E.L. James wants more control over Fifty Shades of Grey sequel
Coming as no surprise to anyone, Fifty Shades of Grey has been a huge commercial success. The past week has seen the movie, based on the erotic novel by the same name, gross over$100,000,000 in the US alone, and over $300,000,000 worldwide. As such, it was only a matter of time before author E.L. James, who wrote Fifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels, began demanding to pen the screenplay for the next movie, what we can only presume will also be called Fifty Shades Darker like its literary counterpart.
Variety reports that production on the movie sequel has been halted due to the rumour that Universal and James are battling it out over creative grounds – and while it looks like Sam Taylor-Johnson, who directed the first movie, and Kelly Marcel, who was screenwriter, won’t be returning, the movie is still going ahead with a different team. It’s quite rare that an author can have such creative control over their work – but E.L. James did bide her time when movie studios came knocking on her door wanting to buy the rights to her books. Fifty Shades Darker will most likely land a little later than planned, now that James apparently wants to adapt her own book – or at the very least, have more say in how it turns out – but expect it to be a massive box office hit regardless.