Director Emerald Fennell has no intention of dusting off her ice pick.
The “Promising Young Woman” and “Saltburn” filmmaker loves to push the envelope, and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas claimed that her fascination with transgressive storytelling led her to “Basic Instinct 3.” However, a representative for the filmmaker said: “There is no truth to this. She had no involvement whatsoever.”
Eszterhas, who brought us Catherine Trammell in 1992’s Basic Instinct and played Jennifer Beals’ steelworker/dancer in 1994’s Flashdance, claimed in a new interview with the Guardian that Fennell is in talks to join the project. Eszterhas announced last year that he was writing a reboot of Basic Instinct.
“Producers are in talks with a very interesting director, Emerald Fennell, the British director of Promising Young Woman and Wuthering Heights,” Eszterhas told the paper. “Her sensibilities are just right. She’s someone who’s not afraid of controversy or sexuality. So I’m excited about it. I hope it does well.”
Perhaps Eszterhas confused the British?
Amazon MGM reportedly paid $4 million for Eszterhas’ script, and a spokesperson for the studio denied claims that Fennell was in talks to direct as “completely false.” Eszterhas, who established a reputation as something of a troubadour with his ’90s films Showgirls and Sliver, previously said his Basic Instinct reboot would be “anti-woke.”
As Eszterhas rightly notes, Fennell most recently adapted Wuthering Heights, casting Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie as devastated lovers. The film was a hit, grossing $239 million against an $80 million budget.
Sharon Stone, who starred in the original “Basic Instinct,” reprises her role as Tramell, a perverted and possibly murderous novelist, in the melancholy “Basic Instinct 2.” When it was released in 2006, it was a huge bomb. That movie was written by Leora Barish and Henry Bean, not Eszterhas. As the Guardian points out, Stone has no interest in returning for more psychosexual brinkmanship.
“There will be no reboot of Basic Instinct,” Stone told the outlet last summer. “I hate to say it too much, but Joe Eszterhas couldn’t quit working at Walgreens Drugstore.”
Looks like Estherhas has fans!
(Updated: 11:30 a.m. ET)
