Sharon Stone wishes Basic Instinct reboot a hardy "good fucking luck"

Sharon Stone, the star of Basic Instinct and Basic Instinct 2, doesn't know why someone would do this. Has she heard of money?

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  August 18, 2025 | 7:05pm
(Photo by TriStar/Getty Images)
Film News Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone wishes Basic Instinct reboot a hardy

Sharon Stone knows a thing or two about Basic Instincts. She’s starred in two of them. Having played Basic Instinct‘s femme fatale, Cathrine Tramell, in Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 original and the 2006 sequel, Stone must’ve been surprised to hear that Amazon MGM reportedly paid Basic screenwriter Joe Eszterhas $4 million to write an “anti-woke” reboot. How does one un-woke the infamously progressive tale of a coked-out detective shooting two tourists before becoming the target of an icepick-wielding murderer? And isn’t “sleepy” the opposite of “woke”? Why would anyone want a sleepy erotic thriller? That’s for Eszterhas and his $4 million to figure out. In the meantime, Ms. Stone would like to send the team behind the reboot a hardy “good fucking luck.”

“If it goes the way the one I was in went, then I would just say I do not know why you would do it,” Stone told The Today Show while drawing on her Basic Instinct 2 experience. “I mean, go ahead, but good fucking luck.”

No luck needed. It won’t be easy coming up with an erotic thriller based entirely on being annoyed that a co-worker included preferred pronouns in their email bio. But that’s a knot for the millionaire screenwriter to untangle. Considering MGM blew $70 million on the 2006 sequel for a return only slightly more than they’re paying the screenwriter, their instincts are working just fine.

 
Join the discussion...