E L James apparently wants to exercise her creative control over the next Fifty Shades film by taking over screenplay duties.
NewsNot withstanding the fact that the film has been a monster success, earning over a quarter of a billion dollars in a matter of days, things clearly haven't been that much fun behind the scenes of Fifty Shades Of Grey. Earlier this week, we learned that director Sam Taylor-Johnson is very unlikely to return to direct the sequel,Fifty Shades: Darker, that Universal is obviously very keen to press ahead with. Furthermore, original screenwriter Kelly Marcel won't be back either, having been entirely absent for the recent press tour.
It's no rumour to say that Taylor-Johnson and E L James didn't see eye to eye on the screen adaptation ofFifty Shades Of Grey. Both have admitted as such. James wanted the film to be very faithful to the book, Taylor-Johnson was keen to put a cinematic spin on it. And now, having got creative control over the movies as part of her contract, Variety is reporting that E L James is wanted to write the Fifty Shades: Darkerscreenplay herself.
Now, opinions on the quality of James' writing are clearly widely available, but one consequence of the assorted debates behind the scenes is that Universal's plan to get the next film ready for next Valentine's Day is all but gone. Production is now unlikely to start until early next year, with a release for Valentine's Day 2017 not unlikely.
The Variety report comes with the headline that E L James "demands" control over the script for the sequel, and clearly she's not being painted in the most positive of lights here. We wait and see how all this pans out, but it promises to have ramifications for the levels of control movie studios give to the authors of books they're adapting.
Meanwhile, as is tradition, let's plug another film while we talk Fifty Shades Of Grey....
