When authors have their work adapted for the big screen, some leave it to the filmmakers to their execute their vision, while others are protective, watching every step of the development and production process to ensure the story is told correctly. The latter scenario was E.L. James‘ approach for “Fifty Shades Of Grey,” leading to some head-butting between writer and director Sam Taylor-Johnson.
“It was difficult, I’m not going to lie,” the director told Porter magazine. “We definitely fought, but they were creative fights, and we would resolve them. We would have proper on-set ‘barneys,’ and I’m not confrontational, but it was about finding a way between the two of us, satisfying her vision of what she’d written as well as my need to visualize this person onscreen, but, you know, we got there.” It seems there was one key battle in which James prevailed over Taylor-Johnson. **Spoilers ahead**
THR reports that James won the battle for the last word in the movie. In the first draft of the script by Kelly Marcel (“Saving Mr. Banks“) co-written with James, the movie ends on the word “stop.” However, in a rewrite by Patrick Marber (“Notes On A Scandal“), he opted for “red,” which is the sexytimes safe word used by Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. Guess which one James preferred? Yep, she battled with Taylor-Johnson, and got her way —the movie ends on “stop.”
But whatever the last word is won’t matter if everything in front of it doesn’t work. And today comes yet another awkward clip from the film, a brief breakfast scene where pancakes get sexy. Infinitely more entertaining is “Saturday Night Live” star Vanessa Bayer‘s hilarious parody video of the elevator scene, and to cap things off, someone has made an inevitable Lego version of the trailer. Check each out below.
“Fifty Shades Of Grey” says “stop” on February 13th.