After 25 years, several direct-to-video sequels and a failed pilot, a new generation is getting the Cruel Intentions treatment.
On Thursday, Prime Video debuted the first trailer for its series adaptation of the 1999 teen movie, all eight episodes premiering Nov. 21 on the streamer, bringing a familiar tale of deception to a new locale with all new characters.
The trailer has some nostalgic callbacks to the hit 1999 movie, including an upbeat cover of The Verve’s ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’, a familiar black convertible and an even more familiar rosary necklace with an unholy hidden secret.
Also consistent with the original, the series features a very indecent wager between affluent stepsiblings Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lucien Valmont (Zac Burgess), who rule the Greek system at Manchester College, their Washington DC-adjacent university.
But when a hazing incident puts their charter in jeopardy, Caroline enlists Lucien’s help to get the US vice president’s daughter Annie (Savannah Lee Smith) to pledge her sorority.
“I need you to convince her in the way only you can,” she tells him, to which Lucien responds, “What’s in it for me?”
Caroline answers, “What you’ve always wanted. Me.”
Developed by Pheobe Fisher and Sara Goodman, the series also stars Sara Silva, John Harlan Kim, Khobe Clarke, Brooke Lena Johnson and Sean Patrick Thomas, who previously played Ronald in the original Cruel Intentions.
Savannah Lee Smith and Zac Burgess in Cruel Intentions. (Prime Video)
The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television, Amazon MGM Studios, and Original Film. Along with Fisher and Goodman, Neal H. Moritz and Pavun Shetty of Original Film also executive produce along with Roger Kumble. Moritz produced the original film, which was written and directed by Kumble. Bruce Mellon along with Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi of Iervolino & Bacardi Entertainment are producers.
A modern retelling of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Cruel Intentions (1999) saw Upper East Side step-siblings Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe) and Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) making a bet over whether he can get the new headmaster’s virginal daughter Annette (Reese Witherspoon) into bed.
The film was followed by Cruel Intentions 2 (2001) — originally intended to serve as the scrapped Fox prequel series Manchester Prep — and Cruel Intentions 3 (2004), which featured different actors from the original. Although NBC picked up a continuation pilot in 2015, with Gellar reprising her role as Kathryn and Kate Levering replacing Witherspoon as Annette, the series did not move forward.