VIDEO: 50 facts about Fifty Shades Of Grey

VIDEO: Press the play button to watch the official trailer for Fifty Shades Of Grey.

1: Fifty Shades Of Grey began online, as a raunchy fan-fiction version of Twilight.

2: Back then, author E.L. James went by the name of ‘Snowqueens Icedragon’, and the story was called Master Of The Universe.

3: James decided to tweak the story and take out the vampiric component, so Twilight’s Edward Cullen became the dominant billionaire Christian Grey and Bella Swan transformed into the submissive student Anastasia Steele.

4: The Fifty Shades Of Grey trilogy was originally published as e-books and print-on-demand paperbacks by a virtual publisher, before it was picked up and re-released in spring 2012.

5: To date, around 100 million copies of the trilogy (there’s also Fifty Shades Of Darker and Fifty Shades Freed) have been sold in 52 languages.

6: The publishers have reportedly boasted that at the height of the book’s popularity, two copies of Fifty Shades were being sold every second.

7: The popularity of the erotic books within a certain age group inspired the term ‘mummy porn’.

8: The book’s subject matter meant, all of a sudden, it seemed perfectly normal to discuss BDSM (bondage, domination and sado-masochism) around the water cooler.

9: Its ambiguous beginnings led to a lawsuit when the movie rights were sold, amid claims that the material was part of the public domain and therefore copyright registrations were invalid. The matter was eventually settled out of court.

10: A bidding war between studios broke out to obtain the film rights in 2012.

11: Mark Wahlberg’s production company was one of the first to show interest, but they were “blown out” of bidding when it became too expensive. James decided to go with Universal Pictures and Focus Features.

12: As part of the terms, the writer is said to have made it clear she wanted to retain an element of creative control, and is credited as one of the movie’s co-producers.

13: Her fellow producers are Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti, who previously produced Captain Phillips and The Social Network.

14: American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis was keen to adapt the book.

15: However, Kelly Marcel, who wrote the screenplay for Saving Mr Banks, was hand-picked to rework it for the screen.

16: Angelina Jolie is said to have been interested in directing the movie.

17: According to sources, Joe Wright, who helmed Pride & Prejudice, was considered, but in the end, British film-maker Sam Taylor-Johnson was chosen for the job.

18: Taylor-Johnson made her directorial debut with 2009’s Nowhere Boy, about John Lennon’s younger years and starring her now husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

19: The director’s admitted there have been numerous creative differences between her and James during production.

20: She and the author are said to have fought over the end of the movie; Taylor-Johnson wanted Anastasia to say ‘Red’, referring to the ‘safe word’ mentioned in the books, while James wanted it to be ‘Stop’. James apparently won.

21: The budget for the film is estimated to be around 40million US dollars.