The copyright owner of EL James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, and Universal, the studio producing the film adaptation, are suing the producers of Fifty Shades of Grey: A XXX Adaptation. The sticking point here being the “a XXX adaptation” part, as opposed to the more lawsuit-resistant “a XXX parody.” Meanwhile, let’s not forget that Fifty Shades of Grey itself started out as a porn adaptation of Twilight, which is where this banner image came from:
“Snowqueens Icedragon” was E.L. James’ original pen name. (Hey, writers, stop it with the phony initials-for-names).
The Fifty Shades trilogy was developed from a Twilight fan fiction originally titled “Master of the Universe” and published episodically on fan-fiction websites under the pen name “Snowqueen’s Icedragon”. The piece featured characters named after Stephenie Meyer’s characters in Twilight, Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. After comments concerning the sexual nature of the material, James removed the story from the fan-fiction websites and published it on her own website, FiftyShades.com. Later she rewrote Master of the Universe as an original piece, with the principal characters renamed Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele and removed it from her website prior to publication.
So, a porn adaptation suing a porn adaptation, basically. This would be meta if it weren’t so asinine.
Smash Pictures and James Lane (“Jim Powers”) evidently thought [Fifty Shades of Grey was screaming to be made into porn]. The makers of Fifty Shades of Grey: a XXX Adaptation are now being taken to court over an what the plaintiffs call a “willful attempt to capitalize on the reputation of the book.”
Last summer, L.A. Weekly reviewed the potential porn film of the book franchise, saying, “While parodies are the only way adult film studios can make any money these days, making a ‘Fifty Shades’ version is truly the only way to put the three erotic novels on film in their BDSM glory without MPAA censorship and film industry finger-wagging.”
Want to bet?
In that same article, Smash exec Stuart Wall gave the publication a quote, saying, “Since they are going to make a mainstream [film] of the books, too, dabbling in the adult world we’re choosing to go with a XXX adaption which will stay very true to the book and its S&M-themed romance.”
In the new lawsuit, Fifty Shades Ltd. and Universal points to that quote as proof of the defendants’ intentions to usurp copyright and trademark and confuse source of origin.
“By lifting exact dialogue, characters, events, story, and style from the Fifty Shades trilogy, Smash Pictures ensured that the first XXX adaptation was, in fact, as close as possible to the original works,” says the lawsuit.
How dare they turn our porn adaptation into more porn! This case should be presided over by the retarded Michael Keaton from Multiplicity with a pizza slice for a gavel.
The plaintiffs appear to have screened the movie.
“Beginning with the first XXX Adaptation’s opening scene and continuing throughout the next 2½ hours of the film, Smash Pictures copies without reservation from the unique expressive elements of the Fifty Shades trilogy, progressing through the events of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and into the second book, ‘Fifty Shades Darker,’ ” the complaint continues. “The first XXX adaptation is not a parody, and it does not comment on, criticize, or ridicule the originals. It is a rip-off, plain and simple.” [THR]
If these porn producers have a sense of humor, they’ll just change the title back to “Masters of the Universe,” and rename the characters “Snowqueen” and “Icedragon.” There, now it’s original.