Here are some newish photos from the Vancouver set of Fifty Shades of Grey. Jamie Dornan, blah, Dakota Johnson, etc. As we discussed a few days ago, one of the producers of the film confirmed that the sex scenes are being significantly watered down and that an “image” can convey a lot more than ten pages of spanking (I’m paraphrasing). It’s also being said that the author, E.L. James, is on-set every day and she’s putting in her two cents about everything. Now E! News has an interesting take on the dynamics of all of the key players:
It sounds like not everything is going super hot on the Fifty Shades of Grey movie set. Just a few days after the film’s producer Michel De Luca told us that the chemistry between costars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson is super hot, E! News has learned that there’s a little bit of tension between director Sam Taylor-Johnson and Fifty Shades author E.L. James.
“Sam is getting annoyed about the way the script is being handled,” a source tells E! News exclusively. “E.L. James wants the movie to match the book exactly, but Sam has a different perspective. Sam is reminding E.L. she writes books and she makes movies. This has caused some tension between the two of them.”
Despite the director-author hiccup, Dornan and Dakota’s relationship is just fine.
“Jamie Dorman is really protective over Dakota,” the source says. “She is very friendly and talks to everyone [crew, security, etc.] Jamie stays to himself and does not talk much. Jamie thinks Dakota gets really distracted, because she is so nice to people and so he will walk over to who she is talking to and try and end the conversation. He is nice about it, but he does ask them to leave her alone.”
The source adds that “Dakota is nailing her role” as Anastasia Steele. “Everyone on set loves Dakota,” they say.
“Sam has a great relationship with the actors,” the movie source dishes. “The script is running smoothly and there is not a lot of re-shooting that has had to be done.”
However, some local Vancouver residents aren’t taking to Fifty Shades filming so smoothly.
While recently shooting a scene in the rain, the source says, “Neighbors at the building were upset over the noise and water flying everywhere. An older man continued to ruin scenes by opening his window and shaking a cowbell. He did not stop until they came to some sort of a resolution with producers. Another person in the building told production that if any water comes into his house, they will have to pay for the water damage. Residents are not happy with them shooting there. Eventually they met half way with the cowbell resident—they had to move the rain machine to another location.”
MORE COWBELL. The cowbell is going to steal all of the scenes! Did anyone else read this as a major burn? “Jamie thinks Dakota gets really distracted…” That’s like saying, “Tighten up, pay attention, do your job.”
As for EL James and Sam Taylor Johnson… legit girl drama or something else? I don’t know. EL James did post a cute photo on her Instagram of herself and Sam with their dukes up, so I guess they’re taking it in stride. Despite her mind-boggling success, I can’t really hate EL James. She seems like she’s out of her depth and kind of delusional about the quality of her books, but why shouldn’t she have input into the movie?
Photos courtesy of Instagram, Fame/Flynet.
Good god, that poor girl looks haunted by the fact that they’ve made her into a young E.L James.
As for any potential conflict between E.L James and Sam Taylor-Johnson, I hope E.L James realizes that Sam is a far better director than this project deserves so she should step off. Unless she’s got it in her contract that she has veto power/editing power (not exactly sure how these things work…), she just needs to let the film people do their job. Books =/=screenplays. They take very different approaches and not everyone can successfully do both to a high level.
Agree. E.L. James should go home, look at her bank book and thank her lucky stars that so many people bought her awful books.
about e.l. james; exactly! maybe her “inner goddess” should tell her to take her ass home.
Fifty shades was NOT sexy, it was stupid…I couldn’t even finish the book…I really feel that Dakota was the wrong choice to play Anastasia…she seems very plain to me, just no spark at all, or maybe it just dosen’t show up in the stills, but will on screen…although, I will probably just be reading reviews…I really have no plans to see this…
I agree she’s the wonr actress to play anastasia, but no one else would take the role. Production on this disaster was pushed way back for both script rewrites and casting. That says a lot.
