Fifty Shades Darker 2017

Fifty Shades Darker is a 2017 American erotic romantic drama film directed by James Foley and written by Niall Leonard, based on a novel of same name by E. L. James. The second film in the Fifty Shades film series, it is the sequel to 2015 film Fifty Shades of Grey. The film stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan as Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, with Eric Johnson, Eloise Mumford, Bella Heathcote, Rita Ora, Luke Grimes, Victor Rasuk, Kim Basinger and Marcia Gay Harden in supporting roles.

Principal photography on Fifty Shades Darker and its sequel Fifty Shades Freed began on February 9, 2016, in Paris and Vancouver. It was released in the United States on February 10, 2017 and received negative reviews, with criticism aimed at its screenplay, acting and narrative

Plot

The film starts with a prologue depicting Christian Grey as having a nightmare with apparent flashbacks to incidents of childhood abuse which he had suffered in youth. After the opening credits, Anastasia "Ana" Steele is shown in her new job as an assistant to Jack Hyde, an editor at SIP (Seattle Independent Publishing) who appears to show more than a casual interest in Ana. In the evening later that day, she attends a photo exhibition at a gallery being held for her friend Jose Rodriguez and is surprised to see a group of six very large format portraits of herself being displayed at the gallery without her knowledge or permission. She starts to express her dismay to Jose when the gallery receives news that all six of her portraits have been sold to a single buyer. It is quickly learned that Christian is the buyer of the portraits and when he sees her he begins pleading with Ana to take him back after their break-up. With some reluctance she agrees to see him for lunch. Ana sets strict standards that require Christian to acknowledge his previous excessive sexual proclivities and that he must return to a 'vanilla' flavored relationship if she is to give him another chance, and he agrees.

A few days later, when meeting with Ana at a local bar to then go to dinner, Christian sees her with her boss Jack flirting with her in the bar. He quickly makes his excuses to Jack and gets Ana to depart with him to dinner. Christian warns Ana of Jack's undisguised intentions. After expressing some concerns, the two appear to re-open their intimate and sexual relationship without the previous interests Christian had shown in exploring subculture sexuality and sexual domination themes. Christian also tells Ana that his own company has been looking to take-over control and ownership of SIP, where Ana works, for several months now. When Jack later tries to seduce Ana while she is in the office, Ana manages to escape from the office leaving Jack behind. When Christian finds out about this he arranges to have Jack dismissed from SIP. Eventually, Ana gets Jack's now vacant position on a temporary basis as an acting editor for SIP.

Later, Christian invites Ana to a masquerade ball where Ana meets Christian's adoptive parents. Ana learns from Christian more about his personal life and how his real mother had serious substance abuse problems which resulted in her death when Christian was four years old. Ana comes into contact with two other women in the process of re-initiating her relations with Christian. One is Elena Lincoln, who is one generation older than Christian, and Ana learns that Christian is the co-owner of a beauty salon with her, after he had amicably stopped an affair with her. It was Elena who had initiated Christian into the BDSM subculture lifestyle. Ana also learns of another woman, Leila Williams, a former submissive girlfriend of Christian's, who has become mentally and clinically disturbed when Christian left her. After Leila stalks Ana several times, Ana tells Christian who then has Leila re-committed to the hospital for treatment.

As their relationship grows romantically, Ana discovered that she is sufficiently intrigued by Christian's new openness and self-control, that she herself asks to try to explore with some forms of sexual experimentation, which she then passionately embraces. Christian then opens up further to Ana about his past and finds himself making a proposal of marriage to Ana. She says she needs several days to consider the proposal before his upcoming birthday which is coming up in several days.

In the ensuing days, Christian has an out of town trip and while piloting in his own helicopter, the helicopter suffers an engine breakdown which causes Christian to ditch while traveling over a large woodland forest. He is reported in the television reports as missing and Ana joins Christian's adoptive parents to await news of the outcome of the helicopter breakdown. When Christian unexpectedly arrives while the others are still watching the television for news of the breakdown, Ana is overwhelmed to see him safe. Ana then realizes the extent of her affections for Christian, who has now fully survived his helicopter accident, and Ana accepts his marriage proposal to her.

