Fifty Shades of Grey author EL James' next novel The Mister to be adapted into a film by Universal

Universal Pictures has nabbed the rights of author EL James’s 2019 novel _The Mister_ for a film adaptation. The studio had earlier bankrolled all the films in James’ bestselling Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. The author announced the news on Twitter

Thrilled to be back in bed with @UniversalPics https://t.co/9pBDhSYQRD

— E L James 💙 (@E_L_James) February 25, 2020

Set in present-day London, The Mister follows an affluent British aristocrat, who falls in love with his Albanian housekeeper, unaware that she is on the run from human traffickers, states The Hollywood Reporter. James, who has earlier co-produced all the films under the Fifty Shades franchise for Universal Pictures, will finance this film as well. As per  Variety, The Mister featured in New York Times Best Seller list for nine consecutive weeks and has sold in 33 territories/languages internationally. However, the novel was panned by critics. James, whose Fifty Shades books have sold more than 100 million copies and launched a billion-dollar movie franchise, describes The Mister is a modern fairy tale. James has been recognised as one of Time magazine’s ‘Most Influential People in the World’ and Publishers Weekly’s ‘Person of the Year’. Fifty Shades Freed won the Goodreads Choice Award (2012), and Fifty Shades of Grey was selected as one of the 100 Great Reads, as voted by readers, in PBS’s The Great American Read (2018). In the UK, Fifty Shades of Grey won both Popular Fiction and Book of the Year categories at the National Book Awards in 2012. The Fifty Shades of Grey films realised more than $1 billion in global box office sales, with the latest movie, Fifty Shades Freed, winning the People’s Choice Award for Drama in 2018. (With inputs from The Associated Press)