After a bidding war between roughly ten major and independent studios, Basic Instinct became the highest-selling screenplay, to that time, when Carolco Pictures bought it for $3 million, as reported in the 26 Jun 1990 LAT. Irwin Winkler was paid $1 million to produce. An Aug 1990 issue of Var reviewed the script prior to production, describing it as “devoid of any noticeably redeeming social merit” but with sufficient action and plot twists, according to an item in the 12 Aug 1990 LAT. Although Var editor Peter Bart acknowledged that a review of Joe Eszterhas’s first-draft script was “unorthodox,” he argued that the high-priced screenplay had achieved its own stature as “a cultural event.”
       Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, and Richard Gere were among the actors considered for the role of “Nick Curran,” which ultimately went to Michael Douglas, as announced in a 16 Jul 1990 HR brief. Douglas’s salary was estimated to be between $10.5 and $15 million “plus percentage,” according to the 19 Jul 1990 DV. Producer Irwin Winkler stated the film would cost under $40 million. However, a 13 Mar 1992 Screen International item listed the budget as $43 million.
       Paul Verhoeven signed on to direct in late Jul 1990, according to a 30 Jul 1990 DV item, which noted that filming would begin in Jan 1991. However, on 21 Jan 1991, DV reported that screen testing for the female lead was still underway. Actresses under consideration for the role of “Catherine Tramell” included Michelle Pfeiffer, Julia Roberts, Melanie Griffith, Geena Davis, Mariel Hemingway, and Sharon Stone, although, according to a 21 Jan 1991 New York brief, some actresses turned down the role on the basis that the script was too misogynistic. Verhoeven fought for Sharon Stone, who had appeared in his 1990 film Total Recall (see entry), “against everybody’s advice,” as she was a lesser-known performer. Stone was initially tested months before casting began, and was hired by the end of Jan 1991, according to a 10 Feb 1991 LAT brief.
       In Aug 1990, Joe Eszterhas and Irwin Winkler left the project over creative differences with Carolco, Paul Verhoeven, and Michael Douglas, according to a 22 Aug 1990 DV news item. Eszterhas and Winkler initially asked for the script to be returned to them, but Carolco refused, instead agreeing to pay their full fees despite unfulfilled commitments, as noted in the 23 Aug 1990 LAT. In the wake of Eszterhas’s departure, Gary Goldman was brought in for a re-write. Verhoeven’s proposed changes, according to the 19 Mar 1992 HR “Hollywood Report” column, included the addition of a lesbian sex scene, an idea that Eszterhas had rejected as exploitative. A 1 Apr 1991 LAT article noted that Winkler was offended by Verhoeven’s intention to show certain body parts “in various stages of excitement.” Verhoeven and Gary Goldman worked on four drafts, but the director later claimed his proposals turned out to be “really stupid” and “undramatic.” By the fifth draft, Verhoeven had reverted to a script very close to Eszterhas’s original, with small changes to dialogue and some added visual elements. Producer Alan Marshall, who replaced Winkler, sent Eszterhas the new script in Mar 1991, and Eszterhas approved it. He and Verhoeven, who had fought similarly on their previous collaboration, Total Recall, reconciled in person at Morton’s restaurant in Los Angeles. Although Eszterhas was expected to return to the project as an executive producer, he received no such credit, but was given sole writing credit.
       According to the 9 Apr 1991 HR production chart and production notes in AMPAS library files, principal photography began 5 Apr 1991 in San Francisco, CA. There, five weeks of filming took place in various locations around the city, including Raw Hide II Country & Western Bar, an alley below TransBay Terminal Deck, Tosca’s Café, Dominican College in Marin County, and Kearny Street on Telegraph Hill, where a car chase was filmed on steep sidewalk steps. Michael Douglas, a former racecar driver, opted to perform most of his own driving. Shooting also took place in the towns of Oakland, Rohnert Park, and Petaluma, before the company moved to the Monterey Peninsula for two weeks of filming at a beachfront estate that stood in for Catherine Tramell’s beach house. Interiors, including the San Francisco police headquarters and “Johnny Boz’s” nightclub, were shot on soundstages at Warner Hollywood Studios in Los Angeles. Finally, cast and crew returned to Carmel, where beach sequences that had been delayed due to bad weather were completed.
       At the start of production, homosexual activist groups, including Queer Nation, ACT-UP, and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), met with Joe Eszterhas, Paul Verhoeven, and Alan Marshall, to demand script revisions. Claiming the story was homophobic, they wanted, among other things, for “Nick Curran” to be changed into a female character, and for a “date rape” scene between Curran and “Dr. Beth Garner” to be eliminated, as noted in a 29 Apr 1991 LAT article. The 30 Apr 1991 DV stated that Eszterhas made several script changes based on the activists’ proposals, including rewriting Nick Curran as a female and the addition of a disclaimer at the beginning of the film, stating: “The movie you are about to see is fiction. Its gay and bisexual characters are fictional and not based on reality.” On 29 Apr 1991, with Verhoeven, Douglas, and Alan Marshall’s endorsement, Carolco and Tri-Star rejected Eszterhas’s proposed changes, stating that they undermined the strength of the original script and weakened the characters. An anonymous crew member was quoted in a 1 May 1991 LAT article as saying Eszterhas’s proposed changes were nothing more than an attempt to come across as a “sensitive good guy,” as filming had already begun and the revisions would be impossible to accommodate, given time and budget constraints.
