Yesterday’s announcement of Cinemax’s sally into original softcore fare and the ensuing discussion about saxophone-laden, smeary-focused sex scenes naturally got us thinking: Whither Joe Eszterhas, the guy whose mix of violence, nudity, and hot blonde women who will kill you after doing you has served as the exemplar for so many cable-bound knock-offs over the years? As it turns out, we weren’t the only ones thinking Eszterhas was due for a comeback, nearly 16 years after he abandoned the erotic thriller (in the wake of the back-to-back flops of Showgirls and Jade), left Hollywood, and more or less concentrated on raising a family and writing some decidedly non-erotic memoirs.
Today it was revealed that the sleazy suspense king will return with Lust, described by The Hollywood Reporter as a cross between Fatal Attraction and Eszterhas’ own Basic Instinct, and concerning “a 30-year-old beauty” who cheats on her husband with a “charming playboy,” only to find herself blackmailed by the playboy’s assistant, who’s in love with him. Eszterhas’ tale promises to provide “plenty of steamy sex scenes, set against the backdrop of the high-stakes world of real estate brokering in Miami.” Leave it to Joe Eszterhas to find a way to make the Miami real estate market even sexier.