Now Charlie Hunman and Dakota Johnson have been cast as the two leads in the forthcoming Fifty movie, and the shock of the announcement has had time to settle in, we can take a calm look at the pairing. It’s an interesting pairing. Charlie is 33-years old and has been around for a while and Dakota Johnson is 23-years old, so the age difference is not too vast in terms of their real life ages. Christian Grey is 27-years old and that puts him in the same generation as the 21-year old Anastasia.
Dakota is closer in age to Anastasia and as one of the lesser names who were originally rumored to be playing the role, Dakota is a great choice. Age and the persona is so very important and Dakota has the willowy looks that are so necessary to carry off E.L. James’ student character who begins life in the story as a clumsy student who is shy and inexperienced in terms of physical relationships. Dakota should be able to carry this off well as the beginning of the plot is highly important to keep us glued to the screen.
Charlie has six years on Christian and because of Christian’s dark character, he is dark as in macabre in some ways as, it is hard to argue otherwise and that’s perhaps what has made Christian such a talked about character, Christian comes across in the book as a man who is much older than a youthful 27-year old. He certainly doesn’t give off the aura of a rich 27-year old playboy who sleeps around with endless women. Christian is highly determined in what he wants from a woman. Charlie should have no problem pulling this off. He’s a successful actor who has played demanding roles. Out of the two lead actors, who do you think will have to adapt more to their role? Both have to be filled to remind us of the book characters and if Universal has listened to many comments about books-turned-film, there is an undulating current of “The Film is never as good as the book”
This is something which can be somewhat of a problem for studios that choose to take characters from books and bring them to the screen. If we think of movies such as The Shawshank Redemption or The Color Purple both highly acclaimed books and both movies were popular and well-made and in keeping with the original story as much as they possibly could. Can Charlie Hunman and Dakota Johnson carry off these roles to have the Fifty movies romping home with the best-selling movie adaptation of all time? The book trilogy has certainly gone global with over 70-miilion copies sold.
It’s a touch call for a casting team, the studios, the book’s original author and the rest of the crew involved with such a monumental task. It’s a creative craft pulling together and while the lead roles are highly important, we mustn’t forget what goes on behind the screens.
Can Charlie Hunman and Dakota Johnson pull this off and bring the images the fans have had in their minds since last summer and make this into the blockbuster the world has been waiting for?
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