Fifty Shades of Grey author and hired her own husband.
Well this is convenient. E.L James, the author of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, has hired her own husband, Niall Leonard, to write the script for the sequel, Fifty Shades Darker, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Fifty Shades of Grey grossed over $550 million worldwide
Leonard, who is married and has two sons with the author, is a screenwriter with credits including British TV shows Wire in the Blood and Force One is Down. He's also the author of the Crusher book series.
"Niall is an outstanding writer in his own right, with multiple established credits, and we are lucky to have him join Team Fifty," said producer Michael De Luca in a statement.
On the first movie starring Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, James clashed with director Sam Taylor-Johnson over numerous aspects of the shoot. Neither she, nor screenwriter Kelly Marcel are returning for the sequel.
More: Sam Taylor-Johnson leaves Fifty Shades of Grey after E.L James feud
It is thought Dornan and Johnson are negotiating for more money for the sequel, with the first movie taking a huge $568.8 million worldwide.
"Basically, they made a lousy, mid-2000s-era Katherine Heigl romance with a handful of explicit sex scenes spliced throughout the familiar clichés," said Richard Roeper in his review of the movie for the Chicago Sun-Times.
"Who would have thought, a Twilight ripoff actually being inferior to its already inferior inspiration," said Blake Howard of 2UE That Movie Show.
Rumors had be circulating that James wanted to write the screenplay herself, though it looks as though she's got the next best thing.
More: Charlie Hunnam on avoiding "f*cking disaster" Fifty Shades of Grey
'Fifty Shades Darker' is the tense new sequel to the erotic 2015 thriller 'Fifty Shades...