+1
I’ve quite literally never read anything so stupid in my life. It sounds like a horny 15 year old wrote that crap. And still women can’t get enough of it. I’m not saying you can’t read porn (and gtfo if you even TRY to tell me it’s “a love story” lol) but my god at least make it good porn!
This movie will not be good for these actors. She looks awful and he doesn’t look much better (I know, I know I’m the only one who doesn’t think he’s hot) but I can’t wait to see how the critics pan this.
i just wanna say , i just can’t stop adoring Jamie ,this man is gorgeous , i guess i might just watch the movie for his sake , as for Dakota now i understand why she was cast as the floozy “anna
i agree, jamie dornan wasn’t even on my radar till i saw him on this site, and.. the man is just gorgeous.
Have you seen “The Fall”? He’s very very good. Really worth watching.
i did recently ,he is superb in it ,lets hope he gets a bit of spotlight and popularity with this shit of a movie ,i thinkk he is a decent actor
I bet Sam Taylor-Johnson is sorry she took the job. EL James needs to pipe down because her books were crap and maybe, just maybe Taylor-Johnson can improve them.
I gotta have more cowbell! They should forget the “story” and make this a behind the scenes type film about the difficulties of trying to make a movie from a pile of crap, and all the weird stuff that happens in that effort, like the cowbell guy. Probably would be way more interesting.
Is James a producer of this? Because otherwise she shouldn’t really be having input unless asked for it.
ITA! Either that or bring in John Waters to make an underground movie about how EL James, furious that her genius creative vision is being cast aside and her masterpiece novel ruined, slaughters Sam Taylor-Wood, Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in a fit of rage then takes over the movie herself, directing and starring as both Ana and Christian (in drag) in a new 100%-true-to-the-book script she also wrote.
This would be flawless.
If only it could be so.
And if only Divine was still alive to play EL!!!!
Looks like Jamie is taking this role pretty seriously and controlling dakota in real life too. maybe he got the role for good reason..
Since Jamie is married they can’t create a version of Robsten , this seems like a way to sell them as Christian and Anastasia to me .
BAM!
14,95 $ for a printed doormat ? That’s a robbery.
And, oh, I never expected anything about that movie.
This movie is going to be so bad, it’ll be mediocre. My only hope was that I could do shots every time her inner goddess said “oh, my!”, but now they’ve done away with that, too. My vote is that this goes straight to VOD.
I don’t understand how anyone thinks this movie won’t make a crap ton of money. twilight was the worst, the acting was awful and look at how successful that franchise was! This will be the same thing I’m sure. It will make a TON of money and I will continue to wonder who pays money for this crap.
Except that this movie will be rated R, so they lose the young teen and preteen audience that flocked to Twilight, and saw it multiple times.
I am very curious to see how the movie does. It won’t be a blockbuster due to the R rating and subject matter. I’m not expecting the ratings to be good, but if by some miracle they are, it could do all right. People will be curious to see how they pulled off the movie, given the subject matter.
Being a fan online and reading the books in private are one thing.
But seeing an R-rated movie? I doubt the fans would gladly line up outside, holding up signs, wearing costumes, and screaming their love for trash erotica. I also don’t think Twilight’s biggest demographic, the teenagers, actually welcomed the 50 Shades books the way they did with Twilight.
You’ll have to be in disguise when seeing this movie. Or see it in the cinemas outside your city.
Dakota looked good in that EW (I believe it is) shoot. Why does she look drabish here? Is that the character?
she’s the stand in for the author .
I agree it’s more “focus, let’s get the job done” as opposed to channeling CG in real life. I find it a bit odd that there is like a media embargo on his wife- I thought she had had the baby? It could be that this silence is totally the parents’ call- just hope all is well. And I will sure check out The Fall in the near future.
Yes, Jaime, she needs to be on point for this EXTREMELY important and deep film.
Cinematic dog is what this movie will be. It may make money but it is going to suck.
