Joe Eszterhas and Hype Williams team up to make the greatest erotic thriller the late '90s never had

By Sean O'Neal | August 9, 2011 | 4:01pm

Aux Features Film

The forthcoming Lust, Joe Eszterhas’ tale of ribaldry set against the steamy, sexy backdrop of Miami real estate, already feels like a late-’90s moment suspended in amber, so much so that David Caruso and Linda Fiorentino could be attached to star and we wouldn’t bat an eye. Adding to that strange sensation: Variety reports that the thriller will be directed by Hype Williams, the man whose eye-popping work on videos for the likes of Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott pegged him as a possible Next Big Thing in film, but whose only feature to date is the 1998 hip-hop noir Belly. To give you some idea of Williams’ time away from filmmaking, that was back when you could make a movie starring DMX and people would say, “That might be good, let’s go and see that.”

Anyway, as reported earlier, Eszterhas’ story concerns a magazine publisher’s wife whose life unravels after a night of adultery with a young playboy, which is caught on tape by the playboy’s jealous Russian assistant. And perhaps the video angle will spur Williams to revive his old signature fisheye lens style, and we can all go to the movies and pretend it’s the late ’90s again, when we had more money and didn’t worry so much.