It’s a steamy CW showdown over which heartthrob will land the lead role in the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Both Ian Somerhalder and Stephen Amell have coyly admitted to being in talks for the role of the sexually-domineering Christian Grey.

On Thursday, the 31-year-old Arrow star admitted to fans on his Facebook that he’s “had a meeting” with Fifty Shades execs. “I get questions about Christian Grey all the time,” Amell said.

“I know this, because I had a meeting about it. Long way off. I mean, not that long, but not that close. I wouldn’t call it long, but I wouldn’t call it close.”

But, it looks like Amell hasn’t been cast just yet.

On March 14, The Vampire Diaries stud Somerhalder kept his cards close to the vest on an appearance of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live.

The 34-year-old actor refused to confirm or deny reports that he’s auditioned for the role but told Bravo’s Andy Cohen:

“I can’t say anything other than it is a very interesting story and whoever gets that role is going to have a very fun rehearsal time.”

While the lead role is still up in the air, the book’s heroine Anastasia Steele is still up for grabs as well.

Harry Potter’s Emma Watson sarcastically lashed out after reports alleged she was signed to play Miss Steele.

Who here actually thinks I would do 50 Shades of Grey as a movie? Like really. For real. In real life.

— Emma Watson (@EmWatson) March 17, 2013

Who would make for the perfect cast in your opinion? Sound off below.

Curtains up on Christian Grey!

Fifty Shades of Grey, E L James’ kinky New York Times’ bestseller, is coming to an off-Broadway theater this January, according to Time.

But don’t expect seriously sultry, handcuff-happy sex scenes. Created by the musical comedy group Baby Wants Candy, 50 Shades! The Musical is a song-and-dance spoof on the X-rated trilogy, which originally began as Twilight fan fiction.

Directed by Albert Samuels, the musical opens on a book club of middle-aged women paging through Fifty Shades of Grey, a sexual thriller about the S&M-tinged affair between curious, college-aged Anastasia Steele and older, bondage-loving billionaire Christian Grey.

Instead of blush-worthy bedroom play, 50 Shades! The Musical — playing the Gramercy Theater on Jan. 11 and 12 — takes on 11 original musical numbers, such as “They Get Nasty,” “I Don’t Make Love, I “F#*!” and “There’s a Hole Inside of Me.”

The show has previously played at Chicago’s Apollo Theatre and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

The musical comes as a feature film based on the book — which has sold 65 million copies around the world — get under way this year. “It will be NC-17,” said the adaptation’s screenwriter, Kelly Marcel, according to The Telegraph. “It will be raunchy. We are 100% going there.”

“The fans love this book, and I want them to love the film as much,” she continued. “I want to make them laugh and cry, to turn them on. I want this to do everything.”

Watch a preview for the musical, below. Would you go see the show off Broadway? Tell us why in comments.

After acquiring the movie rights to E.L. James’ novel Fifty Shades of Grey, Universal Studios is now suing Smash Pictures for their planned porn parody of the book. Smash Pictures and director James Lane (aka Jim Powers) are being taken to court for their movie Fifty Shades of Grey: A XXX Adaptation, which Universal calls a “willful attempt to capitalize on the reputation of the book.” [The Hollywood Reporter]

Safety Not Guaranteed’s screenwriter Derek Connolly is having a good week. Earlier, he signed on to co-write the remake of Flight of the Navigator with Safety’s director Colin Trevorrow. Now, he’s writing a script for a mystery Pixar movie to be directed by Teddy Newton. Details on the script are being kept under secrecy, but what we do is that the writer has been developing the movie for at least a year. [Variety]

Jennifer Lee, a co-writer on Disney’s hit Wreck-It Ralph, will co-direct Disney’s upcoming animated feature, Frozen. Lee, who also did script work on the film, joins Tarzan director Chris Buck to tell the story of the Snow Queen. Disney announced Lee’s hiring via press release.

Mad Men’s Jon Hamm is circling a comedy to be his first leading role on the big screen. Epic Fail, written by Kevin Costello, will feature Hamm as a downtrodden high school teacher who recruits two students to kidnap his wife so he can play the hero and rekindle their marriage. The film will be released by 20^th Century Fox. [Variety]

True Grit’s Hailee Steinfeld has joined Kevin Costner in the thriller Three Days to Kill. The Academy Award-nominated actress will play the estranged daughter of Costner’s character, a dying assassin who uses his last mission to reunite with his child. McG (This Means War) will direct. [Deadline]

Alright, movie fans: Talk amongst yourselves in the comments below. And watch Celebuzz weigh the pros and cons of a 50 Shades of Grey movie!

Kelly Marcel, the co-creator of television series Terranova, has been hired to write the screenplay for an upcoming film adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey, Universal Pictures and Focus Features announced Monday.

