Director Signed for Shades of Grey Movie

It seems likely that, sometime in the not-so-distant future, a pretty bad movie will be made from a compellingly awful book. And now a director has been chosen. From Deadline:

Sam Taylor-Johnson, whose directorial debut was 2009′s Nowhere Boy about the early life of John Lennon, has been secured to direct Fifty Shades Of Grey, the sizzling novel adaptation from Universal Pictures and Focus Features. Fellow Brit Kelly Marcel has written the script for the movie, based on EL James’ bestseller that follows the relationship between 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey and college student Anastasia Steele. 

It seems possible that Deadline doesn’t agree with our crappy-by-association idea:

This is a hot job, and rumors have been flying about directors like Gus Van Sant, Susanne Bier and Joe Wright in the running, but Taylor-Johnson is a surprise choice. 

Gus Van Sant? Right. Don’t tell me: was he too busy washing his hair?

Scoffing aside, the three Shades books have been translated into 45 languages and sold over 70 million copies in e-book and print. It’s possible that, whether the book is good or bad, a lot of people will line up.

We previously reported on the film version of Fifty Shades of Grey here.