The absolute folly of an “anti-woke reboot” of 'Basic Instinct'

Joe Eszterhas, "the twisted little man," and a movie that probably won't ever be made.

My fellow Philadelphian writer Jessa Crispin (Substack here) has a very good new book out called “What Is Wrong with Men: Patriarchy, the Crisis of Masculinity, and How (Of Course) Michael Douglas Films Explain Everything.” The film utilizes the fantastic hook of drawing on the Michael Douglas-starring cinema of the 1980s and ‘90s — including Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, Falling Down, Disclosure, and other films — as a lens for examining the culture of male resentment.

A lot has been written and discussed about those films in recent years. The Erotic ‘90s season of Karina Longworth’s “You Must Remember This” had a lot to say about Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct in particular.

There’s also been much discussion of late about the disappearance of the erotic thriller genre, and the lack of sex in mainstream films altogether, but a comeback that subgenre is already underway — see Babygirl, out last year — and there’s always plenty of sex in new movies, as long as you’re willing to watch indie movies, and stuff with subtitles.

Last week saw the news of another new erotic thriller, and a surprising one: The Wrap reported that Amazon MGM has reached a deal with Joe Eszterhas, the writer of Basic Instinct and other films in the genre (including Jagged Edge, Sliver and Showgirls), to write what was described as an “anti-woke” reboot of Basic Instinct.

Eszterhas was often described in the ‘90s as the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood, although he’s been out of action for quite a long time, having not had a Hollywood-produced screenplay yet in the 21st century. Also, he’s currently 80 years old.