Christian Grey revealed

Ian Somerhalder, Henry Caville and Ryan Gosling - just a few of the names associated with the movie adaptation of the worldwide phenomena that is 50 Shades of grey.  Personally I feel that Somerhalder (who has the nickname of 'Smoldypants' on the set of TVD) would have been perfect for the role, but alas, it seems the producers didn't agree.  Hollywood newcomer Charlie Hunnum has been announced as the lead in the upcoming trilogy, an appointment nobody expected because of his, well newness.

Ok well he isn't exactly new just kind of unnoticed, until this summers box office smash hit Pacific Rim was released that is.  British born Charlie has been acting on American screens for a while now, in FX's drama series 'Sons of Anarchy' - a show about an outlaw motorcycle club.  Now I'd never seen the show, but I'd seen the adverts on channel 5 on random Sunday evenings but not once had I recognised the actor, until a friend pointed out that the actor was in fact the lead in 2005's Green Street.  Who knew?

Enough about the man we are going to be seeing a WHOLE lot of next summer, but what of the actress who is to play the 'beguiling' Ana?? Dakota Johnson has been awarded the role - another relative unknown.  According to Google she has a pretty decent list of credits to her name, the only one of which I recognise her from is The Social Network whereby she played 'Amelia Ritter' a small and inconsequential character memorable only for the fact that she got to sleep with Justin Timberlake's Sean Parker.

So, now we have the names, what do we think of them?  Well, needless to say there is a petition going round to have them both sacked.  Hardly surprising, we experienced the same thing with Ben Affleck last month after his Batman appointment was announced (I'll be honest, I was hoping Bale had bowed out as he has received the Christian grey role - admit it, he'd be perfect!).  EL James herself stated that R Pattz would have been her first choice despite the fact that it would be 'weird' to see him play the role - lest we forget 50 Shades began life as fan fiction - but what we need to remember with roles such as these is that whoever receives these roles will be typecast as that character for the rest of their lives, could you realistically see Henry Caville in the role without thinking 'Superman' in the back of your head?  I know the whole time I watched 'Women in Black' I was laughing wondering why Harry Potter didn't simply whip out his wand.  With this point in mind, and the fact that we have little to go by to judge these actors, we'll just have to wait and see.

The New Batman

I don't think many can dispute my opinion that Christian Bale made for the best Batman we have seen as of yet.  Suffice to say then that it came as a surprise when it was announced today the Ben Affleck as been chosen to portray the caped crusader in the forthcoming Superman sequel alongside Henry Caville.

Whilst Warner Brother's president Greg Silverman seems confidance in the choice of actor, stating that ' We knew we needed an extraordinary actor to take on one of DC comics most enduringly popular superheros and Ben Affleck certainly fits that bill, and then some' fans have vented their confusion and fury over the appointment via social media sites with tweets such as 'Casting Ben Affleck as Batman sounds like something the joker would do to create a distraction at the nerd bank' and my personal favourite: 'I've just seen Christian Bale going to Afflecks apartment with some Huey Lewis records and an axe' in reference to the murderous Patrick Bates portrayed by Bale in 2000's American psycho.  Some fans have even gone as far to create an online petition in an aim to convice casting directors to look elsewhere for their lead, a move which may be somewhat premature considering Heath Ledger received the same welcoming when he was cast as the joker, only to later receive posthumous critical acclaim.

 Bale (above), who beat out actor Jake Gyllenhaal to the role of the Dark Knight in 2004, has stated that he chose not to continue in the role as Batman for fear of being pigeon holed for the rest of his career despite the fact that many critics pointed out that Robert Downey Jr has played Iron Man five times now with no negative association to this fact.

Whilst Affleck has a number of high profile movie's under his belt, such as the 2012's Argo which receive nominations for 7 Academy Awards, 5 Golden Globes and 7 Critics Choice Awards, there has been much criticism for some of his earlier roles, particularly his earlier superhero portrayal of Daredevil.  Only time will tell whether he was the right choice for the role and as long as he looks to Bale for inspiration as opposed to the disastrous performance given by George Clooney in Joel Schumacher's adaptation (below), we ought to at least give him a chance right?