Joshua Jackson to star in 'Fatal Attraction' series
Joshua Jackson will star in the role made famous by Michael Douglas on Paramount+'s upcoming 'Fatal Attraction' series, playing opposite Lizzy Caplan.
TV News: Paramount+ Joshua Jackson to star in Michael Douglas role in Fatal Attraction series
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Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson come face-to-face in 'Fatal Attraction' first look
Lizzy Caplan and showrunner Alexandra Cunningham preview shifting perspectives in their 'Fatal Attraction' series.
Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson come face-to-face in Fatal Attraction first look
The Paramount+ series is shifting the story to be from Alex's perspective.
By Samantha HighfillDecember 18, 2022 at 10:00 AM EST
"Alex is famous as the bunny boiler, but there's probably more to say about that." Alexandra Cunningham wasn't sure she wanted to make a Fatal Attraction series when Paramount+ first approached her. But the opportunity to expand upon Alex Forrest's story was simply too enticing for the showrunner.
Alex Forrest, as originally played by Glenn Close, became known as the bunny boiler in the 1987 film of the same name, which followed New York lawyer Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) as he began an affair with book editor Alex. And let's just say Alex didn't appreciate it when Dan wanted to stay with his wife.
"I did a lot of reading about the film and Glenn Close talking about the empathy she had for Alex, and how she felt that Alex was out of control and obviously not evil, which I definitely agree with because I don't believe in evil," Cunningham tells EW. "Glenn talked about how, when she was doing the character work on Alex, she brought the script to two different psychiatrists, and neither one of them brought up mental illness, because it was the '80s and nobody did that. She's become such a mental health advocate since then, and it makes me sad that she's said that she feels responsible for a lot of the stigma toward mental illness in pop culture because of her portrayal of Alex. She's also said that she felt that it would be interesting to literally tell the exact same story, but from Alex's point of view, and I kind of sparked to that."
Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson in 'Fatal Attraction'
| CREDIT: MONTY BRINTON/PARAMOUNT+
With that idea of shifting perspectives guiding her, Cunningham started writing the show. And all the while, she had one actress in mind to step into Alex's shoes: Lizzy Caplan. Thankfully, for Caplan, the project was an easy "yes."
A big fan of the film, Caplan immediately saw that there was more to explore. "In the film, Alex is the villain of the story, and Dan is the hero and there is no gray area," Caplan says. "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."
"There's a lot to unpack with her," Caplan continues. "She has a full backstory and a full point of view in our show. With a limited series, there's an opportunity to take more time getting to know all of these characters."
Playing the Dan to Caplan's Alex is Joshua Jackson. "I'm so happy that Josh is playing this role," Caplan says of Jackson, whom she'd never met prior to this series. "He was the greatest partner. We had to do some pretty full-on stuff with each other. It's an erotic thriller, and there's also quite a bit of physical violence, which requires so much trust with your scene partner, and I trusted him every step of the way."
With Caplan and Jackson at the center of the story (along with Amanda Peet as Dan's wife, Beth), Cunningham hopes to bring Fatal Attraction into present day, all the while honoring what came before.
"We want to entertain people who are familiar with the touchstones of the original movie, but also people who have no idea what it is," Cunningham says. "If people are interested, we want them to be able to jump in and enjoy it for its own merits, even if they don't have context for bunny boiling."
Fatal Attraction will hit Paramount+ in early 2023.
The Paramount+ series is shifting the story to be from Alex's perspective.
By Samantha HighfillDecember 18, 2022 at 10:00 AM EST
"Alex is famous as the bunny boiler, but there's probably more to say about that." Alexandra Cunningham wasn't sure she wanted to make a Fatal Attraction series when Paramount+ first approached her. But the opportunity to expand upon Alex Forrest's story was simply too enticing for the showrunner.
Alex Forrest, as originally played by Glenn Close, became known as the bunny boiler in the 1987 film of the same name, which followed New York lawyer Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) as he began an affair with book editor Alex. And let's just say Alex didn't appreciate it when Dan wanted to stay with his wife.
