genevieverosen
Tuesday 10 Jul 2012 - 2:00 PM

‘Social Network’ does ‘50 Shades of Grey’

I'm not usually one to hate on popular culture. I'm shamelessly mainstream and my take on low-brow movements has always been 'it's popular for a reason'. But really, even for me 50 Shades of Grey is pushing it. And trust me, as an avid conformist I've tried my absolute hardest to jump on the BDSM bandwagon. The reason I'm not keen for crop is not because of what 50 Shades may represent to feminism, or the way the book reassociates this strand of culture with abused, psychopathic characters, or even the fact that the books are literally glorified pieces of Twilight fan fiction. In fact, I could even look past how poorly written the trilogy is (very poorly) because I worked for a while as an English tutor, and in my time have been exposed to some serious illiteracy.

Anyway, the reason I can’t fixate over a trilogy based on Christian Grey, a 27-year-old billionaire’s relationship with meek college student Anastasia Steele is because, TBH, the book is beyond boring. BEYOND. I actually couldn’t force myself to endure any more incoherence about lip-biting and ponder over the intermittent use of the word ‘fuck’ any longer. iBooks, you may have taken my money but you won’t steal any more of my time.

Moving along, news this morning broke that Universal Pictures and Focus Features – who snapped up the film rights to the series quick smart – have announced that Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti, who produced The Social Network, will produce the first film instalment alongside author E.L. James.

With 31 million e-book and print copies sold of the books worldwide (just take a moment to comprehend how many people have read the story) there will undoubtedly be many zealous fans critiquing the movie’s every scene. Producing the film also poses the challenge of 'proving' the story's validity to those to those who found it hard to relate to falling in love with a brooding billionaire/ those who never bothered to pick up a copy of the 'mummy porn'.

Of choosing Luca (Moneyball) and Brunetti, who also worked together on Captain Phillips, Universal Pictures Co-chairman, Donna Langley said: “At its core, Fifty Shades of Grey is a complex love story, requiring a delicate and sophisticated hand to bring it to the big screen. Mike and Dana’s credits more than exemplify what we need in creative partners and we’re glad to have them as part of our team.”

E.L. James herself echoed these sentiments, saying she was “thrilled that Mike has joined Team Fifty. He brings a passion and in-depth understanding of the characters and story, and a wealth of experience in making quality films.”

As far as 50 Shades goes, quality may be stretching it, but hopefully this will be one of the few scenarios where the movie actually beats the book.

Now, back to those rumours about casting Angelina as the lead.