Landing somewhere between those romance novels read by sexually unfulfilled women and the childish yearning of the Twilight series, Fifty Shades of Grey started out ridiculously small but has grown to have the entire trilogy sitting atop the New York Times Bestseller list. So it was only a matter of time before studios started slugging it out to secure the erotic thriller's movie rights, ultimately landing with Universal and Focus Features who go in on a joint venture, according to Deadline.
Written by author E. L. James, who began it as a Twilight fan-fiction, Fifty Shades of Grey was initially published as an e-book and print-on-demand title by small Aussie publisher, The Writers' Coffee, and was an instant smash. Soon it was burning up Amazon's Kindle charts, with plenty of bored wives I'm sure sneaking in some "mommy time" to read it on the sly while the kids are asleep and daddy's watching the game. The rights to re-publish the series was recently picked up by Vintage Books, with the first to begin next month.
The story sounds a little like the erotic comedy, Secretary, if it were done by Bret Easton Ellis. Anastasia Steele is a recent college grad who enters in a sexual relationship with manipulative 27-year old billionaire, Christian Grey. He basically forces her to sign over control of her life to him, giving in to his every desire and whim, which she learns can be sadistic and destructive. The other two books in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, further chronicle their deepening relationship.
It's hard to say whether or not this is a huge gamble for either studio without knowing the particulars of the deal(the rumor is $3M), but movies surrounding BDSM relationships are rare and when they do get made don't fare well at the box office. Those didn't have nearly the buzz Fifty Shades of Grey has, so this might be the exception.
