“Fifty Shades of Grey” Author Lands New Movie Deal

Following the massive success of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, Universal and author E. L. James are reteaming on the scribe’s next novel as the studio has optioned the rights to The Mister; James’ 2019 best-selling romance.

Rights for the book, which recently hit the market, sparked a heated bidding war. James, who produced every film in the Fifty Shades trilogy, returns to produce this adaptation.

The Mister tells the story of a wealthy British aristocrat who falls in love with his Albanian housekeeper; unaware that she is on the run from human traffickers.

The Mister was on the New York Times Best Seller list for nine weeks. The book has sold in 33 territories/languages internationally.

E. L. James

After 25 years of working in television, James decided to pursue a childhood dream of writing novels. The result was Fifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed.

In 2015, she published the number one bestseller Grey, the story told from the perspective of Christian Grey. 2017 saw the chart-topping Darker; the second part of the Fifty Shades story from Christian’s point of view.

Her books are available in 50 languages and have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.

James has been recognized as one of Time Magazine’s “most influential people in the world” and Publishers Weekly’s “person of the year”. The Fifty Shades of Grey books were the three bestselling novels of the last decade.

Fifty Shades of Grey stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for 133 consecutive weeks. It was one of the 100 most-loved books, according to readers, in PBS’ The Great American Read.