Fifty Shades: the Film

Emma Watson (Harry Potter, The Perks of Being A Wallflower) has made it very clear she doesn’t want to play Anastasia Steele in the film version of the runaway bestseller of 2012, the erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey. “Who here actually thinks I would do 50 Shades of Grey as a movie? Like really. For real. In real life.” Watson tweeted to her over five million followers. “Good. Well that's that sorted then.”

The rumor started when internal documents from German studio Constantin Film were stolen and published by an online hacker collective called Anonymous. From The Hollywood Reporter:

Anonymous, together with a hacker team called M3du5a, hacked into Constantin's internal employee server and boasted about the act on Twitter. The group published online what it said were internal documents with information on films in development that Constantin is considering for acquisition. They also published a long list of email addresses of Constantin employees and business partners. 

There was little that was new in the documents Anonymous stole -- one has Emma Watson attached to star in Focus Features' upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation, confirming a widely reported rumor -- while the majority involve projects that have been announced or otherwise reported. 

But the action did illustrate how vulnerable even the biggest media companies can be to activist hackers such as Anonymous. 

Meanwhile, we still don’t know who will take any of the roles when Fifty Shades of Grey comes to the screen, or even when it will. In fact, the IMDB listing for the film is still pretty sketchy. Some attached production companies are named, as are the writers on the project. One of them is E.L. James, the author of the book. The other is Kelly Marcel, who seems perfectly equipped for the job at hand. Marcel’s credits include production on the late and underrated British television series Terra Nova, but more relevant, according to IMDB, Marcel “started her career in musical theater with the UK version of Debbie Does Dallas, the Musical.”