As much as people may get upset and tired of casting rumors and shortlists, the closer we get to a film’s production date the more and more likely some of them are to be true and such is the case of the Fifty Shades of Grey as Focus Features announced today that Dakota Johnson (The Social Network) and Charlie Hunnam (Pacific Rim, “Sons of Anarchy”) have officially been cast as Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey respectively.
Fifty Shades of Grey started as Twilight fan-fiction and centers on literature student Anastasia Steele, who goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey and encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too — but on his own terms.
Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success — his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family — Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.
Subsequent novels in the series, “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed,” explore the couple’s deepening relationship through a variety of kinky sex scenes. All of which are obviously being targeted as film adaptations.
Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy) is directing for an August 1, 2014 release.