       In addition to demanding script changes, homosexual activist groups staged protests and attempted to disrupt filming at various San Francisco locations, as noted in the 13 May 1991 issue of Time. Filmmakers were granted a temporary restraining order, requiring that protestors stay 100 feet away from the set. Several arrests were made, including a citizen’s arrest of producer Alan Marshall, by someone who claimed that Marshall had had protestors “falsely imprisoned.” Marshall was not held by police, as noted in the 9 May 1991 LAT. Filmmakers were not the only targets of the protests. A 29 Apr 1991 LAT article reported that Ray Chalker, owner of Raw Hide II Country & Western Bar, was also attacked. Chalker’s business, house, and car were vandalized, he received threatening phone calls, and, as noted in a 29 Apr 1991 LAT article, signs reading “Kill Ray” were posted around the Castro district.
       The conflict continued after production ended, when representatives of Queer Nation passed out flyers denouncing the film at the American Film Market (AFM), where foreign distribution deals were being made. By that time, a campaign called “Catherine Did It” had been launched, with a San Francisco billboard, T-shirts and stickers that spoiled the film’s ending in an effort to thwart future ticket sales, as noted in a 16 Feb 1992 LAT item. A 9 Mar 1992 HR brief announced the National Organization for Women (NOW) had joined the dissent, stating that in addition to being homophobic, Basic Instinct had an agenda against women, portraying them as “dangerous liars who are not to be trusted and who are to be used sexually.” Verhoeven responded to the outcry by stating, “You can expect a script to be politically correct but you cannot expect characters to be politically correct. That is not what drama is.” The 1 Apr 1991 LAT article noted that the director had previously received praise from the homosexual community for his portrayal of a gay character in the 1983 Dutch film, The Fourth Man.
       A 4 May 1991 NYT article argued that Basic Instinct had become “the boiling point for an issue that has long been simmering in Hollywood.” Other films that drew similar criticism around that time included JFK and The Silence of the Lambs (1991, see entries). Creative departments at studios, including Touchstone Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Columbia Pictures, had recently enacted sensitivity training programs with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance, to increase awareness of the way homosexuals were being portrayed in the media, and address concerns over the correlation between gay bashing, violence against homosexuals, and negative portrayals of gay characters in film and television. The 21 Mar 1992 LAT noted that critics of such “political correctness” campaigns believed they represented “an effort to mute artistic freedom.”
       On the night of 18 Mar 1992, members of GLAAD handed out leaflets to drivers entering the Sony studio lot, where the film’s premiere was taking place, according to the 20 Mar 1992 LAT. Two days later, opening night demonstrations took place at theaters throughout the country, with various groups chanting “Catherine did it,” and distributing leaflets that gave away the film’s ending. A 26 Mar 1992 HR item speculated that the controversy only contributed to the opening weekend box-office take of $15.1 million, making Basic Instinct the year’s second-biggest opening after Wayne’s World (1992, see entry). The film went on to become an overwhelming commercial success. An 18 Jan 1993 DV advertisement named it “the number one film of 1992,” with a cumulative worldwide box-office gross of $353 million. Despite mixed critical reception, the picture received Academy Award nominations for Best Film Editing and Music (Original Score), and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama (Sharon Stone), and Best Original Score – Motion Picture. Of his nine screenplays that had been produced, to that time, Joe Eszterhas was quoted in the 27 Mar 1992 HR as saying Basic Instinct was the first one that he “genuinely, viscerally loved” as a finished film.
       In May 1992, a director’s cut with roughly forty seconds of added footage opened the Cannes Film Festival, as reported in the 11 May 1992 Var. The additional footage had been previously cut from the U.S. version to achieve an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which initially rated the film NC-17. Var stated the additional footage amounted to “a few moments of added explicitness in the sex and violence making essentially no difference.”
       The ice pick prop used by Catherine Tramell was donated to the Planet Hollywood restaurant in New York City, according to a 27 Apr 1992 People brief, and the white dress worn by Catherine Tramell during an interrogation scene was auctioned at a fundraiser for All Babies Count, an organization benefitting HIV-positive children, as stated in the 29 May 1992 LAT.
       Three years after its release, Basic Instinct made headlines in Aug 1995, when a British woman named Vanessa Ballantyne stabbed a man with a serrated kitchen knife directly after watching the film, as noted in an 18 Aug 1995 The Times (London) article. Ballantyne, a mother of two, confessed her guilt to police a week after the attack. She was found to be psychotically depressed, and committed to a mental hospital.
       Sharon Stone received a $15 million “pay or play” contract to reprise the role of Catherine Tramell in a sequel, according to the 18 Feb 2001 issue of Parade, which stated that Kurt Russell had recently turned down a $5 million offer to co-star. David Morrissey was ultimately cast as the male lead, and the sequel, Basic Instinct 2 (2006, see entry), was released shortly after the home video release of an “unrated, remastered” edition of Basic Instinct, as noted in a 26 Mar 2006 LAT item.
       End credits include the following statements: “This motion picture was made with the help of: Robin Eickman; Lt. Dennis Schardt and the San Francisco Police Department; Ranger Warren White and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Monterey County Film Commission”; “The producers gratefully acknowledge: Lotus cars furnished by Lotus Cars U.S.A., Inc.; Jewelry by Barry Kieselstein-Cord; Dell Publishing-Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.; People Weekly Magazine logo and trademark used with permission of The Time Inc., Magazine Company; Paintings by Pablo Picasso ©1992 ARS N.Y./Spadem; Cerruti 1881, Paris.” Additional acknowledgments read: "Clip from The Jeffersons courtesy of Columbia Pictures Television © 1992 by: ELP Communications. All rights reserved."; "Clip from Hellraiser courtesy of Trans Atlantic Entertainment"; and, "Filmed on location in San Francisco, Carmel and at Warner Hollywood Studios."