LOS ANGELES (CNN) — Director Sam Taylor-Johnson has been chosen to film “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the best-selling erotic novel about a 27-year-old billionaire and a naïve college student, Universal Pictures said Wednesday.
Taylor-Johnson, a British photographer and visual artist, garnered laurels as a director in 2009 when she made “Nowhere Boy” about John Lennon’s young life.
The film raised her profile as the movie received four BAFTA nominations, including one for Taylor-Wood as outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer and another for outstanding British film.
She later married the film’s star, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who is 23 years her junior.
Last year, writer Kelly Marcel was selected to write the screenplay adaption of the book by British author Erika Leonard, who wrote the novel under the pen name E L James. Marcel is also known for her work on the Amblin/FOX-TV series “Terra Nova.”
“Fifty Shades of Grey” relates a young woman’s sexually explicit liaisons with the young billionaire. The story is part of a trilogy.
The trilogy has been translated in 45 languages and sold more than 32 million copies in the United States.
CNN’s JD Cargill contributed to this report.
