Sarah Michelle Gellar actually returning to Cruel Intentions for TV pilot episode

"That's right, 'everybody loves me, and I intend to keep it that way'; Kathryn Merteuil is back!"

You'd think the original stars of Cruel Intentions would derisorily ignore the pitched TV series take; yet Sarah Michelle Gellar has proved far more generously-hearted than the average joe.

Deadline has confirmed that, after weeks of negotiations, Gellar has actually agreed to reprise her role from the cult 1999 film for NBC's follow-up series; the star took to Instagram to make the announcement, declaring; "That's right, 'everybody loves me, and I intend to keep it that way'; Kathryn Merteuil is back!"

Gellar originally starred in Roger Kumble's modern adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' epistolatory novel Les Liaisons dangereuses; a tale of aristocratic excess intermingling the cruel love games of former lovers, the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont. Kumble returns to both write and direct the new series.

Gellar took on the role of Merteuil, with Ryan Phillippe as Valmont; Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair also starred as two of the pair's victims, Annette Hargrove and Cecile Caldwell.

The show picks up over 15 years after the events of the film; following Gellar's Merteuil in her attempts to gain control of the son of her late step-brother (Phillippe's Valmont) and Hargrove (Witherspoon), Bash Casey (Taylor John Smith). Upon discovering his father's legacy in a hidden journal, Bash is introduced to the same world of wealth, power, sex, and corruption.

The producers of The Unauthorized Musical Parody Of Cruel Intentions are also on board, their stage show having previously had the blessing of Kumble; also seeing Witherspoon, Gellar, and Blair all attend one of its performances.