Emerald Fennell isn't working on an anti-woke Basic Instinct sequel… yet

Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas claimed in an interview that the Saltburn director is in negotiations to direct the threequel, which her rep strongly denies.

By Drew Gillis  |  April 7, 2026 | 11:44am
Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImage
Film News Basic Instinct
Emerald Fennell isn't working on an anti-woke Basic Instinct sequel… yet

Last summer, we learned that Amazon MGM had given screenwriter Joe Eszterhas $2 million to write Basic Instinct 3, and would give him another $2 million if the movie actually got made. The project was described as “anti-woke” and would not include the star of the first two Basic Instinct movies, Sharon Stone. “I mean, go ahead, but good fucking luck,” was her response to the news of the third, saying elsewhere, “I hate to break it to you, but Joe Eszterhas couldn’t write himself out of a Walgreens drug store.” 

But Eszterhas says he’s still forging ahead. “The producers are negotiating with a really interesting director – a Brit, Emerald Fennell – who did Promising Young Woman and Wuthering Heights,” Eszterhas says in an interview published today in The Guardian. “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.”

On paper, this would make some sense; Fennell is known for sexual provocation, even if the various goos and liquids of Saltburn and Wuthering Heights are a far cry from blunt sexual violence of Basic Instinct. But, alas, representatives for Fennell have denied this story in no uncertain terms, telling The A.V. Club by email, “there’s no truth in this. She is not involved in any way.” A bummer for Eszterhaus, but a potential win for any directors out there still hoping to sink their teeth into an anti-woke threequel to a movie that premiered 34 years ago! 

 
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