Fifty Shades of Grey Gets a Release Date

Highly anticipated film adaptation of the popular book is due in theaters on August 1, 2014

By Peter Gicas Jun 27, 2013 6:02 PMTags
E! Placeholder Image

Mark your calendars, Fifty Shades of Grey fans!

Focus Features, the studio behind the big-screen adaptation of the bestselling book, announced in a press release on Thursday that the film will hit North American theaters on Friday, August 1, 2014, with opening dates around the world to be revealed at a later time.

#FiftyShadesofGrey is now a shade closer," Focus Features tweeted along with a graphic captioned, "Charlie Tango you are cleared for landing. August 1, 2014," an obvious reference to Christian Grey's helicopter.

Focus Features/Twitter

Fifty Shades of Grey author E.L. James herself tweeted, "Good morning all. Hot news - we have a release date!"

The announcement comes a week after it was revealed that Sam Taylor-Johnson had agreed to direct the movie.

"I am excited to be charged with the evolution of Fifty Shades of Grey from page to screen," Taylor-Johnson told E! News exclusively. "For the legions of fans, I want to say that I will honor the power of Erika's book and the characters of Christian and Anastasia. They are under my skin, too."

As for who will land the lead role of Christian Grey, that remains a mystery.

However, rumors were running rampant earlier this week that Robert Pattinson is somehow involved with the project after E! News learned the actor threw director Nicholas Jarecki a birthday party at his Los Feliz home over the weekend, where none other Fifty Shades of Grey author E.L. James was in attendance.

Other celebs, including Heather Graham, Moby, Michelle Rodriguez and Ellen Page also enjoyed the festivities.

What we do know for sure is Stephen Amell is out, Armie Hammer never wanted to be considered, but it looks like Alex Pettyfer is still in the running.

Additional hunks whose names have been thrown around include Ian Somerhalder and Ryan Gosling.