As much as I'm inclined to just start this post like, "the Fifty Shades of Grey script sucks so much that they had to bring in OUTSIDE HELP to fix it," I won't, because that might be viewed as irresponsible. Instead, here: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fifty Shades of Grey has hired a script doctor to "polish up" the script, though an official reason for this hasn't been given. Rumors are swirling that the script, which was written by Kelly Marcel, is actually pretty weak, and that's why Charlie Hunnam exited the role of Christian Grey just this past weekend — but sources close to production are saying it's actually just "standard procedure." Either way, it is official that Notes on a Scandal's Patrick Marber has been brought on to smooth out the script, giving some hope to this now-struggling little film.
This is another small setback for the project, which suffered greatly this weekend when Hunnam dropped out of the lead role due to "scheduling conflicts" — basically, a nice way of saying, "I've realized that I have a promising career ahead of me and do not want to end up like Robert Pattinson." Names being considered now for the role are rumored to be Jamie Dornan, True Blood's Alexander Skarsgard, and Garrett Hedlund, but none of this has been confirmed by studio sources.
Marber did great work on 2004's Closer and 2006's Notes on a Scandal, so it's actually surprising to see him working on this film — but promising, in a way, that maybe this won't suck as bad as I'm expecting it to. You can't do much when the source material is shit, but if Marber can't make a decently watchable movie out of this, it's likely no one can. Stay tuned, everyone...
Fifty Shades of Grey is still expected to role into theaters next summer, Aug. 1, 2014.
