‘Cruel Intentions’ TV Show on Freevee: What We Know

A television series based on the 1999 hit film Cruel Intentions is finally coming to fruition thanks to Amazon Studios. Production on the eight-episode first season is set to start in June in Toronto. The original film starred Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Hollywood has tried to make a series based on the movie for years. 

The new series was put in development for Freevee, Amazon’s free streaming service. However, sources told TVLine that it could be moved to Prime Video, which Amazon Prime subscribers pay to access. Reps for Freevee and Prime Video did not comment. Sony Pictures Television and Original Film are teaming up with Amazon Studios to produce. No casting has been announced, and the writers’ strike could delay the project.

Cruel Intentions was written and directed by Roger Kumble as a modern take on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ novel Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) set in New York City, among rich high school students. Gellar and Phillippe played step-siblings Kathryn Merteuil and Sebastian Valmont, who wagered on Sebastian’s attempts to seduce Annette Hargrove (Witherspoon), the daughter of the head of their prep school. Selma Blair also starred. The movie was a box office success, grossing $75.9 million.

The new Amazon version will shift the setting to Washington, D.C. There, a brutal hazing incident threatens all of Greek Life at an elite college. Two ruthless step-siblings will do anything to preserve their reputations and keep the system going, even if it means seducing the vice president’s daughter. Phoebe Fisher (Euphoria) and Sara Goodman (Gossip Girl) are writing the pilot. Neal H. Moritz, who produced the original film, is one of the executive producers.

The first attempt to bring Cruel Intentions to television started the same year the movie came out. In 1999, Fox ordered a prequel series called Manchester Prep. Although the show never aired, the already-produced episodes were edited together and released as the direct-to-video movie Cruel Intentions 2 in 2001. (A direct-to-video sequel titled Cruel Intentions 3, with no connection to the previous films, was released in 2004.)

In 2016, NBC ordered a pilot set 16 years after the original film, with Gellar returning as Kathryn. NBC did not give the project a series order, and no other network saved it. Amazon began developing its take in October 2021.

In October 2022, Gellar told The New York Times she was “grateful” the NBC project was scrapped because she felt a Cruel Intentions series belonged on a streaming platform instead of broadcast television. “[It was] not a good fit [for NBC],” she told the Times, “I don’t know. That was a whole crazy time. Nothing against NBC, but Cruel Intentions is straight streaming. On the first day, I was like, ‘This isn’t working.’ It’s just not a network show. And if it is a network show, it’s not my Cruel Intentions. So, I was actually grateful.”