Latest in E.L. James

Universal is back in business with Fifty Shades of Grey author E.L. James after her erotica novel trilogy delivered more than $1.3 billion in the global box office to the studio. Uni has just optioned James’ 2019 New York Times best-seller The Mister. The novel follows the dashing and good-looking Maxim Trevelyan, who…

They’re baaa-aaaack! Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, that is. Every year around Valentine’s Day, Universal has been shrewdly serving up another chapter of the pair’s steamy, kinky relationship, and it all comes to an end now with the third installment of the cinematic adaptation of E L James’ publishing…

It might not be in the league of The Godfather Part II or Aliens, nor should it even be spoken of in the same breath, of course, but Fifty Shades Darker manages to be a sequel that tops its predecessor simply by not taking itself very seriously and providing what the customers are there for: a good, inventive sex…

The bestselling author says that the book, to be called Grey, will be out on June 18 — fictional character Christian Grey’s birthday — and will be written from his point of view. It will allow readers the chance to get inside the head of the S&M-loving businessman, not to mention give James and her publishers Vintage…

EXCLUSIVE: Sam Taylor-Johnson has made official what many suspected. She will not return for the second installment of the film franchise adaptation of E L James’ best-selling Fifty Shades Of Grey book trilogy for Universal. In an exclusive statement to Deadline, Taylor-Johnson said: “Directing Fifty Shades Of Grey…

Not even a week since it has been released, Universal Focus Features’ BDSM romance drama Fifty Shades of Grey has eclipsed $300M worldwide. The feature adaptation of E.L. James 100M bestselling novel has hit $102.7M at the domestic B.O. with another $209M overseas raising its global haul to $311.7M. With its $85.2…

A romantic movie about BDSM opens with a weekend of $81.7M (and a four-day holiday estimate of $91.7M)? That's jarring, and it wasn't guys in raincoats taking it all in. Instead, it was the armies of female fans who made E.L. James’ novel a publishing phenomenon. One set of exit polls suggested that moviegoers took Fif…

While Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings ruffled the Christian right in its interpretation of the Moses story, it didn’t necessarily bug those in the Roman Catholic Church.  But, if there’s a film in need of a ruler whacking, it’s Fifty Shades of Grey according to one Roman Catholic Church leader. This…

Three years since its film rights were shopped around for a reported $5M, Universal Focus Features’ R-rated Fifty Shades Of Grey is finally opening in theaters in what many distrib sources expect will be a $60M opening at 3,645 theaters over four days. Universal is looking at $50M, and is also unrolling the film…

Easily the most anticipated movie to be released so far in 2015, Fifty Shades Of Grey is finally upon us. So just in time for Valentine’s Day, we have a sado-masochistic love story. Well, maybe not, but it should do wonders for sales of sex toys. And, as I say in my video review above, there’s no question this movie…

EXCLUSIVE: The coveted role of Anastasia Steele has gone to Dakota Johnson in the Universal Pictures and Focus Features adaptation of Fifty Shades Of Grey. Johnson, who is the daughter of actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, will star as the young college graduate who has a sexual awakening with Christian Grey, a…

UPDATE, 9:36 AM: Forget the trade reports that Joe Wright will be director of Fifty Shades Of Grey. His schedule doesn’t work and he’s completely out of the mix, I’ve learned. The process of choosing a director for the global blockbuster book has just begun, and all Universal can hope is that audiences get as hot and…