Niall Leonard will be writing the screenplay to Fifty Shades Of Grey follow-up, Fifty Shades Darker...
With over a half a billion dollars banked from this year's Fifty Shades Of Grey movie, it's surprising that it's taken Universal Pictures so long to get moving on the second book of E.L. James' trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker. But, as you probably know, things haven't really been too straightforward.
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who was signed up to direct the entire trilogy of Fifty Shadesfilms, quit the sequel. It had been little secret that she and E.L. James didn't exactly see eye to eye, and given that James has creative sign-off over the movies, it was a fight that ultimately only one person could win.
Also not returning is screenwriter Kelly Marcel. And the report had been that James herself was to have a go at penning the script for Fifty Shades Darker.
As it turns out, that's not the case. Instead, the job has gone to Niall Leonard, who's CV includes TV shows such as Monarch Of The Glen, Wire In The Blood and Wild At Heart. He also directed the 1994 TV series The Tomorrow People.
However, no matter what's on his resume, the suspicion will be that he's got the job based on the fact that he's in fact married to E.L. James. And we guess the only way to prove that wrong will be to do a standout job on the Fifty Shades Darker script. Turns out he did some uncredited script work on the Fifty Shades Of Grey screenplay too, by the way.
We suspect the new film won't be ready now until 2017. And there's the small matter of finding a new director, too...
THR.
