Joining the roster of upcoming TV series based on older movies, Paramount has officially announced their upcoming Fatal Attraction project, which will be heading to Paramount+. After her brilliant turn as Annie Wilkes in the Hulu series Castle Rock, Lizzy Caplan has been tapped as taking over the female lead of Alex, the woman who becomes obsessed by a married man after a one night stand originally played by Glenn Close in the 1987 movie. There is currently no word on who is in the running to play the object of her unwanted attention Dan, previously played by Michael Douglas.
The series comes from Dirty John writer Alexandra Cunningham, and will attempt to reimagine the story and its themes of infidelity, marriage and obsession in a modern setting with a heavy focus on personality disorders, coercive control and attitudes towards strong women in society. Cunningham will serve as showrunner as well as executive producer on the project along with Kevin J. Hynes who co-wrote the story, and Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey who will executively produce for Amblin Television.
Fatal Attraction was originally announced as a script to series commitment in Feburary this year, when Paramount also revealed plans to bring long-form versions of The Italian Job, Flashdance and Love Story to Paramount+, and Fatal Attraction moved ahead quickly after the appointment of David Nevins, Chief Content Officer, Scripted Originals, Paramount+ & Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Showtime Networks, and Nicole Clemens, President, Paramount+ Original Scripted Series at Paramount+.
“There’s a very timeless appeal to the themes of fidelity and infidelity, why good people make very dumb, problematic choices, and just marriage and family against those themes of fidelity and infidelity,” Nevins told Deadline earlier this week. “I think the writers have come up with a very smart way to make it very contemporary while also honoring the original. How it’s done for today and how it’s turned into a series is interesting, and it’s interesting for Lizzy’s part in particular.”
“Alexandra brings an incredibly strong and nuanced point of view to a story that became a cultural phenomenon but has thus far only been told from the male gaze,” Clemens added. “Partnered with Kevin, they will bring the next explosive chapter of this story to a new generation with a balanced eye to the complexities of the human psyche.”
Nevins previously cast Lizzy Caplan in the Showtime series Masters of Sex and he clearly knows her capabilities to bring a strong but dark-minded woman to life on screen. In the second season of Castle Rock, the horror drama series which interwove threads from numerous Stephen King novels, Caplan played a young version of Misery‘s Annie Wilkes, previously played on screen by Academy Award winner Kathy Bates, and she managed to fill the shoes with ease. Having also been nominated for Emmy and Critics Choice awards for Outstanding Lead Actress for her performance opposite Michael Sheen in Masters of Sex, the emotionally driven role of Alex in Fatal Attraction seems like the perfect role for her.
Fatal Attraction was a massive hit in 1987, bringing in a staggering $320.1 million on the back of a paltry $14 million budget making it the highest grossing film of the year. It also proved to be a hit with critics, but also came with its fair share of controversy, with attacks from feminist groups who called out Douglas’ Dan for his lack of compassion towards Close’s Alex and the way she was seen as a wholly negative character, and animal activists who took issue with the scene that would coin the phrase “bunny-boiler”. However, the movie had gone on to be one of the most noted erotic thrillers of the time, leading to the likes of Basic Instinct and other imitations to come thick and fast in the early 1990s. The movie was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Director, Best Picture and Best Actress for Close.
This news comes to us from Deadline.
Source: movieweb.com