Deadline is reporting that the hotly anticipated Fifty Shades Of Grey film adaptation has finally found its writer in Kelly Marcel. Universal and Focus Features offered her the job based on her script for Saving Mr. Banks, which is currently set up at Disney with Tom Hanks attached.
Marcel beat out Veena Sud, Karen Corner and Dan Fogelman for the job, which to me at least, is more than a bit surprising.
The E.L. James novel that has sold 32 million copies in the U.S., has been a hot project in Hollywood for a while now, with many authors pursuing it. Though Marcel isn’t exactly the big name that many thought would be attached to a project like this, her work on Saving Mr. Banks apparently showed “an emotional maturity and grace that made the principals believe she was the right choice to write a script that is tricky.”
Aside from Saving Mr. Banks, Marcel was a writer on the TV show Terra Nova. Having only seen one or two episodes of that show, and with Saving Mr. Banks still filming, I can’t say I’m too familiar with Marcel’s work. Then again, I haven’t read Fifty Shades of Grey either, though I am familiar with its plot and content.
Either way, this news doesn’t do much for me. I don’t exactly have high hopes for the film and I fully expect it to be a wholly terrible movie that gives Universal a big fat paycheque thanks to its loyal fanbase of 40-something year old mothers.
Are you happy with who Universal chose to write Fifty Shades of Grey? Is there someone else you had in mind the job? Let us know in the comments.
