After nearly a year of hot and heavy anticipation, the Cruel Intentions reboot that we didn’t think we wanted until we really, really did is officially dead in the water.
Deadline reports that the series in its current incarnation is officially dead, but rumors abound that Sony TV might reinvigorate the concept, breathing new life into what sounded like a truly terrible plot. For your reference, here is that plot.
Based on the 1999 cult movie, Cruel Intentions was set in present day and picks up more than 15 years after the film left off. Kathryn Merteuil (Gellar) vies for control of Valmont International as well as the soul of Bash Casey, the son of her late brother, 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.
In November, NBC completely turned down the series and now, a month later, it is no longer moving forward, at least on network television. A show about teenagers scheming to bring each other down a peg via emotional manipulation and sexy sex times doesn’t quite sound like NBC’s cup of tea, but that’s just one woman’s take.
However, there’s still hope: if the creators of this truly ridiculous premise are willing to, uh, retool the concept a little, there may be “interest in a new take on the premise.”
Considering that the plot of the now-dead reboot sounds like what would happen if you mixed peak Gossip Girl with a dash of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where they find the diary in the bathroom with Moaning Myrtle, I’m somehow not surprised.
DISCUSSION
The only reboot I want to see is one where we redo the story so that Kathryn Merteuil wins. Who watches Cruel Intentions and roots for Annette? Or likes Sebastian better when he’s less of a bastard? Surely 6 seasons of Gossip Girl should have taught TV execs that while people may come for the Serenas, Nates and Dans of teen dramas, we stay for the Blairs and Chucks.