Deadline reports that James Foley is the top choice to direct Fifty Shades Darker, set to come out February 10, 2017. He would replace Sam Taylor-Johnson, the helmer of the first film, who notably fought the books’ author, E.L. James, for creative control. Foley comes with an impressive résumé that began with such films as At Close Range and Glengarry Glen Ross, and lately includes TV episodes of House of Cards and Hannibal. (He’s also the guy behind this iconic, potentially career-foreshadowing, wild roller-coaster scene in 1996’s Fear.) Foley would potentially join returning stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, and work off a script penned by Niall Leonard, James’s husband, also a new addition. Deadline forecasts Foley will probably stay on for the final film, Fifty Shades Freed — as long as everybody plays nicely. Well, not too nicely.
