‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Sequel To Be Written By E.L. James' Husband
Fifty Shades of Greymade crazy money at home and internationally, but that doesn’t mean the creation of a sequel is an easy task. There’s already source material, in the form of the novelFifty Shades Darker, byE.L. James. But the first film’s screenwriter and director, Kelly Marcel and Sam Taylor-Johnson, will not return for the second movie. Reportedly, that is in part due to clashes with James. Furthermore, there have been reports that James was lobbying to script the sequel herself.
Now the producers and Universal have a new solution to the50 Shadessequel script problem. It will be written byNiall Leonard, an author with TV and film experience. He even contributed to theFifty Shades of Greyscript. And he happens to be E.L. James' husband.
THR, in its report, notes that Leonard is the author of theCrusherbook series, and has written for UK TV showsAir Force One Is DownandWire in the Blood.
ProducerMichael De Lucasaid, “Niall is an outstanding writer in his own right, with multiple established credits, and we are lucky to have him join Team Fifty.”
Given that James was reportedly lobbying to script the sequel, this seems like a pretty obvious ploy to remain in control of the script while still having an established writer take a crack at it. (James has not scripted anything before, and isn’t exactly known for the strength of her prose, either. Not that prose ability and screenwriting necessarily intersect.)
Many of the things that madeFifty Shades of Greywork on screen were changes from James' original novel — changes that, in part, she was reportedly not happy about. With this arrangement in place, we can likely expect that the sequel film will stick closer to the book, which could mean a more insane film, for better or worse.
