CRUEL INTENTIONS: NBC Pilot Cast Options Extended

NBC‘s Cruel Intentions pilot cast options extended. Although NBC’s television adaptation of Cruel Intentions (1999) was not picked up to series in May, the pilot cast’s options have all been extended. NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt explained that the pilot’s genre makes it an “outlier” in relation to other NBC shows, but the network remains interested in the story- and other networks are interested as well.

Cruel Intentions (1999) starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as Kathryn Merteuil, Ryan Phillippe as Sebastian Valmont, Reese Witherspoon as Annette Hargrove, and Selma Blair as Cecile Caldwell. In the film Kathryn makes Sebastian a bet that he can’t get Annette into bed by the end of the summer. Meanwhile, Kathryn takes revenge on the naive Cecile for dating Kathryn’s ex-boyfriend.

Set over 15 years after the events of the movie, the Cruel Intentions pilot follows Bash Casey (Taylor John Smith), son of the late Sebastian Valmont and Annette Hargrove (Kate Levering). Bash doesn’t know much about his father’s past until he finds an old journal which reveals his father’s true colors. Sarah Michelle Gellar reprises her role as Kathryn Merteuil, and Peter Gallagher joins as Edward Valmont, another rich and questionable source of power in the family.

Because the cast’s options have been extended, NBC continues to hold the rights to the show as it makes decisions about what to do with it. The possibility exists of a summer 2017 debut, or even of other channels or streaming services buying the rights to the series. The pilot was written by Jordan Ross and Lindsey Rosin, directed by Roger Kumble, and produced by Sony Television.

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