If more evidence were needed that the progressive snowflake era of Hollywood has officially melted, “Basic Instinct,” a movie that cemented the ice-pick-wielding post-feminist man-slayer in the character of Sharon Stone’s Catherine Tramell, is back.
Amazon MGM just bought a spec script from Joe Eszterhas — yes, the man who brought the sexy in “Flashdance,” “Jade,” “Sliver” and “Showgirls” as well as “Basic Instinct” in the ’80s and ’90s — in a $2 million deal to write what he has called an “anti-woke” reboot.
“I don’t believe in woke and I don’t believe in being politically correct because I think it’s not the truth, and I like the truth spoken,” Mr. Eszterhas, who gets an additional $2 million if the film gets made, told me in a recent interview about the deal. As for how the movie will be “anti-woke,” he wouldn’t say a lot other than it would be “raunchy,” but I got the impression that he’d know it when he wrote it.
Hollywood is rapidly shifting away from the socially conscious framework that for more than a decade has driven its narratives, casting and green lights.
A new series on Netflix called “The Hunting Wives” has Malin Akerman dressing up as the saucy Texas wife of a rich businessman, complete with big hair, a big rifle, a Southern twang and an affair with the teenage son of the pastor. Nearly everyone on the show is hot, horny and white.
No less an authority than “South Park” declared last month that “woke is dead” in the season premiere that went viral for featuring President Trump crawling naked through the desert in a fake public service announcement. In the same episode, Cartman loses hope after learning that “woke” has died. His once politically correct principal has suddenly embraced religion, inviting Jesus into their public school. (Cartman’s later bid to asphyxiate himself with the car running in the garage fails because it is an electric vehicle.)
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