The revelation that E.L. James’ infamous trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey is due to hit cinema screens in the summer of 2014 has been met by many with eye-roll inducing contempt. The books, renowned for the poor quality of their writing and for featuring as titillating additions to the book clubs of middle aged housewives, are expected to become exponentially more irritating on screen. Irritating because, whether we want to or not, we must begrudgingly admit that Fifty Shades is a phenomenon. Since its publication in 2011, the controversial erotic fiction series has captured the public imagination, as well as the imagination of those who want to check out HD porn movies online. It has sold 70 million copies in 37 countries and is the fastest selling paperback in history.
It has caused controversy, incited discussion, and inspired numerous parodies, you could probably find some at websites similar to shemale hd sex. It is very hard to be a member of the English speaking world today and not be aware of the existence of Fifty Shades of Grey. A film version seems gratuitous – surely, the book has impinged on our daily lives enough. Bringing the book to screen is only going to be cruel and torturous for all of us that will have to hear about it.
The situation, however, is less hopeless than one would think. It’s not an immediate write-off for multiple reasons – the first being the people tipped to be involved in the 2014 production. In what Hollywood Reporter dubbed a “director derby”, many threw their hats into the ring to spearhead the project. Among those said to be considered were Steven Soderbergh, Gus van Sant and Joe Wright. However, the job was ultimately awarded to Sam-Taylor-Wood, most notable for directing the 2009 John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy. This may raise some eyebrows, as these are all people with decent reputations, and so their attraction to Fifty Shades of Grey is curious. A cynic could say that the amount of money the Fifty Shades trilogy is expected to make is the sole draw. One can be more optimistic though, and say that these kind of people have too much self-respect to produce a film of the same low quality as Fifty Shades is as a piece of literature. The same goes for production. Trigger Street Productions, a company headed by Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti, is due to add the trilogy to their filmography, which includes The Social Network and more recently the Netflix series House of Cards. They probably would not want to bother with the film either unless they intended to do it right. Or at least, as right as it could be done.
E.L. James, while she will be involved, is not set to have a direct contribution to the screen writing process. That role instead will go to relative unknown Kelly Marcel. While she may not have quite the resume of the other aforementioned people involved, the fact that the book’s author is not penning the screenplay can inspire confidence. Marcel has remained relatively quiet on the matter of how the film will be rendered on screen, but has said one rather intriguing thing – that, in her view, the film will without a doubt be raunchy enough to earn an NC-17 rating from the MPAA.
While Universal Pictures and producer Dana Brunetti have declined to comment on this, it brings up an interesting issue. The NC-17 rating is known by many as box office poison, a death sentence even. Seldom do films given this rating get wide release as many cinemas will refuse to play them. Also, the rating itself is seen as damaging to a film’s marketability and could adversely affect box office sales. Therefore Universal will do everything in their power to avoid such a situation. How though can the film stay true to the sexual explicitness of the books while still remaining in profit-friendly R-Rating territory? It is difficult to say.
Maybe – and this is conjecture – the way to deliver on the sexual tension similar to how sites like LX Tube develops intense sexual tension that fans all over the world are anticipating without the dreaded NC-17 rating would be to make this tension more implicit and, by extension, a little classier. The suggestion of introducing class to the trilogy may seem laughable, even ridiculous, but it is not necessarily so. For however people feel about how intelligent the book is itself, it has spurned intelligent discussion. For one, Fifty Shades has been a subject of fascination for feminists – while some would see the female protagonist Anastasia Steele as blatantly anti-feminist, others have suggested that the fact that women can now openly admit to reading this book is progress. In any case, if the film could tap into this commentary it would add a new deeper dimension to the story. The film could also tap into a climate that is palpable in the world today – an age where BDSM, something once deemed ‘sexual deviancy’, is penetrating the mainstream. In the October 2013 issue of Marie Claire there was a feature documenting a trend sweeping US Ivy League colleges such as Princeton, Columbia and NYU – a surge of BDSM societies. The societies celebrate BDSM Dating and everything that comes with it. Harvard’s own BDSM club, Munch, has this year been recognised as an organisation with an official affiliation with the college. The people involved in these clubs, as well as others this way inclined, would probably speak disparagingly of Fifty Shades of Grey and its portrayal of BDSM. If the film could respond to this it could become an interesting engagement with the paradigm shift and changing attitudes towards sadomasochism.
No promises are being made here. But a film surpassing the book it is based on isn’t unheard of, and can’t entirely be ruled out in this case. By this time next year, we’ll know and up until then we can only guess. Expectations are low. Maybe they will be easier to exceed than one might think.
