Photo: REX USA/Tony Buckingham/Rex.
From Charlie Hunnam's early exit to the repeatedly pushed-back release, the 50 Shades of Grey movie is having its share of (predictable) problems. We can only assume that the people working on this project are struggling with the burden of adapting source material that could be one of the biggest money-makers in history — or an explosive disaster on a scale to make John Carter look like Avatar. Now, producer Dana Brunetti sheds some light on the tricky situation in a new interview.
Brunetti remained relentlessly positive when he spoke to Collider. "No matter who we cast, people were gonna be angry about it...And, I always thought it would be better if we went with somebody unknown so then everyone can discover them together, that’s where I really think we are now with Jamie and Dakota.” Now, he says, they've found two actors who are actually enthused about the project, something that took quite a bit of convincing with any of their other options.
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The book, while it might not be Pulitzer worthy, is still challenging to adapt for film — and we're not just talking about the sex scenes. On the subject of the oft-maligned "inner goddess," Buretti explains that some of that will have to be cut or changed. "Obviously we can’t," he said, "otherwise the whole movie would be all voiceover, so that was a big problem how we were gonna deal with that as far as the script and still convey a lot of that without voiceover.”
But, the real nugget of truth here is exposed when Collider asks about ratings. “It’ll be R, obviously it has to be R," Brunetti says. But, if it were up to him? "This is just my opinion and this doesn’t mean this is going to happen, but I always thought it would be really cool if we released the R version and then we had an NC-17 version that we released a few weeks later."
Brunetti is absolutely right when he says that pleasing already-addicted fans is the number one priority, here. A lot of people will probably come see this movie if the press is done right, but the truth is, the ticket sales are really counting on that fervent core audience who bought the book. So, if an NC-17 version is what it takes to please those people (and possibly sell them a second ticket), studios would do well to oblige, don't you think? (Collider)