50 Shades of Grey stars revealed! Dakota Johnson and Charlie Hunnam land lead roles in kinky movie...

Show it off: Charlie Hunnam has starred on FX's Sons Of Anarchy since 2008...

Hello Friends!

After months of speculation and hand-wringing from fans, the search for the Fifty Shades Of Grey leads is over.

Dakota Johnson and Charlie Hunnam will take on the roles of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, respectively, in the anticipated big-screen adaptation of the sexy novel.
The news was tweeted by novel author E.L. James on Monday morning: 'Good moaning all. Hold on to your hats...' she wrote shortly before making the announcements.

 

Finally: Dakota Johnson, seen here at the 12th annual Chrysalis Butterfly Ball in New York City on June 8, was announced as Anastasia Steele on Monday...

Dakota, 23, previously appeared in The Social Network - in which she shared a love scene with Justin Timberlake - and had small roles in 21 Jump Street, The Five-Year Engagement and Beastly.

She is the daughter of Don Johnson, best known for TV shows Miami Vice and Nash Bridges, and his actress ex-wife Melanie Griffith.

It's thought producers cast Dakota because they wanted a young, up-and-coming actress to play the role of virginal Anastasia, who embarks on an intense voyage of sexual discovery with her S&M-loving boss Christian.

 

Family tree: Dakota stands with mum Melanie Griffith at the 63rd annual Golden Globe Awards, held in Beverly Hills, California in January 2006...

Charlie, who is 33 years old and British, stars in the dark biker thriller Sons Of Anarchy as Jackson 'Jax' Teller and also appeared in Guillermo del Toro's robot epic Pacific Rim.
He gained fame on the UK drama Queer As Folk, on which he played gay teenager Nathan Maloney; the show ran from 1999-2000 and was remade for American audiences by Showtime (under the same title).

The castings close waves of rumours about who would take on the roles - Emma Watson, Imogen Poots, Armie Hammer and Ian Somerhalder, among many others, were at one time tied to a main role on the film.

Producer Michael De Luca tweeted on Monday that Dakota and Charlie showed great promise when they auditioned for the roles together: 'Auditions were stunning, incredible chemistry!' he wrote.

The duo had to do a 'chemistry read,' meaning a scene on video, and Charlie also had several tests with various actresses; he seemingly wanted to know who his co-star was before committing to the project, according to The Wrap.

 

Charlie Hunnam...

 

 

Author Bret Easton Ellis, meanwhile, claims that Robert Pattinson was E.L. James' first choice for the lead role.

He tweeted Monday about an exchange he had with the writer at a party earlier in the summer.
'E.L. James and I were at Rob Pattinson's house when she admitted that Rob was first choice for Christian,' Ellis said on Twitter.
'When E.L. James asked me who I thought should be Christian I said 'James Deen, of course,' and then she shoved me,' he added. 'We were both very wasted.'
Fifty Shades Of Grey will be directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy), based off the adapted script by Kelly Marcel (Terra Nova).

The novel is the fastest-selling paperback of all time and has sold more than 70 million copies worldwide.

Controversial for its depictions of sadomasochistic sex and more, Fifty Shades Of Grey marked the rise of 'mummy porn,' or racy reading intended for mainstream, often middle-aged women.
The film is currently slated for release in August 2014. 

 

Flying off the shelves: Fifty Shades Of Grey became the fastest-selling paperback of all time after its 2011 release...

 

So postmodern: Fifty Shades author E.L. James took to Twitter for the big reveal...

Culled from The Daily Mail UK...

xoxo

Simply Cheska...