Keep a close watch on your rabbits this Easter, folks, as a reimagined take on “Fatal Attraction” is heading your way.
On Monday, Paramount+ unveiled a trailer for its eight-episode series adaptation of the 1987 psychological thriller, which starred Glenn Close and Michael Douglas. Debuting April 30, the new version stars Lizzy Caplan as Alex Forrest, a mentally ill woman who becomes obsessed with a married man, Dan Gallagher (Joshua Jackson), after a brief affair.
Written and executive produced by Alexandra Cunningham, the “Fatal Attraction” series will explore “the timeless themes of marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes toward strong women, personality disorders and coercive control,” according to press notes.
Viewers will find a number of memorable scenes recreated in the trailer, although the now-iconic “bunny boiling” segment is nowhere to be found just yet.
Watch the trailer for “Fatal Attraction” below.
“I’m not going to be ignored, Dan,” Caplan’s Alex proclaims in a line delivered unforgettably by Close in the original.
Still, there’s one major difference: Much of the new “Fatal Attraction” takes place in the present day, with Dan having served 15 years in prison for Alex’s murder.
Directed by Adrian Lyne, 1987’s “Fatal Attraction” received rave reviews and nabbed six Academy Award nominations, including Best Actress for Close. Though Alex remains one of her best-known roles, Close was unhappy with the movie’s ending and, in particular, her character’s demise.
The film originally concluded with Alex dying by suicide and framing Dan for her death. Lyne went against Close’s wishes and opted to re-shoot the final sequence after test audiences reacted negatively.
Cunningham, whose credits include “Desperate Housewives” and “Dirty John,” has cited Close’s displeasure as an impetus for revisiting the story and shedding more insight into Alex’s perspective.
Caplan feels similarly, noting that the series allows Alex to have “a full backstory and a full point of view.”
“In the film, Alex is the villain of the story, and Dan is the hero and there is no gray area,” the “Mean Girls” and “Freaks and Geeks” actor told Entertainment Weekly last year. “Now, audiences have changed so much, we are no longer primed to believe in this villainous woman story. She’s clearly mentally ill and that’s not something that is really touched upon at all in the movie.”
