 40-50 years. But Hollywood is a very different (and relatively sexless) landscape these days, and Stone, now 67, is in her career’s late period. Could her returning as the ultimate femme fatale Tramell work? Absolutely, but it also feels like a big gamble on Amazon MGM’s part because sex doesn’t sell quite like it used to.
Still, it’d be nice to see a gamble on a lurid erotic thriller reboot pay off. “Basic Instinct” is part of Scott Stuber‘s United Artists banner at Amazon MGM, and ’90s heads will recall the newly revived company once distributed Verhoeven’s 1995 film “Showgirls,” which Eszterhas wrote the script for. Is a reteam with Eszterhas on “Basic Instinct” a hint of Stuber’s long-term plans for UA: fare that’s more lurid, steamy, and interesting than the sexless adolescent fantasies people call superhero movies? One would hope, as that’s a shot of life the Hollywood machine desperately needs, but there are no guarantees there.
Something else to bear in mind: who will direct “Basic Instinct” if Amazon MGM gives it the go-ahead? Verhoeven is now 83, and hasn’t directed anything financed by Hollywood since 2000’s “Hollow Man.” That makes it an outside shot for him, Eszterhas, and Stone to reunite for this project. And let’s face it, this project will need an eye and sensibility like Verhoeven’s to work. What working directors today are up to the challenge? It’s a small list, even there even is one. So while it’d be great to see a new “Basic Instinct” get made, a lot of things need to fall in place for it to succeed.
Let’s hope it does, though. This writer wants a “Basic Instinct” to work, even the odds are against it.
