50 Shades of Grey: The Film, and what could be.

As people who know me already know, I like going on about what movie is coming up next. The great part is that many of the people I know also participate in the conversation in much the same manner, while a few politely smile and nod while waiting to change the subject.

However, there's one such film currently in talks that even the movie-buffs in my social circle are not too thrilled about: 50 Shades of Grey.

The soccer-mom, Twilight-smutfic that is now a huge phenomenon has moved on to being a film, and thanks to one article, I now have hopes and dream for this release (pun not intended).

THIS article says that the author of American Psycho (the book) really wants to adapt the book to film. This is the greatest news I could have heard.

From the numerous reviews and excerpts I've read of 50 Shades of Grey (I'm not going to deny it, I heard mainstream smut and I went running) the plot could be the most boring thing in the entire world, dotted with great sex. Impossibly great sex. Actually, the author really can't impress enough to her audience that the young, incredibly naive heroine of the story (Anastasia) and the billionaire who wants to own her (Christian) have nigh-on celestial boinking throughout the book. To Anastasia, it starts great and gets better using a logarithmic scale. Not that she would know; obviously, Christian would have to explain it to her on the blackberry he gave her, Anastasia never having owned a cell in her life. And she's a super virgin. Of course, this is entirely relate-able.

But aside from that, how to frame this BDSM-based story so that mainstream audiences will keep coming (again, pun not intended)?

Point One: The fanbase for this film are grown-ups.

This book is for adults. Women are reading this book not to see some fade-to-black scene like in Twilight with Bella and Edward (even if 50 Shades is actually fanfiction from it), they are reading because the hero and heroine do some hardcore kinky fucking. A lot.
 This would bring about the greatest point for this film: The rating. After all, how do you convey the story of the book when two-thirds of it is sex is without any sex scenes in a movie?
Therefore, I am convinced this film should have clear sex scenes and thus be rated R. In my dreams, it would be NC-17 and be the greatest grossing NC-17 film after Showgirls, but I think the MPAA would have a fit.

Point two: The fanbase for this film are dedicated people.

These fans are serious. They read the book, they bought physical copies of the book, they are going to see the movie for themselves. They are going to see this film at least once, crap film or not. They are the reason this movie is being made, because 20+ year-old women have money, and boy will they spend it on seeing this movie.

Point three: The studios want to draw in people who aren't part of the fanbase.

With the book fans assured to see this film, the studio behind it would need to look at how to attract the rest of the movie-going public. The subject matter obviously isn't for families, or young children, so they know the demographic they're going for is 16+. They also need to introduce the plot and idea to as wide an audience in this available demographic.
So how do you get people to watch 2 hours of a young girl and emotionally shattered billionaire angst and have sex? Thriller.


Who to direct?

The article mentions David Cronenberg as the one to ideally direct, and this is an excellent decision. With his recent release of Cosmopolis, he's show he a) can do film adaptations of books quite readily (quality of the subject matter aside, not that I'm insulting Cosmopolis the book) and b) is very familiar with the psycho billionaire image; suave with an edge.

In my perfect world David Fincher would be directing, and running off the tone of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He could make the film look like 'shades of grey', especially when addressing the mainstream audience.

Actually I hope the director of photography picks up on this. It's obvious but would suit the tone so well.

Point Four: How do you get the public not expecting Christian to be a pervert?

Over roughly the past 10 years 'Kink' has become more and more acceptable by general public. While the hardcore elements are still 'taboo', the idea of handcuffs, silk scarves, and power play involved in someone's bedroom are almost average thanks to the explanations of BDSM on CSI (there was a running storyline of this), Bones (with a few episodes), Sherlock (Irene Adler plays the dominatrix beautifully), and The Matrix series (old, and truthfully it's played more as imagery than anything else, but counts), among others.

