Basic Instinct earned Academy Award nominations for its editing and original score at the time. In the 1990s, the film courted controversy for its depiction of an LGBTQ+ character as a dangerous killer at the tail end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and for its onscreen female nudity during the famous interrogation scene.

"Basic Instinct" writer Joe Eszterhas is writing an "anti-woke" reboot of the film for Amazon MGM, with Sharon Stone expected to return.

Basic Instinct (1992) writer Joe Eszterhas is returning to pen a not-yet-titled reboot of the Paul Verhoeven-helmed box office hit, which starred Michael Douglas as Detective Nick Curran and Sharon Stone as his case’s seductive prime suspect Catherine Tramell, a manipulative crime novelist.