This is a rumor that I just kind of refuse to believe. Variety, of all publications, clams that Joe Wright is set to direct the Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation. This just boggles my mind in every way.
Joe Wright impressed me from the start when he actually created a version of Pride & Prejudice that I enjoyed. He followed that up with Atonement, made a deter to create an action movie in Hanna, and then returned to historical period pieces with the amazing visual treat Anna Karenina.
Honestly, he is four for four in my eyes with those movies.
Now, Variety wants me to believe that he is directing the adaptation of a pornographic novel that started its life as Twilight fan fiction? I don’t see what would make Wright want to make this movie at all. Universal has no comment and Deadline chipped in completely dismissing the Variety exclusive as ludicrous. Maybe this is his chance to convince Keira Knightley to get down and dirty.
Other names brought up as rumored directors for Fifty Shades of Grey were Patty Jenkins (who joined and then left Thor: The Dark World), Bill Condon (from Twilight), Bennett Miller and Gus Van Sant (seriously).
Honestly, I think that the directors thrown out to publications like Variety are just being mentioned to make the Fifty Shades of Grey project seem more serious than it ever had any right to be.
Source: Variety
