Universal and Focus Features have found a screenwriter to adapt popular, faux-respectable porn novel Fifty Shades Of Grey for the big screen in the form of Kelly Marcel.
What’s interesting is that neither of the two things that are on Marcel’s resume really point to her as a person best suited for this material. She landed on last year’s Black List with Saving Mr. Banks, a dramatization of how studio head Walt Disney managed to convince reluctant author P. L. Travers to allow him to adapt her popular Mary Poppins books into film. The second is a co-creator credit on last season’s dinosaurs and time travelers adventure series Terra Nova.
Now I have not read Fifty Shades Of Grey in full, though I have skimmed a few chapters at the bookstore, but I have seen a number of Terra Firma episodes and have read the screenplay for Saving Mr. Banks. I don’t recall seeing anything that would suggest it was material similar to either thing she has worked on before.
So why Marcel? Well, according to producer Michael De Luca in a press release, “Kelly’s work demonstrates her flawless structural technique and passionate commitment to emotion, humor and depth of character which is particularly visible in the celebrated screenplay for the upcoming Saving Mr. Banks.”
I’ll take his word for it.
