Lizzy Caplan is not going to be ignored.
The “Mean Girls” and “Party Down” alum is dismantling the facade of suburban marital bliss one TV series at a time, starting with Hulu’s dark satire “Fleishman Is in Trouble” and culminating in the highly anticipated Paramount+ reboot of “Fatal Attraction.”
Caplan stars as Alex, a career-focused woman who begins an affair with married businessman Dan, played by Joshua Jackson. Alex’s mental state slowly unravels as she claws her way deeper into Dan’s life. Glenn Close and Michael Douglas originally starred in the 1987 film, helmed by Adrian Lyne.
However, the Paramount+ series led by showrunner, writer, and executive producer Alexandra Cunningham (“Dirty John”) will have a different take on the psychosexual affair.
“The screenwriter of the film James Dearden said, to him the character of Alex Forrest is not a study in madness, but rather a sad, tragic, lonely woman under pressure from a really hard job,” Cunningham told Deadline. “As a frequently sad, not at all tragic, and not as lonely as I wish I was but under pressure from a really hard job, I wanted us to go in a slightly different direction. This reimagining of ‘Fatal Attraction’ shares a lot with the iconic original film, but it also is about entitlement and midlife crisis and how some of the sausage gets made in our broken justice system, as well as Cluster B personality disorders, isolation, of fathers and daughters, and murder.”
Cunningham continued, “It’s about how some people just can’t take a win. It’s about self-image and what we’ll do to protect it and also what happens when someone doesn’t have one. And if we’ve done our job, which these actors and their colleagues definitely did, they think that your sympathies will shift more than once.”
Lead star Caplan previously reflected on the film’s audiences vilifying Alex from a “1980s perspective — this amazing guy makes one mistake and now this horrible woman is trying to ruin his life.”
Caplan added, “It really shows how far we have come. I don’t think that we’ve arrived at any finish line in terms of everything that’s happened with #MeToo and what that set in motion,. But the idea that you could never make the 1980s version of this now, shows some degree of progress. I think when they’re at their best, that’s what the reboot would do and hopefully our show does that.”
The ensemble cast is rounded out by Amanda Peet who plays Dan’s wife Beth, Alyssa Jirrels as Dan’s mother Ellen, Toby Huss as Mike Gerard, Reno Wilson as Detective Earl Booker, and Brian Goodman as Arthur Tomlinson.
Screenwriter Kevin J. Hynes, Darryl Frank, and Justin Falvey executive produce for Amblin Television. Silver Tree directs five episodes of the series and also executive produces.
“Fatal Attraction” premieres April 30 on Paramount+.
Check out the teaser below.
The “Mean Girls” and “Party Down” alum is dismantling the facade of suburban marital bliss one TV series at a time, starting with Hulu’s dark satire “Fleishman Is in Trouble” and culminating in the highly anticipated Paramount+ reboot of “Fatal Attraction.”
Caplan stars as Alex, a career-focused woman who begins an affair with married businessman Dan, played by Joshua Jackson. Alex’s mental state slowly unravels as she claws her way deeper into Dan’s life. Glenn Close and Michael Douglas originally starred in the 1987 film, helmed by Adrian Lyne.
However, the Paramount+ series led by showrunner, writer, and executive producer Alexandra Cunningham (“Dirty John”) will have a different take on the psychosexual affair.
“The screenwriter of the film James Dearden said, to him the character of Alex Forrest is not a study in madness, but rather a sad, tragic, lonely woman under pressure from a really hard job,” Cunningham told Deadline. “As a frequently sad, not at all tragic, and not as lonely as I wish I was but under pressure from a really hard job, I wanted us to go in a slightly different direction. This reimagining of ‘Fatal Attraction’ shares a lot with the iconic original film, but it also is about entitlement and midlife crisis and how some of the sausage gets made in our broken justice system, as well as Cluster B personality disorders, isolation, of fathers and daughters, and murder.”
Cunningham continued, “It’s about how some people just can’t take a win. It’s about self-image and what we’ll do to protect it and also what happens when someone doesn’t have one. And if we’ve done our job, which these actors and their colleagues definitely did, they think that your sympathies will shift more than once.”
Lead star Caplan previously reflected on the film’s audiences vilifying Alex from a “1980s perspective — this amazing guy makes one mistake and now this horrible woman is trying to ruin his life.”
Caplan added, “It really shows how far we have come. I don’t think that we’ve arrived at any finish line in terms of everything that’s happened with #MeToo and what that set in motion,. But the idea that you could never make the 1980s version of this now, shows some degree of progress. I think when they’re at their best, that’s what the reboot would do and hopefully our show does that.”
The ensemble cast is rounded out by Amanda Peet who plays Dan’s wife Beth, Alyssa Jirrels as Dan’s mother Ellen, Toby Huss as Mike Gerard, Reno Wilson as Detective Earl Booker, and Brian Goodman as Arthur Tomlinson.
Screenwriter Kevin J. Hynes, Darryl Frank, and Justin Falvey executive produce for Amblin Television. Silver Tree directs five episodes of the series and also executive produces.
“Fatal Attraction” premieres April 30 on Paramount+.
Check out the teaser below.