Club that the media liked to focus on a writer’s failures, which occurred when Eszterhas’ Showgirls tanked at the box office. Joe Eszterhas joined that club when he sold Basic Instinct-a script that took him just 13 days to write-for $3 million in 1990. THE SCRIPT SOLD FOR A RECORD $3 MILLION.īack in the day, spec scripts could sell for millions of dollars. Here are 15 not-so-basic facts about the revolutionary thriller. The controversial movie angered the LGBTQ community (particularly in San Francisco, where filming was protested) because of the psychopathic nature of Stone’s bisexual character, though Stone saw her more as a “party girl,” and Eszterhas thought of her as being omnisexual. (The much-delayed 2006 sequel, on the other hand, bombed at the box office.) Directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas (who would team up again for 1995’s Showgirls), Basic Instinct grossed $352,927,224 worldwide against a $49 million budget, making it the ninth highest-grossing domestic film of 1992. Michael Douglas-who starred in another erotic thriller, Fatal Attraction-played her love interest, a San Francisco detective named Nick Curran.
Twenty-five years ago-on March 20, 1992-Sharon Stone introduced moviegoers to Catherine Tramell, a novelist and suspected serial killer who stabs her victims with an ice pick while engaged in acrobatic sex acts.
