Prime Video has released the first trailer for their Cruel Intentions television series, featuring plenty of references to the original film. Released in 1999, Cruel Intentions was a retelling of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, which was famously adapted in 1988 as the film Dangerous Liaisons. Cruel Intentions, however, moves the setting to a wealthy high school in New York City and stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair, all of which are still big names today. The movie is so popular it even got a theatrical re-release in 2019 to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
The first trailer for Cruel Intentions has been released, confirming the series premiere date for November 21, 2024. The trailer features plenty of callbacks to the original 1999 film, from recreating the iconic same-sex kiss to a cover of the Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony,” which famously played in the film’s ending scene. The series looks to keep the same premise of the original, with the characters’ names changed as the step-siblings are now Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess). However, notably, it does feature a more explicit sexual dynamic between step-siblings, which was only alluded to in the original film.
Cruel Intentions was originally developed for Amazon Freevee when it was announced in 2021, but in 2023, it was moved to Prime Video. Phoebe Fisher and Sara Goodman will serve as the series showrunners and executive producers. Cruel Intentions is the second ’90s movie starring Sarah Michelle Gellar that Fisher and Goodman brought to the small screen. Previously, the duo worked on the I Know What You Did Last Summer television show that also aired on Amazon Prime Video in 2021.
There Have Been Several Failed Attempts At Adapting Cruel Intentions To Television
The road to a Cruel Intentions television show has been a long one. After the surprise hit of the 1999 film, a prequel television series named Manchester Prep was ordered by Fox but was canceled before it was broadcast, while the two finished episodes were reworked into a direct-to-video sequel, Cruel Intentions 2, in 2000 and later followed by Cruel Intentions 3 in 2004. In 2016, NBC ordered a pilot for another attempt at the Cruel Intentions television series. This series would have been a continuation of the 1999 film and would have seen Sarah Michelle Gellar reprise her role as Kathryn Merteuil. NBC passed on the pilot. Finally, Cruel Intentions returns eight years after the last television attempt and 25 years since the original film.
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Cruel Intentions is the latest in many films about bullying that have been reimagined into television shows. There was the infamous attempt to reboot Heathers as a television show in 2018 that was surrounded by controversy. It was recently confirmed that Mike Flannagin would be developing a Carrie limited series based on the Stephen King novel, which was previously adapted into a movie in both 1976 and 2013. Cruel Intentions looks to be giving the surface-level updates needed for the series, but whether it will be able to capture a young generation the same way that the original film did back in 1999 remains to be seen.