"I did a lot of reading about the film and Glenn Close talking about the empathy she had for Alex, and how she felt that Alex was out of control and obviously not evil, which I definitely agree with because I don't believe in evil," Cunningham tells EW. "Glenn talked about how, when she was doing the character work on Alex, she brought the script to two different psychiatrists, and neither one of them brought up mental illness, because it was the '80s and nobody did that. She's become such a mental health advocate since then, and it makes me sad that she's said that she feels responsible for a lot of the stigma toward mental illness in pop culture because of her portrayal of Alex. She's also said that she felt that it would be interesting to literally tell the exact same story, but from Alex's point of view, and I kind of sparked to that."
Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson in 'Fatal Attraction'
| CREDIT: MONTY BRINTON/PARAMOUNT+
With that idea of shifting perspectives guiding her, Cunningham started writing the show. And all the while, she had one actress in mind to step into Alex's shoes: Lizzy Caplan. Thankfully, for Caplan, the project was an easy "yes."
A big fan of the film, Caplan immediately saw that there was more to explore. "In the film, Alex is the villain of the story, and Dan is the hero and there is no gray area," Caplan says. "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."
"There's a lot to unpack with her," Caplan continues. "She has a full backstory and a full point of view in our show. With a limited series, there's an opportunity to take more time getting to know all of these characters."
Playing the Dan to Caplan's Alex is Joshua Jackson. "I'm so happy that Josh is playing this role," Caplan says of Jackson, whom she'd never met prior to this series. "He was the greatest partner. We had to do some pretty full-on stuff with each other. It's an erotic thriller, and there's also quite a bit of physical violence, which requires so much trust with your scene partner, and I trusted him every step of the way."
With Caplan and Jackson at the center of the story (along with Amanda Peet as Dan's wife, Beth), Cunningham hopes to bring Fatal Attraction into present day, all the while honoring what came before.
"We want to entertain people who are familiar with the touchstones of the original movie, but also people who have no idea what it is," Cunningham says. "If people are interested, we want them to be able to jump in and enjoy it for its own merits, even if they don't have context for bunny boiling."
Fatal Attraction will hit Paramount+ in early 2023.
From this read, it seems like they are going to paint Alex as a victim and blame men and the patriarchy for her dysfunction.
Hard pass.
I do like Liz Caplan, though.
Hard pass.
I do like Liz Caplan, though.
'Fatal Attraction' star Joshua Jackson teases how Dan 'deals with the repercussions of his actions'
Joshua Jackson breaks down how the upcoming 'Fatal Attraction' series will dive into the character of Dan Gallagher in new ways.
'Fatal Attraction' is a solid thriller undone by a ridiculous ending
Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan are predictably great in the Paramount+ adaptation of 'Fatal Attraction,' but the ending is so dumb it made our blood boil like a bunny. Read our review.
ew.com
Lizzy Caplan, Joshua Jackson Tease Different Ending for Bunny in 'Fatal Attraction' Reboot (Exclusive)
Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson teased that the iconic bunny boiling scene from the original 1987 film is receiving a 2023 upgrade
‘Fatal Attraction’ Review: Here’s Why She Did It
A somber, psychology-heavy series tries to take the “erotic thriller” out of the erotic thriller.- Give this article
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Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson in “Fatal Attraction,” which at times seems to be atoning for the 1987 film.Credit...Monty Brinton/Paramount+
By Mike Hale
April 26, 2023
When is a rabbit an Easter egg? When it hops onscreen in “Fatal Attraction,” the oddly tranquil new series inspired by the infamous, bunny-boiling 1987 film of the same title.
It’s not a major spoiler to report that this little white cutie avoids the stockpot. Gentle homage to the tawdry, garishly effective original — one of the primary reasons no one calls their productions “erotic thrillers” anymore — is the rule. No one is drowned in a bathtub, but there is a joking reference to the inadvisability of having a tub in the house.
Nearly everything about this new “Fatal Attraction,” whose eight-episode season premieres Sunday on Paramount+, has been toned down, often to the point of torpor. The only thing that retains the original’s raciness is the new version of the echt-’80s title font — the “Fatal” still looks like a signature scrawled on a bar tab between bumps of cocaine.
