‘Twilight’ Inspired Fan Fiction Turned Best Seller Now Could Be A Movie

From SlashFilm

What began as a story inspired by a piece of Twilight fan-fiction, then turned into a best-selling eBook dubbed “mommy porn” by The New York Times, has now become a hot property in Hollywood.

Fifty Shades of Grey, written by E.L. James, is about the sexual escapades of two twenty-year olds. Originally posted online as a riff on the Twilight fan-fiction series Masters of the Universe, the story soon got picked up as an eBook, spawned two sequels and sold over a quarter of a million copies online. It’ll be published as a paperback later this year and, according to reports, the author and producers are currently setting up meetings with studios such as Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros. and Fox to talk about purchasing the film rights. Read more after the jump.

The Hollywood Reporter wrote about the property making the Hollywood rounds and described the story as follows:

Fifty Shades of Grey follows the story of 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey and 22-year-old virgin college student Anastasia Steele, who develop a relationship steeped in bondage, S&M, domination and submission. The sequels Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed continue their story. The erotically-charged novels have been referred to as “mommy porn” in The New York Times.

One studio executive told the trade that while they expect the rights to sell for seven figures, the sexually explicit nature will make it a difficult sell in the general marketplace. And though the Twilight connection is peripheral (it doesn’t sound like there are any vampires or werewolves here) it’s possible studios feel this story could occupy that romantic-fantasy void once the final Twilight film is released this winter. There’s surely a huge number of Twilight fans who grew up with that series and can now see an R-rated movie where maybe they couldn’t have four years ago.

via: twilightish

Tags: A, Be, Best, Could, Fan, Fiction, Inspired, Movie, Now, Seller, More…Turned, ‘Twilight’

Comment by BB Cullen on March 15, 2012 at 11:45pm: I read the Original FanFiction of this and fell in love with it!! It is an Awesome read and everyone should go read it!! It is a little different from the FF version but not too much I really hope that they make this into a movie because it would be Awesome!!

Comment by Janet Anthony on March 16, 2012 at 12:09am: Way to go Icy

Comment by Cassidy Dawn Novotny on March 16, 2012 at 2:08am: I'm 14 :(

Comment by JoS on March 16, 2012 at 3:51am: i read the fanfiction and i was addicted and in love with it too :) it was amazing! if they make this a movie it would be just awesome if Rob and Kristen were in it!

Comment by rhiannon ratliff on March 16, 2012 at 5:27am: i totally see bradley cooper as christian!!!!

Comment by Kris on March 16, 2012 at 8:48am: I am a firm believer that fanfiction should never be published. When writers do that they are making money off the fandom. I’m still waiting for the day when S.Meyers gets a hold of this and puts a stop to sites like The Writers Publishing House, which is a sister site to The Writers Coffee Shop, who are the ones who try to get writers to publish fanfiction in the first place.

Comment by BB Cullen on March 16, 2012 at 9:06am: @Kris I don't really think that these writers are making money off of the fandom they have made these characters themselves and made the plot line themselves all they've done is use the same name as S.M. Characters Fifty Shades is nothing Like Twilight all they have in common are the names, and I think that all these people that put their stories out their to be read and criticized are bloody gutsy!! They have some balls!! And Technically Stephanie can't do anything about Fifty Shades because now they have different names and everything. Fanfiction is a place where writers who want to become real Authors go to and test their stories and get noticed they just use the characters that they love and are fimiliar with and Stephenie knows about FanFiction wouldn't you think she'd have put a stop to it already?? Besides I'd see it as Flattery that someone thinks that my writing and my stories are soo awesome that it inspired them to write. Really in this world it's hard to be an Author and hard to get recognized so you gotta do what ya gotta do!! But that's just my opinion lol

Comment by Joy on March 16, 2012 at 11:57am: i love these books!!

Comment by seekingbecca on March 16, 2012 at 2:18pm: @BB Cullen, I wholeheartely agree with you 150%, and SM does know about FanFiction, she gave her opinion on it. @Kris, I think your wrong. Theres ALOT of FFn way better the Twilight, AND IS THE ONLY REASON i STUCK AROUND FOR SO LONG IN THIS TWILIGHT WORLD. 50 shades was the 1st FFN I came across in Sep 2009.

Although there alot of crappy FFN out there, There stIll awhole lot more and that is WAY Better written then anything SM can write. And she owes FFN for the Fans that stuck around.

Comment by Donette Barker on March 16, 2012 at 3:06pm: I'm glad that 'Fifty Shades' started out as Fan Fiction because that is one of the only ways that E.L. James' writing could get the exposure it deserves. "Mommy porn" aside, she is a fantastic writer and I'm glad she has done so well. BTDubbs, 'Fifty Shades' is pretty much nothing like 'Twilight' so I can't see any copy writing infringement violations being committed.