Erotic One Direction and Harry Styles fan fiction set for Fifty Shades of Grey-style movie
Anna Todd's racy eBook After has attracted millions of hits online
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Erotic fan fiction that sees One Direction's Harry Styles go all Fifty Shades of Grey on us is making its way to the silver screen.
Anna Todd, 25, began writing a racy ebook while her husband was serving in Iraq. Styles appears as Hardin Todd in the story, a student inspired by EL James' BDSM-loving male lead Christian Grey.
Hardin's love interest Tessa is "compelled to dig deeper and find the real Hardin beneath all his lies despite the reckless way he treats her".
Released online one chapter at a time, After is believed to have attracted more than one billion hits and now, Paramount Pictures is interested in taking it to cinemas.
Todd told Newsbeat that she was "definitely influenced" by Fifty Shades of Grey after James' bestselling novels "sort of changed [her] adult reading life".
"I had no idea what to expect when I started writing it so it's really exciting and just totally insane that it's come to this," she said.
"I just wrote the book to entertain myself. I would like to see Harry in it but I don't think he can really get into that grouchy, rude kind of role."
Three more proposed books by Todd, as well as After, have been sold to publishers in 26 countries for a six-figure sum.
But not all One Direction fans are keen on the idea of a film version as they do not want their beloved Harry portrayed as a "misogynistic boy".
A Change.org petition entitled "The book was bad enough, don't let them make it a movie", has amassed more than 23,000 online signatures.
"After is not a love story, it's the tale of a girl who is physically, mentally and emotionally abused by a misogynistic boy, who everyone, and by that I mean everyone, will see as Harry Styles," a statement from creator Ashley Castro reads.
"Whether or not the name is changed, everyone will know who it is originally about and we can't have him portrayed as that."
The message goes on to attack the writer as a "lying, scheming woman trying to make money off of young, innocent fans".
"Teen girls see this relationship as healthy and want something like this for their future," it reads. "Please, this is not me being spiteful, or jealous. I'm thinking of all the 12-year-olds thinking that this is love and that it's okay, when it's not."
Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson will star as playboy billionaire Grey and infatuated student Anastacia Steele in the movie version of Fifty Shades of Grey, due out February 2015.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments