Fifty Shades director Sam Taylor-Johnson exited the franchise earlier this year after enjoying the biggest opening weekend for a female director ever, and now Deadline reports that Universal may be close to choosing a new director to helm a sequel to the “saucy blockbuster.”
House of Cards director James Foley is reportedly not in negotiations yet, but is considered the studio’s top pick; Deadline says other frontrunners include “Electrick Children‘s Rebecca Thomas, Mark Pellington and Hysteria’s Tanya Wexler.”
Universal also has yet to decide whether the next two films in the franchise (Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed) will be made back to back or not. The scripts for both films will be written by E.L. James’ husband, Niall Leonard.
Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about this news; Fifty Shades‘ sole redeeming quality was that it demonstrated the box office potential of an all-female creative team, so it’s depressing to think that the next films in the franchise will have all the glorified domestic abuse of the first movie, with none of the possible tangential benefits for women in Hollywood.
At the same time, I wouldn’t wish this franchise on anyone, and it’s possible that Universal approached a female director about the project who made the reasonable choice to turn the offer down.
Moral of the story is to buckle up, I guess. We’ve got two more of these sexist turd-blossoms coming our way.
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