Joe Wright Leads Pack To Direct "Fifty Shades"

THR reports that Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice, Hanna, Anna Karenina) is the "favorite" to helm the film verssion of the erotic E L James book "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Bennett Miller (Moneyball) Patty Jenkins (Monster) Bill Condon, and apparently even Steven Soderbergh are in the mix as well. But Wrightl is said to lead the pack among the suits at Focus Features--the studio that won the screen rights to the book with Universal Pictures because so many of his movies focus on young female characters

What began as a posting on a fan-fiction website as a tribute to author Stephenie Meyer 's Twilight books soon became a word-of-mouth eBook hit that won a major reprint deal with Random House.

The sexually-explicit story follows 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 novel is the first in a planned trilogy. James has sold 31 million e-book and print copies in English-language markets worldwide, in the U.S. alone she has sold over 20 million copies in e-book and print.

You'll recall that director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) and actor Alex Pettyfer (Magic Mike) recently shot test scene recounting when the ingénue Anastasia Steele loses her virginity to Grey in Van Sant's bid for the gig,

Author James has final say on who will be cast in the the film, which won't be decided until well after the script is completed Folks Ian Somerhalder, Matt Bomer, Newcomer Erik Odom and Henry Cavill have also been linked to play Christian. Arrow star Stephen Amell had a meeting about the role.

There were rumors that Emma Watson was being eyed for Anastasia. Watson took to Twitter and asked "Who here actually thinks I would do 50 Shades of Grey as a movie? Like really. For real. In real life. Good. Well that’s that sorted then.” On the flip side Mila Kunis said that she would be open to playing Anastasia. Keira Knightley name is mentioned now since is often cast in films that Wright directs.

Kelly Marcel is writing the adapted screenplay. She previously worked on "Terra Nova" and penned the upcoming "Saving Mr. Banks"

"Moneyball" and "The Social Network" producers Mike De Luca and Dana Brunetti won a bidding war to produce the film version of "Shades".