Given the unprecedented success of Fifty Shades of Grey, both as a box office hit ($569m worldwide) and as a genuine pop culture phenomenon, we all should have seen this news coming.
Following in the footsteps of previous cash-in spoofs such as The Starving Games, Meet the Spartans and the forthcoming Tooken, Marlon Wayans has announced that he will be in charge of Fifty Shades of Black, a parody of the EL James blockbuster.
Wayans will be reuniting with the same team behind the Haunted House franchise, which riffed on the Paranormal Activity films, and he will co-write as well as star in the comedy. The film will aim for a release in early 2016.
“Sex and comedy go hand-in-hand and I’m looking forward to having fun with this project,” Wayans said. “It’s amazing when a film of this calibre comes along, begging to be made fun of. I’m really happy to be doing what I love with people I love to do it with. That double entendre was intentional.”
The actor has also been involved in spoofs including the first two Scary Movie films and Dance Flick. Parody films have struggled at the box office in recent years with Scary Movie 5 making a third of what the fourth instalment brought in and A Haunted House 2 making half as much as the original did.
