Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | April 7, 2026
Joe Eszterhas is a weird one. For much of the ’80s and ’90s, he was the highest paid and most controversial screenwriter in Hollywood. Flashdance, Jagged Edge, and Sliver made him a commercial smash but also earned him criticisms that he was a smut peddler. He earned a record-breaking $3 million for the screenplay to Basic Instinct, the Sharon Stone movie which became one of the defining erotic thrillers of the era. And then came Showgirls, which is a legendary flop that’s actually great, but it essentially killed his career. Well, that and the coke.
Eszterhas is now 81 and living in Cleveland with his family. He was recently interviewed by The Guardian on his career, Hollywood excess, and his weird politics (he used to support Trump but has turned against him over his “despotic” actions with ICE and Epstein. Not mentioned in the piece is his support for Hungarian kleptocratic prime minister Viktor Orbán.)
It seems Eszterhas is eager to make a comeback, largely through a reboot of Basic Instinct. He had previously described this project as “anti-woke”, which is odd given that the original movie was picketed by women’s rights and queer organisations for being, according to The National Organisation of Women, “the most blatantly misogynistic film in recent memory.” According to Eszterhas, the producers have a director in mind.
“The producers are negotiating with a really interesting director - a Brit, Emerald Fennell - who did Promising Young Woman and Wuthering Heights. Her sensibility is exactly right. She’s someone who is not afraid of controversy and sexuality. So I’m thrilled by that. I hope it works out.”
Huh. Okay. This does make a lot of sense, admit it. The erotic thriller isn’t really a genre in 2026 in the way it was 30 years ago, but Fennell is certainly eager to bring sex back to the big screen. She’s a big fan of the ‘no subtlety allowed’ approach to movie-making, which would fit with Eszterhas’s entire bag. But Paul Verhoeven was the best director of his work for a reason: he knew how to find the sly jokes and irony between the lines. Can Fennell do that?
And what the hell does an “anti-woke” Basic Instinct even look like in the 2020s? How much more boundary-pushing can this really get if it’s written by a guy in his 80s? This is such a nonsense thing for an old dude who hasn’t been in the business for decades to say. Oh, you’re just too edgy now? Slow down, Bill Maher. I question if you even have the sauce anymore. Bisexual ladies aren’t shocking anymore (despite our best efforts.)
My big issue with Fennell is that I don’t think she’s as controversial or boundary-pushing as she believes herself to be. If you wanted to make a truly wild and jaw-dropping Basic Instinct movie in 2026, I think you’d need someone like Jane Schoenbrun. I’m all in favour of reviving the seedy and high-noir exploits of ’90s erotic thrillers. Maybe not with this combo, but with something! But it remains to be seen if Emerald will sign on the dotted line. After “Wuthering Heights”, she really has the freedom to do whatever the hell she wants. For better or worse.
