Turning a best-selling novel into a movie adaptation is a conundrum of all sorts - fun, exciting and challenging. E.L. James' novel series, "Fifty Shades," became one of the most popular movie adaptations in Hollywood history, kicking off with "Fifty Shades of Grey." The movie was directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, who worked on several films like "Love You More" and "Nowhere Boy." While the movie adaptation was generally a success, recent reports from People revealed that Sam Taylor-Johnson wouldn't direct "Fifty Shades" if given the chance to do it again.
Her statement has sparked speculations that she and E.L. James may have had a misunderstanding while working on the movie.
According to People, Sam Taylor-Johnson was greatly interested in working on "Fifty Shades" because she viewed it as a very interesting project: something like a "dysfunctional fairy tale." However, when it was time to work on the project, Taylor-Johnson realized that her vision was different from the series writer, E.L. James.
Unusual level of creative control
While Sam Taylor-Johnson was grateful to the studio for giving her a long leash and an unusual level of creative control, she reportedly couldn't maximize her creative juices because her ideas weren't in sync with that of E.L.
James.
Director Taylor-Johnson was also very hands-on with the movie adaptation, making sure that her inputs were also considered. That said, there was clearly a dilemma while making "Fifty Shades Of Grey," as the director and the writer were in disagreement most of the time.
Reason for dropping the sequels
With Sam Taylor-Johnson and E.L.
James not seeing eye to eye, it was expected that Sam would not be working on the sequels. For the "Fifty Shades Darker" movie, James Foley took over the directorial reins.
The "Fifty Shades Of Grey" director admitted that her vision and E.L. James' vision were complete opposites and that every scene in the movie was literally fought over.
She even went on to describe the working relationship that she and E.L. James had on the set as something like wading uphill through sticky tar.
E.L. James reportedly had a different mindset and ideas of how they could meet the expectations of fans by creating scenes from the book. Meanwhile, Taylor-Johnson wanted to do the same but with a different approach, like creating a whole new universe, subtly trying to steer away from what was literally written in the book.
