Fifty Shades of Grey film is Vancouver-bound: reports

CTV BC: Fifty Shades film coming to Vancouver The film adaptation of E. L. James' steamy, bondage-themed bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey is set to shoot in Vancouver, according to report

The film adaptation of E. L. James’ steamy, bondage-themed bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey is set to shoot in Vancouver, according to reports.

The hotly-anticipated project, due for release in August 2014, will star up-and-coming actors Dakota Johnson and Charlie Hunnam as the virginal Anastasia Steele and her S&M-inclined boss Christian Grey.

Production Weekly magazine broke the news Wednesday that the film was Vancouver-bound with North Shore Studios at the helm, though the company has yet to confirm its involvement.

“It’s certainly not on the film list right now, but we’ll be very excited if it comes here,” studio president Peter Leitch told CTV News.

If true, the project would mark the second major score this week for B.C.’s film industry. A Vancouver-shot adaptation of World of Warcraft, one of the most popular videogames of all time, was announced on Monday.

Just months earlier, industry vets were sounding the alarm about a troubling dearth of work for the estimated 85,000 film workers in the province.

Leitch, who fought for more competitive tax incentives through the Save B.C. Film campaign, said that while other cities may offer lower costs than Vancouver, there are several other factors drawing companies to the west coast.

“We’ve got more to offer than just incentives,” he said. “We had a very slow period of time for the first six months of the year but we’ve got a lot of television series that got picked up and now we’re seeing some feature films show up in town.”

Leitch said the city’s diverse locations, established talent base of crew, actors and visual effects artists, and available infrastructure make it an attractive shooting location.

Los Angeles-based production designer Martin Whist said B.C.’s industry is doing so well he’s having trouble finding a crew to work on his latest project.

“It is busier than I’ve ever seen it,” Whist said. “There’s numerous projects here: big movies, a ton of TV, pilots. It’s just brimming with work. And as my project’s coming here right now it’s difficult getting crew. It’s actually more than difficult. It’s impossible.”

Fifty Shades of Grey is the first of a potential trilogy of films produced by Universal Pictures and Focus Features.

The erotic novels, noted for their abundance of kinky, explicit imagery, have sold more than 70 million copies worldwide, and surpassed the Harry Potter series as the fastest-selling paperback of all time.

With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Maria Weisgarber