Universal Wins Auction For "Fifty Shades Of Grey"

Universal Pictures and Focus Features both beat out Sony Pictures' $5 million offer for the film rights to the erotic E L James book Fifty Shades of Grey says THR.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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 print version of the book has a planned street date of April 17th

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.

The bidding war for the property took off some two weeks ago and reached an apex late last week

James is a former TV executive and mother of two from London.