You can’t just put the book on the screen.” She was given a lot of power but had never been through a movie shoot.” James “just didn’t seem to grasp that in all adaptations, some things need to change. The problem, says another source with ties to the project, was that “EL is just not experienced. “She will not allow herself to be rewritten, even if it’s ‘and’ or ‘but,’ ” says a rep with ties to the project. Insiders say James would not brook changes. Banks), but there was a polish by Patrick Marber ( Notes on a Scandal, Closer). James worked on a script with Kelly Marcel ( Saving Mr. “It was really challenging to control EL’s - I don’t want to say ‘crazy’ but - impulsive instincts.” “She was given a lot of power, and she used every opportunity to flex that power,” says one insider. It was a bit much.”īut James had the whip hand, so to speak. “The negotiation of who’s dominant and who’s submissive is throughout the book, and we can see where that came from,” says another source with ties to the project. James is said to have pressed for more explicit sex, while Taylor-Johnson pushed for a more subtle approach. Her approach won the backing of Johnson and Dornan, who “loved and embraced Sam and were on Sam’s side 99 out of 100, if not 100 out of 100 times,” says one source on the film. Sources with ties to the film, which cost about $40 million, say Taylor-Johnson was striving to make a movie that would be better than audiences might expect (her last movie was 2009’s Nowhere Boy).

Producer Michael De Luca, who won’t be back for sequels as he joined Columbia in December 2013, has said that James saw herself as “the keeper of the flame” for her fans. I think both of us felt it was an incredibly painful process.” “She would be the first to say as well that it was not easy. “We’d often clash and have to find a way to work through that to get to some sort of resolution,” says Taylor-Johnson. Taylor-Johnson tells THR that “pretty much throughout the whole process of everything,” James was “incredibly vocal” and protective. In the March 2012 auction for the red-hot property, Universal gave James, whose real name is Erika Leonard, unprecedented control over everything from casting and wardrobe to dialogue. So far, sources say there have been no discussions on her returning.

While Johnson and Dornan are booked for a three-peat, Taylor-Johnson, 47, only signed on for one film. With the first installment of a hoped-for trilogy set to open at $60 million or more over Valentine’s Day weekend, insiders say the director - to whom stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan are said to be loyal - likely will not return for a rematch. From Timothée Chalamet and Daniel Kaluuya to Lupita Nyong'o and Jared Leto, a Field Guide to Awards Season BFFsįor director Sam Taylor-Johnson, the making of Fifty Shades of Grey seems to have been like a protracted visit to the Red Room of Pain as she battled constant conflict with 51-year-old author EL James.

The mister el james sequel