Iconoclastic filmmaker Paul Schrader is teaming up with "Less Than Zero" author Ellis for the psycho-horror project "Bait."
Michael Buckner/Getty Images for DewarsFifty Shades of Grey has Hollywood blushing and author/screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis is putting himself up for consideration to adapt the best-selling E.L. James novel.
Ellis took to Twitter to announce his intention to transition Grey from book to big screen: “I’m putting myself out there to write the movie adaptation of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ …,” he wrote Saturday morning. If Ellis’ nearly 292,000 followers thought he was kidding, he made 100 percent clear of his desires.
“Completely committed to adapting Fifty Shades of Grey. This is not a joke. Christian Grey and Ana: potentially great cinematic characters,” Ellis wrote that evening after sharing that he had contacted his agent about putting himself up for the job.
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After calling protagonist Christian Grey, an enigmatic wealthy businessman, “a writer’s dream,” Ellis continued on his efforts to meet with the studio. On Sunday, he wrote that his team had been informed: “Okay. Today the team has been briefed and we will be approaching the studio this week about BEE adapting ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ into a film.”
He even went so far to say filmmaker David Cronenberg, who directed A Dangerous Method and Cosmopolis and who he had worked with briefly for American Psycho, would be his ideal pick to step behind the camera. This comes days after news surfaced that Angelina Jolie was once linked to direct.
“I think David Cronenberg is a great idea for directing Fifty Shades of Grey and we worked together on American Psycho in its initial phase,” Ellis wrote.
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Though several tweets that seem to have been deleted, Ellis also teased his picks for Christian and college student Anastasia who gets wrapped up in a complicated sexual relationship with him.
“The casting of Christian in ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ wouldn’t be up to me but I have certain actors in mind. And a particular actress for Ana,” he wrote.
Ellis wrote, according to Digital Spy: “Cronenberg and Alexander Skarsgård is a no-brainer. I’ve seen Alexander naked so many times at the gym that we both attend: perfect casting.”
“Thinking more conventionally for Ana in Fifty Shades of Grey: Scarlett Johansson or Kristen Stewart. Alex Pettyfer as Christian: too young?,” he said. Aaron Johnson and Ryan Gosling (“In a perfect world”) were also put into the fray.
