The National Broadcasting Corporation is banking on the public’s continued love of wealthy, sexy students and the occasional haze of incest that surrounds them.
As we noted back in October, a sequel series for the 1999 drama Cruel Intentions was in development at NBC and now word has arrived that this project will be getting a pilot. According to Variety, the program takes place a decade-and-a-half after the events of the movie and focuses on the child created by Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon’s characters. The original film’s writer-director Roger Kumble is onboard as an executive producer and the pilot’s director. (He’s also the writer-director of the second film, but that doesn’t have the same oomph to lead with.) Here’s the pilot’s logline as nabbed by TV Line.
Cruel Intentions picks up over 15 years after the hit movie left off. It follows the beautiful and cunning Kathryn Merteuil as she vies for control of Valmont International as well as the soul of Bash Casey, the son of her brother, who was the late Sebastian Valmont, and Annette Hargrove. Upon discovering his late father’s legacy in a hidden journal, Bash is introduced to a world of sex, money, power and corruption he never could have imagined.
And why wouldn’t you trust a world of sex, money, power and corruption to a teenager named Bash? We’re sure only good things can come of this,.
If you vaguely remember a Cruel Intentions TV series being attempted before, you’re not hallucinating. Or you’re hallucinating and also correct. Fox had a whole prequel series ready to go in 1999 under the title Manchester Prep complete with Amy Adams included in the cast. Millions of dollars were thrown at the project, but it never made it to air. Fox canceled the series before it could even debut and the completed episodes were repackaged (with some extra tweaks and edits) as the direct-to-video offering Cruel Intentions 2.
(via Variety)