Marcel’s credits also include the 2011 Black List script for Saving Mr. Banks, a film about Disney’s 20-year pursuit of the adaptation rights for P.L. Travers’ novel Mary Poppins.

Universal and Focus acquired the rights to adapt E.L. James’ blockbuster novel earlier in 2012. The announcement propels forward the highly-anticipated film version, which fans have insisted will absolutely have to be R-rated (or even NC-17) thanks to the source material’s sexually-charged content.

Who’s set to star in the ‘50 Shades’ film adaptation?

No actors have yet been cast in the film, despite widespread speculation from fans about who would be perfect to play literature student Anastasia Steele and handsome billionaire Christian Grey.

The story follows Steele as she finds herself in a sexual cat-and-mouse game with Grey. Originally written as fan fiction for the characters of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen in the Twilight series, the book developed a life of its own and the names were eventually changed en route to international publication.

50 Shades of Grey is the first novel in a trilogy which includes 50 Shades Darker and 50 Shades Freed, also written by James. Watch a featurette in which we speculate about potential casting choices for the upcoming film.

Harry Styles is solidifying his image as the ladies’ man of One Direction: the 18-year-old is reading bits of E L Jame’s erotic novel, Fifty Shades of Grey.

“I haven’t bought it,” he told The Sun. “But a female friend of mine was forcing me to read it out to her the other day.”

What did Styles think of the NSFW material?

“They were like, ‘Just borrow this,’ and I was like, ‘Hmmm’. It seems interesting. I could probably learn from it, I don’t know. I feel like it’s an educational and interesting read.”

When he’s not busy picking up bedroom tips in Fifty Shades of Grey, Styles can most most likely be found in a tattoo parlor. The teenage crooner recently got inked — again.

In a photo posted on a Twitter account managed by One Direction fans, he can be seen showing off fresh tats on his upper left ribcage, including a pair of comedy and tragedy drama masks, a birdcage and the letters “SMCL.”

There’s some debate among One Direction fans as to the meaning behind “SMCL.” Some believe that the letters stand for “Smile more, cry later,” while other Directioners think the letters stand for Simon Cowell, who first signed the group in early 2011 after being formed on The X Factor. 

In related One Direction news, the band’s latest single, “Live While We’re Young,” is currently No. 1 on iTunes. 1D’s sophomore effort, Take Me Home, drops Nov. 13.

She may have written an erotic best-seller, but Fifty Shades of Grey author E L James wants to make sure the world knows that she’s “not such a pervert.”

“The books are my fantasy,” she told E! News. “I wrote them for me, really, and the wonderful thing about doing this is they seem to be other peoples’ fantasies, so I’m not such a pervert.”

However, there was one subject that made the former housewife stay mum.

What was the out of bounds topic?

When asked about the BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism) lifestyle she explored in her trilogy, James politely declined to talk about the controversial subject. ”I don’t want to comment on that.”

The author also couldn’t comment on the actors on her shortlist to play lovers Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey in the film adaptation of the book. “It gets messy,” she said. “You might end up with somebody else [other than who I suggested].”

However, that hasn’t stopped a number of famous faces from being attached to the project. E.L. James’ husband recently told the UK’s Now magazine the “last he heard” Ryan Gosling was the main choice to play billionaire playboy and BDSM aficionado Christian Grey.

Gosling has been at the forefront of the Fifty Shades rumor mill since it was announced the best-selling “mommy porn” trilogy would be adapted for the big screen. Meanwhile, young actresses from Lucy Hale to Ashley Benson have expressed their interests in playing college student Anastasia Steele.

Producers Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti will be at the helm of the Fifty Shades film, and they plan on making a movie that’s about more than just sex. “At its core, Fifty Shades of Grey is a complex love story, requiring a delicate and sophisticated hand to bring it to the big screen,” Universal co-chairman Donna Langley said in a statement given to The Hollywood Reporter.

If you’re going to cast someone to play Christian Grey, the sexual slavemaster at the center of Fifty Shades of Grey, why not just bypass traditional Hollywood leading men and go straight to the world of porn?

That’s what may yet happen with the much-discussed film version of E.L. James’ steamy bestseller.

According to novelist/screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis, who was once shortlisted to adapt the book into a screenplay himself, the filmmakers are thinking of casting porn star James Deen as Christian Grey — a casting choice that Ellis says has the approval of the Fifty Shades author herself.

“Just got inside information that James Deen is actually in the running to play Christian in “Fifty Shades of Grey” with E.L. James support,” Ellis tweeted on Saturday.

Who does Ellis believe will co-star as Anastasia Steele?

