Fifty Shades of Grey Casts Its Christian & Anastasia

The long wait is over, Universal/Focus Features now has its leads for their Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation – Charlie Hunnam and Dakota Johnson.

Back in June, director Sam Taylor-Johnson was chosen to bring the first book of E.L. James‘ Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy to life on the big screen but many were still wondering who would land the coveted (?) lead roles. Johnson’s confirmation came first yesterday. According to the press release:

Ms. Johnson’s first notable screen role was in the multi-Academy Award-winning 2010 feature The Social Network, on which Mr. De Luca and Mr. Brunetti were producers.  Her subsequent movies include the upcoming feature Need for Speed, 21 Jump Street, and Universal Pictures’ The Five-Year Engagement.  She also starred as Kate in the Fox Network comedy series Ben and Kate, which aired during the 2012-2013 season.  Ms. Johnson is currently shooting the feature film Cymbeline.

Then Pacific Rim/Sons of Anarchy star Hunnam was said to be playing billionaire Christian Grey. James announced both via her Twitter account. She also wrote, To all the supporters, lovers and haters – thank you so much for the passion that you have for this project. You all rock. All of you.”

I haven’t read the book so I don’t have an opinion on the casting. What do you think, fans?

[UPDATE] Apparently some fans really don’t like the casting. There’s a petition to cast Matt Bomer and Alexis Bledel instead.

(via Collider, Deadline)

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Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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