‘Basic Instinct’ Writer Joe Eszterhas to Pen Reboot Movie for Amazon MGM Studios
Joe Eszterhas, who wrote the script for the 1992 erotic thriller Basic Instinct, is back to pen the screenplay for Amazon MGM Studios‘ planned reboot.
United Artists and Scott Stuber have acquired the rights to the franchise relaunch that is currently untitled. The deal marks the largest spec sale of 2025, with Amazon paying $2 million against a possible $4 million if the film gets made.
Producers include Stuber and Nick Nesbitt for UA and Craig Baumgarten for Vault Entertainment. Vault’s Adam Griffin serves as executive producer.
Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone starred in director Paul Verhoeven‘s original Basic Instinct. It centers on a detective (Douglas) who connects with a writer (Stone) as she becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a wealthy musician.
During a 2018 conversation with The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast It Happened in Hollywood, Eszterhas said that if it were made today, the 1992 film would deal with “serious #MeToo protesters” over a sex scene between Douglas and his character’s psychiatrist, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn.
“It was rough sex,” the writer said in 2018. “But today’s yardstick is different.”
Prior to the release of Basic Instinct, Eszterhas was known for his work on such projects as Jagged Edge, Betrayed and Music Box. He sold the Basic Instinct screenplay for a whopping $3 million at the time (more than $6 million today) and would go on to pen the scripts for Sliver, Showgirls and Jade.
Basic Instinct collected $352 million at the box office ($811 million today) and was nominated for two Oscars. Stone reprised her role as Catherine Tramell in the 2006 sequel Basic Instinct 2, which underperformed at the box office.
The Wrap was first to report on the new project.
