Fifty Shades of Grey may have gone on to whip up (pun intended) $570M worldwide but the provocative film went through one Hellish production process. Author E.L. James couldn't keep her nose out of the directors' business, and stars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson didn't get along, either. It took a bit of wrangling to appease James enough to get the sequels moving, like hiring her husband to write the screenplays, and now they've found a director who tie up the trilogy in the quickest way possible.
After his name emerged on a short list of potential directors, James Foley (Glengary Glen Ross) has been hired to direct both Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, which he'll shoot back-to-back. Why take that approach? Well, when your stars don't like one another and the author is a constant hurdle it's probably best for Universal to just get everything over with. Plus it keeps down the production costs, which is important for a special effects juggernaut like 'Fifty Shades'.
Fifty Shades Darker opens February 10, 2017 with Fifty Shades Freed arriving on February 9, 2018