Major surgery was inevitable for source material that turned a single, sexually active woman into a horror-movie monster who threatened the sanctity of a suburban family. If that weren’t sufficiently toxic by 2020s standards, the film also cleverly framed the woman’s psychosis as feminism run amok, generating sympathy for the poor upper-middle-class, white male sap who stumbled into an affair with her.
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So Alexandra Cunningham (“Dirty John,” “Desperate Housewives”) and Kevin J. Hynes (“Perry Mason”), working with the film’s writer, James Dearden, have reimagined “Fatal Attraction” in myriad ways, none of which are erotic and few of which are thrilling. From the moment Dan Gallagher — played by a disheveled, halting Joshua Jackson, subbing in for the sleek Michael Douglas of the film — kicks off the series by shuffling into a parole hearing, the show feels as if it’s shouldering a responsibility, weighed down by the need to apologize for Hollywood’s past misconduct.
Dan is up for parole because in this new universe, he has served 15 years for the murder of his stalker, Alex Forrest (Lizzy Caplan). Responding not just to shifting mores but also to the demands of serial storytelling — the show runs close to a full eight hours — Cunningham and Hynes have turned “Fatal Attraction” into a murder mystery, as Dan, a former Los Angeles prosecutor, tries to figure out who really killed Alex while awkwardly reconciling with his ex-wife, Beth (Amanda Peet), and daughter, Ellen (Alyssa Jirrels).
The mystery plays out in leisurely L.A.-noir style, introducing clouds of suspects as the show jumps back and forth in time and stretches out its thin narrative by replaying entire episodes from different points of view. The temporal shifts also serve to educate both Dan and the audience about the noxious privilege and entitlement that precipitated his downfall. (This portion of the show benefits greatly from the presence of Toby Huss as Mike, Dan’s best friend and a former cop who was collateral damage in Dan’s debacle.)
But apparently converting “Fatal Attraction” into a reasonably diverting crime drama wasn’t enough to remove the stain of the original. So the series also offers an elaborate psychodramatic narrative embellishment — a sort of study guide — expressed in frequent discussions of the work of Carl Jung and his collaborator Toni Wolff. Ellen, in the present, is a psychology student, and we also hear recitations of the fairy tales she delights in as a child. The allegorical, slightly metafictional notions are rammed home: a character who gives Ellen a book of tales is called “an actual fairy godmother”; a pet dog is named Ziggy, short for Sigmund.
Ellen’s research leads her to reassess the behavior of her father’s murdered nemesis, and the greatest labor this “Fatal Attraction” takes on is its effort to turn Alex into an understandable, even sympathetic, character. Dan is a chastened version of the narcissistic jerk Douglas played in the film, but the vivid hysteria of Glenn Close’s Oscar-nominated performance as Alex is mostly replaced in Caplan’s version by a jumpy vulnerability, and Alex now gets a back story to explain her sociopathic obsessiveness.
This virtue-signaling therapy noir manages, in its peculiarly studious way, to meld the racy ’80s and the censorious ’20s, and it’s not exactly hard to watch. It is competently made and nice to look at, it has a knockoff version of a languorous Southern California vibe, and Caplan and Jackson are both engaging. (Jackson gets extra credit — he has to compensate for hideous haircuts in both the past and present time lines.) They get good support from a large cast that includes Huss, Toks Olagundoye as one of Dan’s former co-workers, Vivien Lyra Blair as the young Ellen and the scream queen Dee Wallace as the owner of the rabbit.
What’s missing is the metabolism, the transgressive energy and — at least in the context of its time — the glossy sexiness that the director Adrian Lyne brought to the film. The thing you wonder as you watch the series isn’t why they made the changes they did, but why they bothered making the show at all. Wasn’t there other intellectual property in the Paramount vaults that would have made the jump more easily? (It worked for “Top Gun,” after all.)
And what’s noticeable is that despite all the modifications, Cunningham and Hynes didn’t change the basic emotional and psychological architecture: The crucial moments are still Alex’s bursts of antisocial behavior and Dan’s violent reaction to them, and the story is still strung on those slasher-film tentpoles. (If you’ve seen the original, you’ll know exactly when a particular pair of eyes is going to pop open, even though the moment is campy and completely out of character with the rest of the series.) They did their best to scrub the misogyny out of “Fatal Attraction,” but at the end of the day it’s still about the fear of a crazy lady.
