It looks like Sharon Stone could be returning to the role that turned her into a Hollywood star and became the original “pause challenge” long before TikTok existed. In a surprising turn of events, Basic Instinct screenwriter is reportedly reviving the erotic thriller franchise for United Artists and Amazon MGM Studio after closing a $4 million deal.

In what is said to be the biggest spec script sale of 2025 (as per The Wrap), Stone could reprise her role as Catherine Tramell for a third time, and according to the source discussing the deal, the film would be an “anti-woke” reboot of the franchise. Although there have been no further details revealed about what the plot could look like or how Stone’s Tramell could figure in a movie where she originally played a post-feminist icon that didn’t mind which gender she dabbled with while running rings around police.

The original Basic Instinct was one of the most provocative and controversial movies of the 1990s, which was only to be expected from director Paul Verhoeven, but mostly drew a huge number of complaints when it was revealed that Stone’s character was queer and playing an assumed killer, with the story leaning into stereotypical tropes about homosexual killers. While the ending was purposefully ambiguous as to whether Tramell was the killer after all, none of the controversy and protests stopped the film being a box office smash where it took $353 million from a $49 million budget and was nominated for several awards.

Before legacy sequels were really a thing, Basic Instinct 2 proved that sometimes popular movies are best left alone. It took 14 years for Stone to return as Tramell in the sequel alongside David Morrissey, but it was not worth the wait as the film became a huge box office flop (taking just $38.6 million on the back of a $70 million budget) and receiving some terrible review ratings to boot.

That was now almost 20 years ago, and no one expected to see another Basic Instinct movie after the previous disaster. However, the 2006 sequel had some very clear differences to the original movie when it came to the team behind it. Paul Verhoeven’s director’s chair was this time occupied by Scottish director Michael Caton-Jones – who had previously worked on the comedy Doc Hollywood, Liam Neeson drama Rob Roy, and the panned Bruce Willis remake, The Jackal – while the script was written by Leora Barish and Henry Bean. While the controversial Verhoeven seems unlikely to be returning to direct the new reboot, having Eszterhas on scripting duties, could a new movie write the wrongs of its predecessor?

Stone has recently been gaining quite a bit of attention, for both her on-screen roles and her off-screen comments on gender pay-gaps and the state of U.S. politics. Whether she will actually return to her most iconic role one last time is yet to be seen, but it will certainly be an unexpected career move, and potentially another controversial Basic Instinct movie, if it does make it to screens.

Source: The Wrap