Ian McKellan, Hellen Mirren Leads In Fifty Shades of Grey Movie?

Ian McKellan and Helen Mirren: inside track for Fifty Shades leads? Image sources: the Interwebs.

The little birds at Universal Pictures are all atwitter with the news that the studio may be preparing a surprising tasty treat in the form of an "M&M" for fans of the naughty novel known as Fifty Shades of Grey. The insiders at the studio are saying that Ian McKellan and Helen Mirren are very much in the running to play Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.

Our ultra-secret, ultra-knowledgeable sources say that Universal has heard the complaints from some parties that at 21, Anastasia is young to be engaging in lustful, depraved, kinky sex practices, and that it was ridiculous to say a man could be a self-made billionaire while still in his twenties, so they made an imaginative leap and decided to go with someone completely at the other end of the age spectrum.

And don't be fearful that this casting move heralds backing off from the sexy hijinks portrayed in the book, fans, because word is that Mirren and McKellan are both eager and raring to go. Mirren, quite the hottie in her younger days and always ready to doff her clothing at the drop of an innuendo, and McKellan, who is gay in real life, will have absolutely no compunction about getting it on in ways that will leave audience's brains begging for bleach. And let's face it, at their respective ages, the ropes and chains will help a lot, giving them something to hang on to while they give their all.

And word is, if Mirren and McKellan turn the roles down, there's always Bette Midler and Mickey Rooney waiting in the wings.

Is Fifty Shades of Grey Public Domain?

First published on 3/8/2013

I'm still following the progress of the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon in the media, but there has not been much to report on, as it has mostly devolved into increasingly wild speculation about who will play the leads in the movie. So when a bit of actual news comes along, I'm all ears. And some has.

The first actual news I've seen in a while indicates that Smash Pictures, the creators of a porn parody of "Fifty Shades of Grey," is being sued on violation of copyright grounds by Universal Pictures, which owns the movie rights to "Fifty Shades of Grey." Seems the porn people didn't do an adequate job of filing the serial numbers off!

Now I personally think the story in Fifty Shades of Grey is different enough from Twilight that there's no question that it's not copyright infringement, and I'm guessing Random House's legal department agrees with me, as they greenlit purchasing Fifty Shades.

The defense of Smash Pictures is that "Masters of the Universe," the original story written by EL James, on which Fifty Shades is based, and which was published on a Twilight fanfic website as fanfic, was in the public domain, and that therefore, Fifty Shades itself is in the public domain. For a detailed analysis of the Masters of the Universe fanfic and its relation to Fifty Shades I'll refer you to the Obsidian Wings website's analysis.

Smash Pictures' contention is that since Master of the Universe was published initially as fanfic without any copyright claims, and that since it essentially IS Fifty Shades of Grey, the work is in the public domain and Smash Pictures can't be violating Fifty Shades' copyright.

I don't have the legal chops to speak on the matter of whether or not Master of the Universe's original provenance puts Fifty Shades into public domain territory or not. But my cynical self tends to see that legal cases are generally decided in favor of the person or corporation that has the most money/legal resources. That would be Universal Studios. In any event, publishers, legal experts, movie studios and the fanfic community will be watching this one with great interest.