Trivia
Was greenlit several years before it actually reached production, but was halted because Sharon Stone vetoed several actors who auditioned for the Glass role, including the producer's favorite Benjamin Bratt.
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Robert Downey Jr. was set to star but had to drop out when he was charged with drug possession. Kurt Russell was attached at some point but bailed out because he felt uncomfortable with the nudity. Pierce Brosnan refused to play the male lead role because of distasteful elements. Bruce Greenwood was set to star but dropped out because he hadn't been signed on yet and feared the actors strike. Benjamin Bratt was banned by Sharon Stone for not being a good actor.
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David Cronenberg was in talks to the direct the film for some time. John McTiernan was set to direct after Cronenberg bailed out due to producer Mario Kassar banning him from using his own cinematographer, production designer, and the rest of his usual team.
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When Sharon Stone refused to reprise her role at the beginning of production, producers considered casting either Demi Moore or Ashley Judd.
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Paul Verhoeven considered directing the project for some time before moving on to Dutch-language projects when it first started production.
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Sharon Stone agreed to reprise her role of Catherine Tremell in a "pay or play" arrangement, meaning she got fully paid, whether the film would ultimately be made or not.
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The setting was changed from New York to London. Harrison Ford, Viggo Mortensen, Benicio Del Toro, and Aaron Eckhart were in the running for the lead when the film was initially set in the U.S.A. Jude Law, Ewan McGregor and Gabriel Byrne were nominated after the move. Javier Bardem was also considered at some point.
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The film was delayed several times in pre-production in 2000 and 2001. Some of the largest problems were finding the right director and the right male lead. Eventually the production was dropped and the movie canceled. In June 2001, Sharon Stone filed a lawsuit against the movie's producers, Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar, for being responsible for the delays and therefore making her unable to take other jobs. She filed for nearly $100 million in damages. Three years later, during her promotion tour for Catwoman, she stated that she had finally dropped the charges and that Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction was back on track. Both Stone and the same producers were still making the film together.
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Sharon Stone's lawsuit against producers Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar claiming that she had been promised $14 million, with the assurance that she'd get paid even if the movie never got made. The producers had missed their February 2001 deadline. It was settled out of court in 2004.
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The car that Catherine Tramell drives in the film is a Spyker C8 Laviolette. It is a real car produced by a Dutch company. It has a 400 hp aluminum V-8 engine sourced from Audi.
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Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Gabriel Byrne, Javier Bardem, Benicio Del Toro, Viggo Mortensen and Aaron Eckhart were all in the running to star opposite Sharon Stone at one point.
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Rupert Everett publicly expressed his anger after being turned down to star opposite Sharon Stone by MGM CEO Chris McGurk for being "pervert who would never be accepted by the American public in this role".
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French actor Vincent Perez was up for the role as a last minute call after Benjamin Bratt was turned down but then production closed down because of the actors' strike.
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Is notoriously known as being the first and so far only theatrically released followup to a box-office hit that did not even earn $10 million in the U.S. box-office.
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Before agreeing to perform the full-frontal nude scene, Sharon Stone invited a friend over to watch the original Basic Instinct. During the film, Stone, by her own admission, stripped down totally naked and asked her friend if she could "still pull it off."
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The Sony DVD release is unrated and runs 2 minutes longer than the theatrical release. It also contains 18 minutes worth of deleted scenes, one minute of which is an alternate ending.
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