“Basic Instinct” Is Getting the Reboot Treatment, with Original Writer Joe Eszterhas Penning the Script
- - - “Basic Instinct” Is Getting the Reboot Treatment, with Original Writer Joe Eszterhas Penning the Script
Madison E. GoldbergJuly 18, 2025 at 1:05 AM
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Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone dancing in scene from the film 'Basic Instinct', 1992
Basic Instinct is getting a reboot
The new film will be written by the same writer as the original 1992 film
It will be released with Scott Stuber’s United Artists banner and Amazon MGM Studios.
Basic Instinct is being rebooted.
Directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct became a polarizing film in pop culture. The film follows crime novelist Catherine Tramell (Stone, 67) as she becomes implicated in the death of retired rock star Johnny Boz (Bill Cable), while embarking on a complicated relationship with the detective on her case (Douglas, 80).
The 1992 erotic crime thriller will receive an spin, to be written by the original screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, Variety reported. The film will be released with Scott Stuber’s United Artists banner and Amazon MGM Studios.
Eszterhas, a Hungarian-American journalist turned screenwriter, is known for films like Flashdance, Jagged Edge, and more.
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Basic Instinct, released in 1992, starred Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone.
The film previously received a sequel in 2006 from a different writing and producing duo, and the new film is intended to reboot the original, The Wrap reports. Stone could possibly return, per the outlet. PEOPLE reached out to a rep for Stone for comment.
Basic Instinct earned Academy Award nominations for its editing and original score at the time. In the 1990s, the film courted controversy for its depiction of an LGBTQ+ character as a dangerous killer at the tail end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and for its onscreen female nudity during the famous interrogation scene.
The criticism led to protests on the night that Stone hosted Saturday Night Live to promote the movie, with protestors interrupting the actress' opening monologue, which resulted in six arrests in Studio 8H.
"All these people are getting beat up and handcuffed right in front of me, and we went live," Stone recalled of the incident in 2024 during an appearance on Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade.
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"I was doing this live monologue while they were beating up and handcuffing people at my feet," she continued. Stone also said she believed that the protesters actually objected to her AIDS-related charity work, but a Los Angeles Times report from 1992 indicates that they were protesting Basic Instinct.
In 2021, Stone claimed that she was misled while filming the interrogation scene in which she appeared bottomless. "I'd been told, 'We can't see anything — I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on,'" the actress wrote in her book The Beauty of Living Twice.
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