Have They Found The Wright Director For 50 SHADES OF GREY?

I will never read E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey (or is it Fifty Shades of Grey).

Life’s too short to read soft-core porn that started out as Twilight fan-fiction. That’s no slight at soft-core porn, but it is at Twilight fan-fiction and/or anyone that wants to turn that sort of hobby writing into a book. Think about it, a middle-aged woman decided to sit down to write the continuing adventures of Edward and Bella, added an extra bit of S&M for her own pleasure – then it was sold and published as a novel. I know people who work their ass off at proper writing and somehow that comes to fruition? It rubs me up the wrong way. But that’s probably not a sentence to write when talking about Fifty Shades of Grey.

Anyway, on to the news about the film adaptation (which I might watch), as it may have found a director.

Joe Wright, the director of such critically acclaimed fare as Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Anna Karenina and Hanna is, apparently “the man” for the job. This is an odd move for the director, who is something of an auteur and can pretty much pick and choose his projects. I presume he’ll make this before his Houdini feature.

This news broke via Variety, but what’s interesting is that they mention that Patty Jenkins, Bill Condon, Bennett Miller, Gus Van Sant and Steven Soderbergh were all in the running to direct the movie. Seriously? Condon I can see, as he sold his soul to the Twilight franchise, while Soderbergh would probably do it for kicks. But Van Sant? Miller?

50 Shades of Grey is pretty much a sure-fire hit, despite it potentially having an NC-17, so it will give whoever directs it a certain amount of creative leverage. Chances are, 90% of the target audience don’t care who will direct the film, but they will take great interest in who is cast as Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.

That’s the way of the world.

Update: It looks like Joe Wright isn’t the man for the job after all.

Source: Variety