Charlie Hunnam Pulls Out of Fifty Shades of Grey Movie

The Hollywood adaptation of mum-frapping fodder novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" has come to something of a halt this weekend when Charlie Hunnam, set to play semi-titular Christian Grey, walked away from the project. 

British-born Hunnam, known to most from Sons of Anarchy and Pacific Rim, was cast a little while back as the S in the book's S&M relationship, the M being unbelievably named Anastasia Steele as currently played by Dakota Johnson. When he was first cast there was strong fan backlash as many of the nimble-fingered housewives who'd fallen for Christian Grey (in the bath when no one was in) couldn't quite picture Hunnam as their arse-paddling dream man.

The series of novels, originally written as Twilight fan-fiction for the internet then greedily snapped up and given the REPLACE ALL treatment on character names by the publisher, concerns sexy Anastasia striking up a kinky relationship with sexy Christian involving butt-plugs, nipple-clamps and a ton of other playthings with hyphens in them that you don't want coming anywhere near you in the dark.

The official reason for Hunnam's departure has been cited as "scheduling conflict"; he's got too much on with the new series of Sons of Anarchy to "properly prepare" for the role of Christian Grey, but many speculate that he's made a hasty exit due to the feverish Anti-Charlie chatter among fans of the series. 

No word yet on who could replace Charlie in the role, but the movie is still set for release in August next year so they'd better get their skates on. Then take the skates off and use them to spank someone's bare thighs with.

Words by Gazz Wood

Gazz Wood has TWO podcasts on the go; the imaginatively titled Gazz Wood Has A Podcast in which he sits for a relaxed chat with people such as Misfits director Nirpal Bhogal or TV Sexpert Annabelle Knight, as well as Possibly of Interest which he hosts with TV producer Howard Cohen and a special guest from the British comedy scene. People like Nathan Caton and Impractical Joker Marek Larwood.