'Fifty Shades of Grey' producer Michael De Luca talks about the movie (January 2014)

The Hollywood Reporter - "Obviously, the movie can't be as explicit as the book," Michael De Luca said. "The book is explicit by design because the author wanted to go inside the head of Anna -- the female lead -- and detail her experience. On the literary level, that was necessary. But in a film or any visual medium, a picture is worth a thousand words. To be erotic onscreen is going to have more power than to read the words on a page."

He added that adapting the book was easier for him than it was for author EL James. "We had to lose some stuff. We had to create some stuff," he said. "Because with the dramatic arc, it's a 2-hour, three-act structure...Charlie Hunnam (who dropped out of the production) wanted certain things for his character in the adaptation."

De Luca said he is taking his lead from Adrian Lyne.

"[Lyne's movies] are classy and erotic without being exploitative," he said.

**************************

Deadline - “We’re going to give them [the fans] what they expect, which is an intense and erotic love story,” Michael De Luca added. “Obviously the film can’t be as explicit as the book,” De Luca noted. “A picture is worth a 1000 words. So to be erotic onscreen means I think an image is going to have way more power than reading the words on a page.”

“Not to sound corny, but it is, at its heart, a young love story. I think those things always work,” he said of the blockbuster trilogy of books. “No matter what you think about the book, those things are in that story and they are very cinematic. I think people love a good love story and the these two characters endeared themselves to 90 million readers so it’s hard to say that it didn’t connect on a deeper level than just its more sensationalist aspects, but it was the love story that did it for me.”