Ok, yes, Christian explains that he's into BDSM because he's been sexually manipulated and abused by previous people in his life - this is not a healthy way to go about it, but it makes sense to the audience. It worked in the film 'Secretary' with Maggie Gyllenhal somehow transferring self-injury into submissive-ness, but many of the people in the BDSM community aren't dealing with a history. They just simply are. They are curious and have fun with roles and sensations. Perhaps 50 Shades could introduce this concept to the audience through the gradual introduction through Anastasia (especially going about the BDSM parts in a sane manner, unlike the books).

Anyway:

Therefore 50 Shades of Grey as a film with kink would not be some massively shocking introductory story for film, although I expect organizations and churches to be protesting this by the masses, if only because it portrays pre-marital sex (what movie doesn't now?), even if it's still between a super-virginal young girl, and a dedicated long-term relationship oriented psycho male billionaire. (It's a straight couple, isn't that ok by movie-sex standards?). But to portray BDSM entirely the same as vanilla sex, while working in some scenes, just doesn't work for the entire film.

So:

There's hope. This film could work. It just needs to be almost entirely unlike the book. Let's not mention the sequels. Marriage and children involved in this? Please. 

4 of 30

It was really fun, actually.

3 of 30

2 of 30

It's a habit, but it works.

1 of 30

Day 1: when I couldn't be bothered for excellent production values at 3am. Also: I totally need a scanner.

Monsters Inc 2: Monsters University and Pixar Movies Growing Up

Here is the trailer for the sequel to Monsters Inc, titled Monsters University.

The basic plot so far is: Sully and Mike from Monsters Inc all started by going to 'scare school' (a  university in this case) and various parody college-hijinks ensue.

My opinion on this is divided - I did enjoy Monsters Inc, but I have a few hang-ups about this sequel (as usual, everyone has their opinions on movies, so bear with me):

This is being released after the plot of Toy Story 3.  What happened at the end of Toy Story 3? Andy goes off the college. The audiences who grew up watching Pixar films will continue their journey alongside Mike Wazowski and Sully. That seems way too convenient. While it has also been 10 years since Monsters Inc was released, it's a little strange how Pixar chose to make a sequel to this film, first (I'm still wondering is Brad Bird will want to do anything about The Incredibles and a sequel).
I wonder if Monsters University was made with the now-adult audiences in mind, thanks to Toy Story 3 drawing them back in?

As Pixar is now releasing a film about their characters growing up and going through milestones in their lives alongside the audience, I wonder what this will mean for the future? Next year it's Monsters University, but what about 5 years from now? 10? Will Pixar make films around getting married? Starting a family? Adding to the family? They've touched on aging and (in some ways) death with Up and I suspect that Brave will be dealing with both the rebellious young girl and how her parents are addressing it,  but I feel that Pixar can go further with it.
 I wonder if this has anything to do with the executives leading Pixar aging as well? The people in the head of story aren't the 30-somethings with young children (as the lists of Production Babies show) that they used to be, and try as they like, that has to be even a subconscious influence on the stories green-lit and produced. These were the people who were on the tail end of the Baby Boomers, and Pixar is doing its best to capitalize on this notable wave of audience who want to still watch movies with their almost-adult children. It's certainly the easiest path to follow, but what could it mean for the future?

Life Drawing after 2 years of not

I have a long way to go.

Early 2012

Dating these at April, even though I write this from July, because I posted them all to tumblr, and decided this is a better home.

Can't Draw 05

'Cause if you can't draw spiders, then you draw goats.

Can't draw 04 - Spider edition

I think I need a scanner.

Can't draw 03

Can't draw 02

'Cause I doodle at work.

Can't draw 01

Hey Look!

AUGUST 2010 DAILIES!

holiday comic 9

holiday comic 8

holiday comic 6 and 7

6.


7.

I'm torn between thrilled and mortified.

Comparison for men: you got gifted lotion and a box of tissues. How do you react?

Merry Christmas, everyone!

holiday comic 5

Okay, maybe I should slow down on these.

holiday comic 4

I need to find that usb cable for my camera.

holiday comic 3

This year was better