Acclaimed Hungarian-American Screenwriter Lands $4 Million Amazon Script Deal
zita kisgergely
In what is being touted as the most lucrative spec deal of the year, Joe Eszterhas, legendary screenwriter of hit films from the 1980s and 1990s, has been asked to pen a reboot of his now iconic erotic thriller, Basic Instinct (1992).
Joe Eszterhas. Photo via Wikipedia.
In a story first reported by The Wrap, it’s been revealed that Amazon MGM Studios’ United Artists and producer Scott Stuber have acquired the rights to the film, Basic Instinct, one of the big hits of the 90s. Joe Eszterhas, writer of the original who will also write the new film, is reported as saying that the reboot will be “…. about serial killers. It’s about copycats. There’s a demonic element to it that I think will be spooky.”
According to the interview in The Wrap, it seems Eszterhas is hoping that Sharon Stone might co-star in the new film. If she did, she’d be reprising her role of Catherine Tramell, a crime novelist and serial killer who (in the original film) has an affair with the detective (played by Michael Douglas) investigating a brutal murder.
Eszterhas is being paid the eyewatering sum of $2 million to write the script and will receive a total of $4 million should the project go into production. In a wry acknowledgment of his age (Eszterhas is 80), the writer explained he will be leaning on his “writing partner”, the “twisted little man” who lives deep within him and who remains 29 years of age. This alter-ego, Eszterhas reveals, is sure to provide a “wild and orgasmic ride”.
A journalist-turned-screenwriter, Eszterhas was born in Hungary in 1944 and moved in 1950 to Cleveland, Ohio where his family struggled to make ends meet. Growing up with a self-described, "chip on his shoulder”, Eszterhas revealed that his father convinced him to read rather than continue brawling in the back alleys of Cleveland. After university, Eszterhas became a journalist, writing for newspapers and Rolling Stone Magazine before publishing a novel. Encouraged by a producer to try his hand at scripts, Eszterhas was, by the early 90s, the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood.
Eszterhas does not shy away from controversial themes. Riding a wave of success in the 80s and 90s, he was behind other hits such as Flashdance (which he co-wrote), Jagged Edge and Showgirls. In 2004 he published a memoir detailing his years in Tinseltown, Hollywood Animal (2004). He also wrote a feature that was partly filmed in Budapest, Music Box (1989), about a Hungarian immigrant accused of committing war crimes during WWII who is defended by his lawyer-daughter. The film contains a twist at the end, but perhaps the greatest twist was that ten years after writing the film, Eszterhas made a shocking discovery about his own father and the role he played during WWII.
Having seen a live interview with Joe Eszterhas when he was in Budapest some ten years ago, we can confirm that the man is certainly a larger-than-life character. We’re curious to see what he makes of the Basic Instinct reboot.
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