The director is right…She makes movies, E.L. writes (crappy) books. They aren’t the same medium, and that means things that translate in print have to be done differently on film. This is one of the reasons people who love the book usually hate the movie. In order to make a well-crafted film, things necessarily have to change.
As for Jamie Dornan, it sounds a little controlling to shut down a co-worker’s conversations, even if it’s well-intentioned. She’s an adult, not a misbehaving puppy.
I didn’t take it as controlling. Maybe i’m in the minority on this, but it almost seemed like they’re trying to stir up interest by making Jamie and Dakota a “real life” Christian and Ana. She is naive and innocent, while he is controlling and protective of her. This is an all too common tactic in stirring up interests in any and every movie.
And yea. E.L. knew her books were lame and then they got a lot of attention. She’s off the reservation now and high on delusion. It was Twilight fanfiction written on her phone FCS!
ACCURATE!! That was the first thing I thought too. They know, especially now that they’ve decided to tone down the one thing that was really going to bring out the housewives who read this dreck, that they’ve got to manufacture some kind of drama to try and keep people interested. I think if Jamie hadn’t been recently married and had a kid, they would also have been pushing “movie roles turn into real life romance” stories about the two of them.
And while I don’t doubt that there is tension on the set between James and Taylor-Johnson, I almost wonder if those stories are being leaked so they both have excuses to fall back on-she didn’t understand my vision or my characters/she didn’t understand that a movie is different from a book” when this tanks.
That is an awesome and very likely bang on theory, Florc.
ohhh great point!
Blagh. All that jamie and Dakota stuff sounds planted, like, ‘ oh look how protective and manly he is towards her! Isn’t he the perfect christian grey?!’
I’m pretty sure I remember reading that EL james would only give the book rights if she kept creative control. I remember it saying she was able to get the most power any author has ever had for their work to be made into film. Guess they were desperate to make twilight 8: the porn years.
“he will walk over to who she is talking to and try and end the conversation. He is nice about it, but he does ask them to leave her alone”
????
What kind of douchey attitude is this? Is she his pet who’s not allowed to talk to strangers?? WTH. Why is he telling people they have to leave her alone if she’s just trying to be a nice human being??
Is he one of THOSE actors on set who think the crew are beneath the “stars”?
Or is he shading her by telling her she isn’t doing her job properly??
Either way, it’s unprofessional and douchey behavior, didn’t expect him to be an a**.
“An older man continued to ruin scenes by opening his window and shaking a cowbell.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
Christopher Walken approves!
Um, this is from E! news. Not the most credible source.
I would have loved to see that man shaking his cowbell outside of his window. Too funny!
Somewhere Charlie Hunnam is sitting back and smiling while he pats himself on the back for leaving this disaster of a film.
+1000
My money is on an affair between Jamie and Dakota by the end of filming.
If that were to happen, I would see the movie. The fact that he’s married kind of ruins it…
Normally, an author gets only very VERY basic control over ~anything~ once the rights are purchased. Sometimes, if everyone wants to keep things upbeat, a writer will be invited to see a bit of the filming, get asked their take on some of the editing cuts, and get invited to the premiere. But beyond that, it’s the director/producer/and screen writers that have first/middle/last say in what goes on the film. Unless she is writing the screenplay wholly on her own (and wow do I hope nope – I managed only about 20 pages before throwing the book in the trash, it’s some of the worst crap I’ve tried to read in years) she really is only there as a courtesy, and can get told to kindly bugger off at any time by the folks actually in charge.
normally authors have pretty minimal input unless it’s a hugely popular book that people are chasing rights for. I think EL might be a crap writer but she is a very smart businesswoman. I am almost positive she has approval rights on practically everything. She isn’t Gillian Flynn where is writing the script for her book..but i would bet the ranch she def has final cut approval.
Why make this book into a movie. The book sucks, this movie is going to suck.
http://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2014/01/blind-item-5_17.html
Jamie=yum.
Umm why do they need rain machines in Vancouver?!