Update: Charlie Hunnam (Pacific Rim, Sons of Anarchy) has been cast in the lead role, as 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey. Check out the original story below.
After dozens (and dozens) of casting rumors, Universal Pictures and Focus Features have gone to work on Labor Day, announcing the female lead for next summer’s Fifty Shades of Grey. Dakota Johnson, who showed up briefly with Justin Timberlake in The Social Network — and alongside Jonah Hill & Channing Tatum in 21 Jump Street — will play college student Anastasia Steele.
Coming from Nowhere Boy director Sam Taylor-Johnson, the film will be produced by Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti, who last worked with Johnson on David Fincher’s Facebook drama. With the film arriving on August 1, 2014, production should be gearing up soon — and, with it, the casting of male lead, 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey.
Johnson, meanwhile, will next be seen alongside Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul in the Need for Speed adaptation, while the actress was also recently cast in a Shakespeare drama, Cymbeline, with Ethan Hawke. But if just a portion of the readers who bought more than 70 million copies of Fifty Shades books attend her latest film, expect it to be her biggest exposure yet — likely, in more ways than one.
What do you think of Johnson’s casting?