Director Emerald Fennell may be ready to dust off the ice pick, at least if Joe Eszterhas is to be believed.
The “Promising Young Woman” and “Saltburn” filmmaker loves to push the envelope and that attraction for transgressive storytelling may have led her to… “Basic Instinct 3“? Well, that’s what Eszterhas, who gave the world Catherine Tramell in 1992’s “Basic Instinct,” as well as Jennifer Beals’ steel worker/dancer in 1994’s “Flashdance,” claims in a new interview with the Guardian. Eszterhas announced last year that he was writing a “Basic Instinct” reboot.
“The producers are negotiating with a really interesting director — a Brit, Emerald Fennell — who did ‘Promising Young Woman’ and ‘Wuthering Heights,’” Eszterhas told the paper. “Her sensibility is exactly right. She’s someone who is not afraid of controversy and sexuality. So I’m thrilled by that. I hope it works out.”
A spokesperson for Fennell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Amazon MGM, which reportedly shelled out $4 million for Eszterhas’ script, did not immediately comment.
Earlier, Eszterhas, who established a reputation as a kind of Bard of smut with ’90s films like “Showgirls” and “Sliver,” has said that his reboot of “Basic Instinct” would be “anti-woke.”
Fennell, as Eszterhas states, most recently adapted “Wuthering Heights,” casting Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie as moor-torn lovers. The film was a hit, earning $239 million on its $80 million budget.
Sharon Stone, who starred in the first “Basic Instinct,” reprised her role as Tramell, a novelist with a kinky, possibly killer streak, in the doleful “Basic Instinct 2.” It was a massive bomb when it opened in 2006. That film was written by Leora Barish and Henry Bean, not Eszterhas. As the Guardian notes, Stone sounds unlikely to return for more psychosexual brinksmanship.
“There’s not going to be a ‘Basic Instinct’ reboot,” Stone told the outlet last summer. “I hate to break it to you, but Joe Eszterhas couldn’t write himself out of a Walgreens drug store.”
Sounds like Eszterhas has a fan!
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