Screenwriter Kelly Marcel hasn't yet seen the Fifty Shades Of Grey movie, as she lifts the lid on the behind the scenes creative problems.
NewsIt's a shame that there was nobody behind the scenes of the Fifty Shades Of Grey movie, who could put together a definitive account of just what happened. From what most of us have pieced together, the book's author, E L James, was given creative control and chose to use it. She and director Sam Taylor-Johnson didn't see eye to eye, resulting in the latter opting out of directing the sequels. Furthermore, original screenwriter Kelly Marcel had many of her key suggestions nixed.
Now, chatting to Bret Easton Ellis' podcast, Marcel has opened up a little on the film, and revealed that she's chosen not to see the movie. "My heart really was broken by that process, I really mean it," she said. "I don’t say it out of any kind of bitterness or anger or anything like that. I just don’t feel like I can watch it without feeling some pain about how different it is to what I initially wrote."
Marcel's take on the story was to be non-linear. "I wanted it to begin at the end of the film, and for us to meet in the middle. So you start with the spanking, and you have these sort of flashes that go throughout the film."
Furthermore, "I wanted to take the inner goddess out, and all of Ana's inner monologue. I wanted to remove a lot of the dialogue. I felt it could be a really sexy film if there wasn't so much talking in it."
So what happened? You can probably guess. Marcel turned in her screenplay, and Universal initially was open to her changes. However, "when I delivered that script was when I realised that all of them saying 'yeah, absolutely this is what we want' and 'you can write anything you like and get crazy and artistic with it' - that was utter, utter bullshit. Rightly so."
James was against Marcel's changes (although we should be clear that Marcel's not badmouthing James in the interview), arguing that "this isn't what I want it to be, and I don't think this is the film that fans are longing for." As James had the control, Marcel's changes were dropped.
The film did go on to make over $560m at the global box office. E L James' husband, Niall Leonard, has been hired to write Fifty Shades Darker, which is due in 2017.
