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Film 940: Basic Instinct

Trivia: Writer Joe Eszterhas and producer Irwin Winkler walked off the picture after failing to reach agreement with director Paul Verhoeven over the script. Verhoeven promptly hired Total Recall writer Gary Goldman to come up with some new scenes, most of which beefed up Michael Douglas's character and made him less wimpy. These changes were largely made at the behest of Douglas. It was during this later stage that Verhoeven realized his changes weren't going to work, so he publicly acknowledged his error and made up with Eszterhas (which Eszterhas admitted to be a rare thing in Hollywood). Problems reoccurred later when the script had been leaked, and the gay and lesbian communities had serious reservations about the depiction of lesbian and bisexual characters. Eszterhas wanted to make more changes to appease them, but Verhoeven point blank refused to incorporate these changes. Eszterhas again publicly distanced himself from the production, but once again reconciled with Verhoeven when the finished movie was praised by critics and homosexual communities alike.

Writer Joe Eszterhas was paid a then-unheard-of sum of $3 million for his script.

The first film of Jeanne Tripplehorn.

50 San Francisco Police Department riot police had to be present at every location every day to deal with picketing gay and lesbian activists.

So choreographed were the sex scenes that Sharon Stone referred to herself and Michael Douglas as "the horizontal Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of the '90s".

According to Sharon Stone, director Paul Verhoeven asked her to remove her underwear for the leg-crossing scene, as he said they were too bright and reflected at the camera. Stone agreed to do so under the assumption that her genitals weren't visible. It was only at an early preview that Stone discovered Verhoeven chose to use this specific shot. Stone was mainly cross with Verhoeven for not discussing the matter with her beforehand, but decided to let the scene go without changes, as she felt this conformed with her movie character. However, Verhoeven's version of the conflict is that he told Stone beforehand about the leg-crossing shot, as it was important for showing Catherine Tramell's free-spirited nature and her constant drive to toy with people. Stone was reportedly excited about the idea and shot the scene. However, during the early preview, her agents supposedly disproved of the scene, fearing it would harm her future career. According to Verhoeven, Stone radically changed her mind about the shot and demanded that he remove it, which he ultimately refused.

Joe Eszterhas wrote the script in ten days while listening to The Rolling Stones non-stop. He then sold it three days later at auction.

Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone had to wear genital pads during the sex scenes due to the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s.

No body doubles were used in any of the sex scenes.

Sharon Stone's infamous leg-uncrossing scene was not in Joe Eszterhas' original script; it was thought up by Paul Verhoeven while the movie was being shot. The shot was based on a memory of Verhoeven's college years, when a lady at a party had done the exact same thing to embarrass him.

According to a poll for movie subscription service LoveFilm, Sharon Stone's infamous leg-crossing scene has been named the most-paused "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" moment in movies.

Michael Douglas had a clause in his contract that meant he would never be shown full frontal in the movie.

Sharon Stone was only offered the role of Catherine after thirteen actresses had turned it down.

The movie completely ignored DNA, which had been used in criminal investigations since the mid-1980s. The film was set in the year of its release (1992), by which time DNA was constantly being used for crime investigations.

In 2002 screenwriter Joe Eszterhas apologized in an op-ed for The New York Times for glamorizing smoking in this movie. Eszterhas was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2000, as was Michael Douglas in 2010.

The main sex scene with Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone took five days to film.

Sharon Stone was seriously considering giving up acting to study law at the time she was offered the role of Catherine Tramell.