'50 Shades of Grey' Movie Casting to Be Revealed After Labor Day!

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by Kiri Blakeley 5 hours ago

Just when we think we know everything there is to know about the casting of the Fifty Shades movie, the damn thing wriggles out of our grasp again. We thought we finally got a handle on who was the frontrunner to play Christian Grey -- actor Charlie Hunnam, a British actor most famous for roles in Sons of Anarchy and Pacific Rim. But according to Variety, which is a pretty solid source, he was never offered the role at all. But continue your guessing game all you like, folks. Fifty fans waited an agonizingly long time for news of a screenwriter and director, and those were eventually named. And now the names of the Fifty Shades of Grey cast is not too far off. In fact, I'd mark your calendars for Labor Day!!!

Reportedly, it is after Labor Day that "official offers" will be announced. I'm guessing this means the cast will be announced, since "offers" of roles are usually not announced. The truth is that scripts are usually sent out to a large number of actors; it doesn't necessarily mean that the role will be theirs. Except for a few A-list billion-dollar box office types, actors still have to audition for a role. And in the case of Fifty Shades, the director will no doubt want to cast the Christian and Ana actors based on their chemistry together.

One guy might be just perfect for Christian; and one woman perfect for Ana. But unless they create dynamite on screen together, it's just not going to work!

Reportedly, Ian Somerhalder, Armie Hammer and Aaron Johnson (the director's husband) have all said they weren't interested in the role of Christian. And recently writer Bret Easton Ellis said that he knows that E.L. James will "never get" her first choice. (I'm in the minority here that E.L. James will have nothing to do with casting. Authors rarely do, no matter how famous.)

As for Ana, actresses Dakota Johnson (Don Johnson and Melanie Griffiths' kid); Alicia Vikander; Imogen Poots and Shailene Woodley have been mentioned. My guess is that big name actresses like Mila Kunis and Amanda Seyfried will be approached first -- that's just the way Hollywood works. And once they all turn it down, then they'll start auditioning relative unknowns.

One name that is also being associated with the flick, you may not expect: Victoria Beckham. Nooooo, she's not going to play Ana. She's reportedly in contention to design the film. I'm personally thinking a lot of leather and latex. And hopefully a cameo by David Beckham. Mmmm.

Fifty Shades must be a strange beast to cast. While it's a very popular novel and will probably be a very popular movie, and also has a respected director and screenwriter -- actors usually don't want to star in S&M films. That's just the fact. Additionally, E.L. James did not produce a work of art. Actors consider themselves artists and no one is going to be dying to be in this film like they might for, say, an adaptation of Madame Bovary. A lot -- everything, actually -- will depend on how good the script is.

So it will be with baited-breath that we wait (but not too long!) to find out who will play Christian and Anastasia.

Who do you think will play them?

Image via Ian Somerhalder/Instagram

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