Cast

• Dakota Johnson as Anastasia "Ana" Steele
• Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey
• Eric Johnson as Jack Hyde, Ana’s boss at SIP and Christian’s romantic rival.
• Eloise Mumford as Katherine "Kate" Kavanagh, Anastasia’s best friend and roommate who begins a relationship with Christian’s older brother Elliot Grey.
• Bella Heathcote as Leila Williams, one of Grey’s former submissives.
• Rita Ora as Mia Grey, Christian’s adopted younger sister.
• Luke Grimes as Elliot Grey, Christian’s adoptive older brother.
• Victor Rasuk as José Rodriguez, one of Anastasia’s friends.
• Kim Basinger as Elena Lincoln, Grey’s business partner and former lover.
• Marcia Gay Harden as Grace Trevelyan-Grey, Christian’s adoptive mother.
• Max Martini as Jason Taylor, Christian’s bodyguard and head of his security.
• Bruce Altman as Jerry Roach, president of SIP.
• Robinne Lee as Ros Bailey
• Fay Masterson as Gail Jones
• Andrew Airlie as Carrick Grey, Christian’s adoptive father.
• Amy Price-Francis as Elizabeth Morgan, head of personnel at SIP.

Production

A film adaptation of the first book was produced by Focus Features,^[6] Michael De Luca Productions, and Trigger Street Productions,^[7] with Universal Pictures and Focus Features securing the rights to the trilogy in March 2012.^[8] Universal is also the film's distributor. In March 2014, the producer for the first film, Dana Brunetti, had said there were, as of then, no solid plans to make a sequel.^[9] The first book of the series was adapted into a film by the same name and released on February 13, 2015. Before the first film premiered, there was still high anticipation from fans for the sequel to the film. After the first film premiered at a special fan screening in New York City on February 6, director Sam Taylor-Johnson announced that the book sequels Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed will also be adapted, with the first to be released in 2016.^[10] Right after the announcement, the director was telling Digital Spy that "it's not my decision, and I haven't been privy to any of the discussions."^[11]

On March 25, 2015, Taylor-Johnson officially left the franchise.^[12] On April 2, 2015, Deadline confirmed that De Luca had left Sony Pictures to return to Universal to produce the Fifty Shades sequels.^[13] It was later revealed that Taylor-Johnson would not return to direct the sequel.^[14] On April 22, 2015, it was announced that E.L. James' husband, Niall Leonard, would write the script for the sequel.^[15] In April 2015, Universal Pictures Chair Donna Langley told The Hollywood Reporter that the second installment will be "more of a thriller."^[16] In July 2015, it was confirmed that singer Rita Ora would be returning for the sequel to portray her role of Mia Grey.^[17] On August 20, 2015, it was revealed by Deadline that James Foley was the front-runner to direct the sequel and third film Fifty Shades Freed, while the studio was also eyeing some other directors including Rebecca Thomas, Mark Pellington, and Tanya Wexler, and talks with Foley had not yet begun.^[18] On November 12, 2015, TheWrap confirmed that Foley would direct both sequels which would be shot back-to-back in 2016, with Michael De Luca and Brunetti returning to produce along with E.L. James.^[19] Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan also would return for the sequels.

Casting

On January 28, 2016, Kim Basinger joined the film to play the role of Elena Lincoln, Grey's business partner and former lover, while Luke Grimes, Eloise Mumford and Max Martini would be returning for the sequel.^[20] On February 5, Bella Heathcote was cast as Leila, one of Grey's former submissives.^[21] In the same month, Eric Johnson was cast to play Jack Hyde.^[22][23] On February 18, 2016, Robinne Lee and Fay Masterson joined the film's cast.^[24] On February 26, 2016, Tyler Hoechlin was cast in the film to play Boyce Fox.^[25] On April 7, 2016, it was reported that Hugh Dancy had joined the film to play Dr. John Flynn, Grey's psychiatrist.^[26]

Filming

Principal photography was set to begin in Vancouver in June 2015.^[27] However, it was later postponed due to delays in the script being written.^[15] It was later confirmed that filming would begin in February 2016 in Vancouver, while the studio North Shore Studios was booked for the film.^[28][29] In November 2015, Universal Studios announced that the film and Freed both would be shot back-to-back with principal photography scheduled to commence in early 2016.^[30] Filming began in Paris and Vancouver from February 9, 2016, to July 12, 2016, under the working title, "Further Adventures of Max and Banks 2 & 3."^[31][32][33] Principal photography concluded on April 11, 2016.^[34]