In the relatively short list of film ideas that make me want to go screaming into the night, Fifty Shades of Grey is right there at the top. The very idea of turning a truly terrible book series into a film just seems like something that will inevitably go wrong; so very wrong. But there’s nothing that you or I or anyone else can do about it, and now it appears that this terrible concept will go forward. The two leads for Fifty Shades of Grey have been cast and they are ….
Charlie Hunnam and Dakota Johnson!
Surprised? No, probably not. Hunnam was mentioned not too long ago for the part of Christian Grey, the dominant businessman who begins an S&M relationship with young and painfully naive Anastasia Steele (dear God, please kill me). Given that Hunnam has been a major force on TV in Sons of Anarchy, and recently appeared in the lead role of Pacific Rim, his casting makes some sense.
Johnson is a bit more of a surprise for the part of Miss Steele. She’s had a few roles in films like The Social Network, 21 Jump Street and The Five-Year Engagement, but she’s hardly a household name. Still, it’s less surprising when you consider that two of the producers on Fifty Shades of Grey are Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca, both of whom worked on The Social Network.
So there are your leads, and I hope that you’re happy with them. For myself, I will avoid this film by at least 500 yards. Not because the notion of an S&M relationship is particularly troubling – although there are some pretty misogynist underpinnings to the way it’s depicted in Fifty Shades of Grey – but because the book is so unforgivably terrible that I despise the idea of giving even a cent to its continued success. It will be rather interesting to see how the writers/producers manage to make a film that is not so pornographic that it scares away all of the women who have made Fifty Shades of Grey a major success.
What do you think of the casting of Hunnam and Johnson? Sound like a good – ahem – fit? Let us know in the comments.