‘Fatal Attraction’ Review: Here’s Why She Did It
A somber, psychology-heavy series tries to take the “erotic thriller” out of the erotic thriller.
Lizzy Caplan, Joshua Jackson Tease Different Ending for Bunny in 'Fatal Attraction' Reboot (Exclusive)
Fatal Attraction premieres Sunday on Paramount+By Kimberlee Speakman
and Scott Huver
Published on April 25, 2023 10:04 AM
Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan. PHOTO: RANDY SHROPSHIRE/GETTY
Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson are teasing that there's a twist for one of Fatal Attraction's beloved characters.
The two actors — who star as Alex Forrest and Dan Gallagher, respectively, in the upcoming Paramount+ series based on the film of the same name — hinted that there could be a fresh ending for the Gallagher family's bunny different from the original while speaking to PEOPLE at the Fatal Attraction premiere in Los Angeles on Monday night.
The premise for the 1987 psychosexual thriller is that Dan (Michael Douglas) and Alex (Glenn Close) have an affair, which becomes an obsession and fixation for Alex, forcing her to do unspeakable acts to keep him.
In an iconic movie scene, Beth (Anne Archer), Dan's wife, comes home to find her son's bunny boiling in a pot on the stove, courtesy of Alex — but this time, says Caplan, 40, there's a twist.
"I mean, I feel bad that I can't deliver the murdering of the bunny for all the people who so desperately want it. It's really like people really want it," the actress told PEOPLE.
Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson in Fatal Attraction. MICHAEL MORIATIS/PARAMOUNT+
Fatal Attraction Reboot Trailer: How Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan's Affair Hit Its Boiling Point
Teasing the new fate, Caplan added, "I actually think it's sort of brilliant to see the bunny early and you think like, 'Oh, something's going to ... like, Final Destination that bunny.' "
Jackson, 44, also hinted that the bunny storyline would get a modern upgrade.
"In the same way that certain other elements inside the story are updated to 2023, the way that the bunny gets dealt with is more in keeping with our social mores today," he said.
The new series follows two separate timelines — one in 2008 and the other in 2023 — and explores "timeless themes of marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes towards strong women, personality disorders and coercive control," according to a press release.
Caplan told PEOPLE on Monday that she hopes viewers will learn something different with the direction of the show set in a modern light as opposed to its film counterpart.
"I hope it makes us reflect on who we were back then, the not-that-distant past … that audiences [expect] different stories or stories about the characters, deeper dives," Caplan said.
"We're not cool with just, 'He's a good guy and she's horrible,' " the Mean Girls star explained. "We just don't accept it in the same way. So for me, the most interesting thing was holding up the mirror to the culture, and to the audiences, and how far we've come."
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The series also stars Amanda Peet as Beth and Alyssa Jirrels as Beth and Dan's daughter, Ellen.
Alexandra Cunningham (Dirty John, Chance) serves as writer, showrunner and co-executive producer, the latter alongside Kevin J. Hynes (Perry Mason) and The Americans' Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey.
Fatal Attraction premieres Sunday on Paramount+.
He was good in the lead role of Dr. Death a few years ago.
Enjoyed her work as the friend and narrator on Fleishman is in Trouble late last year.
Enjoyed her work as the friend and narrator on Fleishman is in Trouble late last year.
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‘Fatal Attraction,’ ‘Rabbit Hole’ Canceled at Paramount+
Both shows, however, will remain available on the platform.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
Fatal Attraction, which Cunningham was hoping to continue with a second season, and Rabbit Hole become the latest cancellations to come at Paramount+ and join the recently axed iCarly sequel, Star Trek: Prodigy (which found a new home at Netflix), Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, The Game and the unscripted show Queen of the Universe.
The latter four shows, in addition to being canceled, were also removed from Paramount+ as the streamer, like others, took advantage of a tax write-off. Also removed from the platform was Inside Amy Schumer, Tell Me a Story and scores of originals from Nickelodeon.
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