Fifty Shades Of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson threatens to QUIT after bust-up with author EL James

Just when things were looking particularly peachy for the Fifty Shades Of Grey crew (the film took a whopping £13.5million at the box office in its opening weekend), something has to go and rock the boat.

Despite previously saying she’s “signed on” for the second and third* Fifty Shades* movies, director Sam Taylor-Johnson might be about to jump ship after numerous disagreements with the books’ author EL James – real name Erica Mitchell.

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Last night a senior film insider revealed to The Sun: “Sam won’t be back for the Fifty Shades sequels. She wants out and Universal knows that’s the right decision.

“Her relationship with Erika has become absolutely toxic – they despise each other and blame each other for the problems with the film.”

The pair have been locking horns over the level of sexual material to be included in the movie.

The source explained: “All the biggest arguments were about the sex scenes in the film.

“Erica wanted the movie to be loyal to the book and much more explicit.

“But Sam pushed back because she wanted the movie to be more than just a collection of S&M scenes.”

Creative control

Unfortunately for Sam, EL James was given significant creative control over the film when she signed a £3million deal with Universal and Focus Films in March 2012 giving them the rights to adapt her bestseller for the big screen.

Another source said: “That made life on set completely impossible for Sam.

“Directors usually have the ultimate control over what goes on in a movie, but in this case Erica was questioning literally the most minor things.

“She was able to have the final say over the cast, the costumes and, crucially, the script.

“They’re both very powerful and assured women so there was clash after clash after clash.

“The whole film has not been an enjoyable experience for most of the people involved.

“In particular, Sam found it just too much.”

Perhaps this isn’t such a shock, seeing as both the director and author have mentioned the difficult working relationship in the past. But not quite to this extent…

Sam said recently: “We’d often clash and have to find a way to work through that to get to some sort of resolution.

“She would be the first to say as well that it was not easy. It was not easy. But we got there. I think both of us felt it was an incredibly painful process.”

She added: “It’s difficult. When you have an author and an auteur, it’s a difficult and challenging relationship.

“I’m not saying that at times it wasn’t helpful, but there were times when it was really, really frustrating.”

Breaking point

The pressure almost brought the film director to breaking point last year.

Recounting the filming process, she said: “I’m literally going out of my mind. It’s like walking a knife-edge. The moment I stepped out of the meeting, I stepped onto one of those bullet trains.

“The doors closed and I couldn’t get off. The speed, the velocity, was unbelievable. I need to get off and breathe and think about something else.”

EL James added: “People are going to butt heads, and that is exactly what happened.”

Come on guys – can’t we all just have a nice cup of tea and get through this?