‘Basic Instinct’ Reboot: Joe Eszterhas Promises “Serial Killers,” “Demonic Twist,” and No Woke Culture

As you might have already heard, “Basic Instinct” screenwriter, Joe Eszterhas, is rebooting the 1992 film into an “anti-woke” reinterpretation.

Eszterhas, 80, signed a $4M deal with Amazon/MGM to pen the screenplay. A week later, he’s speaking about the project, via The Wrap, which certainly raised eyebrows when it was announced five days ago.

Concerning plot details of this fresh new take, Eszterhas says it begins in 2025, and centers on serial killers, copycats, and a demonic twist. Catherine Tramell returns as a key co-star—Sharon Stone is wanted back, but she won’t be the lead this time:

I can’t talk very much about the storyline at this point because much of it isn’t formed yet. It begins in 2025. The Catherine Trammel character I will write and I hope Sharon [Stone] agrees to do the picture because I thought she was brilliant the first time out. In my reboot she is not the star of the picture but she is the main co-star of the picture. It’s about the serial killers. It’s about copycats. There’s a demonic element to it that I think will be spooky.

The “anti-woke” label wasn’t accidental—it was very much by design. Eszterhas made clear in a new interview that the term reflects the mindset he’s in as he continues to shape the screenplay.

In terms of the woke culture, I think that there is a segment of the population that’s had it with woke culture. But then there’s also a huge segment that hasn’t. I don’t believe in woke and I don’t believe in being politically correct because I think it’s not the truth, and I like the truth spoken.

Not just that, but this thing might actually see the light of day. The reboot appears to be fast-tracked by Amazon/MGM, with the screenplay potentially finished by late summer or early fall.

Three months. But I think it’ll be much less than that. I’m guessing it’ll be a month and a half or two months. At night, I wake up and I hear lines of dialogue.

Eszterhas hasn’t written a screenplay since 2006. Best known for “Flashdance,” “Blue Thunder,” “Jagged Edge,” and the legendary “Showgirls,” Eszterhas largely stepped away from Hollywood after a failed collaboration with Mel Gibson on The Maccabees—a project that ended in controversy when Eszterhas accused Gibson of anti-Semitism and claimed the film was never seriously intended to be made.

Now, nearly two decades later, he’s back in the news with this project. . I have no idea how the film will turn out, but I’m curious—especially if a serious director signs on. Could Verhoeven, now 83, be tempted to return? Either way, Amazon seems ready to gamble on the timeless draw of sex and danger.