James Frey's 'A Million Little Pieces' is now a movie

TORONTO  — James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces," once one of the most toxic properties in Hollywood, has been reborn on the big screen by director Sam Taylor-Johnson and her actor husband, Aaron, whom she wrote it with.

In even a movie world where "based on a true story" often has elastic meaning, a film about "A Million Little Pieces" is a surprise. After Frey admitted to partially fabricating or embellishing parts of his memoir about drug addiction, Oprah Winfrey, who had include Frey's book in her book club, chastised him on television. The book's publisher, Doubleday, offered refunds to readers.

But for Sam Taylor-Johnson, who helmed the adaptation of "Fifty Shades of Grey," there was still truth in "A Million Little Pieces."