Fifty Shades of Grey seems to be in a little bit of a rut at the moment. Writer of the “novel” E.L. James has signaled her concerns about fans of the book not liking the film, Charlie Hunnam dropped out within weeks of being announced, the film has been pushed back to 2015, and now there’s talk of the film adopting a similar approach to Lars Von Trier’s original plans for Nymphomaniac. It looks like there may be two cuts of Fifty Shades of Grey – one R-rated and another more explicit NC-17 cut.
“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,” producer Dana Brunetti tells Collider. “So everybody could go and enjoy the R version, and then if they really wanted to see it again and get a little bit more gritty with it, then have that NC-17 version out there as well.”
This didn’t work for Nymphomaniac, with Von Trier having to abandon his two cuts, and it would be utterly ridiculous for Fifty Shades of Grey to try and replicate this.
Fifty Shades of Grey is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy) and stars Dakota Johnson (The Social Network), Jamie Dornan (Once Upon a Time), Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty), Luke Grimes (True Blood), and Victor Rasuk (How to Make It in America). It is set for release on February 13th, 2015.
Originally published November 19, 2013. Updated December 13, 2019.
