The bunny boiler bites back in Fatal Attraction remake

FATAL ATTRACTION is to get a ‘woke’ makeover – told from the bunny boiler’s point of view.

The reboot of the gripping tale of an unfaithful husband and his vengeful lover that shocked audiences 35 years ago may not even feature the grisly demise of a pet rabbit.

The 1987 movie starred Glenn Close and Michael Douglas as the ill-fated lovers, obsessive Alex Forrest and New York lawyer Dan Gallagher, played in the TV remake by Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson.

When Fatal Attraction returns next year in eight one-hour episodes on Paramount+, it will be the abusive husband’s callous disregard for his vulnerable lover that is the focus of the #MeToo-influenced update.

‘It will explore fatal attraction and the timeless themes of marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes towards strong women, personality disorders, and coercive control,’ the streaming service said.

Scenes filmed in Los Angeles earlier this year, in which Jackson’s character runs along a beach with his golden retriever, have also sparked speculation that Dan’s dog could replace his daughter’s bunny as the victim of Alex’s wrath.

Ms Caplan, who made her name in 2004’s Mean Girls, says the updated version ‘shows some degree of progress’, adding: ‘You could never make the 1980s version of this now.’

While the original focused on Alex Forrest’s vengeful mania, the remake looks at Dan Gallagher’s callous mistreatment and ‘ghosting’ of a damaged woman he uses and dumps.

‘The original movie is still great,’ Ms Caplan told Grazia USA. ‘It’s still scary, and makes you ask big questions.

‘But audiences saw it through a 1980s perspective – this amazing guy makes one mistake and this horrible woman is trying to ruin his life.’

Paramount+ executive Nicole Clemens says the story ‘has thus far only been told from the male gaze’. The remake, she adds, ‘will bring the next explosive chapter of this story to a new generation, with a balanced eye to the complexities of the human psyche’.

Producers may also revive the alternative ending, filmed for the original but scrapped, in which Alex slashes her throat and bleeds to death to frame Dan for her murder.

Glenn Close hated the film’s ending, which painted Alex as a psychopath, telling interviewers: ‘I was playing a disturbed, fragile human being, whom I had grown to love.’