Ellis followed his initial tweet about the production with two more in quick succession, claiming that the film will have a very low budget (by Hollywood standards) of under $15 million, and that the filmmakers want to find an unknown ingenue to play Grey’s lover, Anasatasia Steele.

“‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ will be budgeted at 12-15 million and James Deen is on the list of actors to play Christian Grey according to source,” Ellis tweeted.

He added, “Fifty Shades of Grey movie will DEFINITELY be written by a woman and the budget will be below 15 million. Ana will be played by an unknown.”

The Less Than Zero novelist got himself in trouble last time he went on a tweeting session about Fifty Shades. Last month, Ellis earned criticism for saying that Magic Mike star Matt Bomer wouldn’t make a convincing Christian because he’s openly gay, and audiences wouldn’t be able to suspend disbelief to accept him as a hetero stud. (At least no one who knows Deen’s background would doubt that he is, um, up to the task.)

Ellis and Dean are close friends, Deen having been cast in the Ellis-scripted drama The Canyons alongside Lindsay Lohan. (You can see photos of the two young stars partying together in the gallery at the top of this article.) That movie, currently in production and due for release next year, marks Deen’s first foray into mainstream filmmaking. Fifty Shades would surely complete the transition, making him perhaps the first male porn star to successfully cross over into serious, legit roles in Hollywood.

Of course, that’s assuming he actually gets the part of Christian Grey. In a recent interview, E.L. James’ husband, Niall Leonard, said he thought Ryan Gosling had the part sewn up.

Now, this is a Fifty Shades of Grey casting idea that we can get behind.

New Girl funnyman Max Greenfield told Celebuzz that portraying playboy millionaire Christian Grey in the big screen adaptation of author E.L. James’ racy trilogy could be the role of a lifetime.

“I want to audition for the movie,” said Greenfield. “I think I’d be great in it!”

But is Greenfield ready for all of those NSFW scenes? 

He added, “Look, when I read the book, I thought, ‘What a comedy!’ I think maybe I can bring a little bit of validity to the situation. Sometimes, you try to figure out life and what it all means, and maybe I only got this New Girl job so that I would be enough of a commodity to get the role of Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey. I’d probably retire after I did that because I think my performance would be just spot-on.”

“I don’t even think it’s a shirtless thing,” he deadpanned. “I think it’s more of a raw intensity thing. Obviously, I’m the man for the job.”

And when it comes to casting his perfect Fifty Shades of Grey co-star, Greenfield said he wants Girls star Lena Dunham to play his leading lady, Anastasia Steele. After all, the actor said, he’d love to guest-star on the HBO series.

“She’s fantastic,” he said of Dunham. “What if Judd [Apatow] and I collaborated and turned Fifty Shades of Grey into a movie together? That’s what I’d like to do. Me, Lena [Dunham] and Judd. It’s a done deal. I’m calling whoever owns the rights and making this happen.”

But will the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon ever pop up on New Girl? Greenfield seemed hopeful that Schmidt might take an interest in the novel after realizing how many ladies he could score — after his penis cast removal, of course.

“I have read anything in any of those scripts about Fifty Shades of Grey, but I’m sure that it’s going to come up. If we were going to do it, we’d have to dedicate an entire episode to it and go all out. Slowly but surely, everyone in the apartment will be reading it. It will be like a sexual awakening!”

New Girl Season 2 premieres Sept. 25 at 8 PM on Fox, followed by another all-new episode at 9 PM.

Would you like to see Judd Apatow direct Fifty Shades of Grey, starring Max Greenfield and Lena Dunham? Let us know in the comments!

WATCH: The making of the New Girl opening sequence.

Bach is about to go bondage, as Fifty Shades of Grey gets ready to release its classical soundtrack.

The erotic novel’s author, E.L James has already curated wishlist soundtracks to all three of her naughty novels.

Now EMI Classics has picked out the classical tunes from her list — which also includes pop and rock songs — and created an album.

Which famous composers are about to get raunchy?

Included in the CD’s 15 tracks will be Pachelbel‘s “Canon in D,” Bach’s “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” and “Spem in Alium” sung by The Tallis Scholars.

The latter has already experience a boost in sales after it was mentioned in the raunchy reads.

“I’m am thrilled that the classical pieces that inspired me while I wrote the Fifty Shades trilogy are being brought together in one collection for all lovers of the books to enjoy,” James said in a statement.

And the music company is ecstatic to have been given the opportunity to get involved with the sultry hit.

“The Fifty Shades books are a bona fide cultural phenomenon,” said Wendy Ong, Vice President of EMI Classics. “They offer an exciting new way to present this timeless music to audiences who might not otherwise be exposed to it.”

The soundtrack will be released digitally on August 21 and on CD on September 18.