Joe Eszterhas is back in the game. The 80-year-old screenwriter behind Paul Verhoeven’s “Basic Instinct”—the 1992 erotic thriller that cemented Sharon Stone as a screen goddess, and sparked a thousand debates about sex, violence, and the female gaze—has just closed a monster deal to reboot the property for Scott Stuber’s newly minted United Artists banner under Amazon MGM Studios.
According to
The Wrap, Eszterhas will receive $2 million upfront for the spec script, with another $2 million guaranteed if the film gets made. That makes it the biggest spec script sale of the year so far.
Sources close to the project have described the script as “anti-woke,” suggesting that Eszterhas, never one to shy away from provocation, is leaning hard into the lurid tone that made the original such a thrilling treat.
However, perhaps the most eyebrow-raising detail? Sharon Stone may be circling a return to the role of Catherine Tramell
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