By TheWrap Staff
TheWrap

Irish heartthrob Jamie Dornan (BBC’s “The Fall”) and Tony-nominated actor Billy Magnussen (“Damsels in Distress”) are the first two actors to test for the role of Christian Grey with Dakota Johnson, TheWrap has learned.

Australian actor Luke Bracey, who recently wrapped Max Landis’ directorial debut “Me Him Her,” is also a contender.

Bing: Who should play Christian Grey?

Universal and Focus are in a hurry to replace Charlie Hunnam, who dropped out of the project last week, citing a lack of preparation time due to his TV schedule for “Sons of Anarchy.” The FX series wraps production on Oct. 21, while “Fifty Shades” doesn’t head into production until Nov. 1, though it’s unclear whether Christian Grey will be needed on set at the beginning of the shoot. With Jennifer Ehle cast as Anastasia Steele’s mother, it’s possible those mother-daughter scenes could be filmed first.

In the week since Hunnam’s departure, multiple individuals close to “Fifty Shades” told TheWrap that Hunnam was never really gung-ho about the project and that his manager, Cynthia Pett, ushered him into the risky role, which had less upside for an established star. Not only does Hunnam lead a hit cable series, but “Pacific Rim” grossed $407 million worldwide. Universal had initially chased Pett’s other client, Garrett Hedlund, and when that choice didn’t pan out, she began pushing Hunnam on the studio.

Hunnam is also a writer whose vampire movie “Vlad” is in development at Summit and Plan B Entertainment, the production company owned by Pett-repped Brad Pitt. Insiders say Hunnam approached the studio with notes on Kelly Marcel’s screenplay, which she adapted from EL James’ bestselling novel. It’s unclear whether Universal ordered a draft that addressed Hunnam’s now-irrelevant concerns, though Patrick Marber was recently hired to polish the screenplay.

Also from TheWrap: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’: Dakota Johnson Is Strapped In, Hunnam or No Hunnam

Both Dornan and Magnussen are relative unknowns, which may work in their favor, as the public may be more willing to accept them in the role of the kinky billionaire, who millions of readers all imagine differently. The imagination is a powerful thing, and an audience with no pre-conceived notions of the actor playing Grey could tailor their own fantasizes to his relatively mysterious cinematic identity.

The 31-year-old Dornan, whose sole major movie credit is Sofia Coppola’s divisive 2006 drama “Marie Antoinette,” can play both sides of good and evil. He played Sheriff Graham (aka the Huntsman) on ABC’s fairy tale series “Once Upon a Time,” as well as a twisted serial killer in the acclaimed BBC series “The Fall,” which is currently available to watch on Netflix.

At 28 years old, Magnussen is the same age as Christian Grey. He recently replaced Jake Gyllenhaal as Rapunzel’s Prince in Disney’s “Into the Woods,” and will soon begin filming a lead role in the HBO series “The Money.”

Sam Taylor-Johnson is directing “Fifty Shades of Grey” for Universal and Focus. Mike De Luca and Dana Brunetti are producing the movie, which is scheduled to hit theaters on Aug. 1, 2014 … for now.

Also on TheWrap:
20 of the Buzziest ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Casting Choices
Inside Charlie Hunnam and Dakota Johnson’s ’50 Shades of Grey’ Casting: Chemistry Tests to the Dotted Line
Charlie Hunnam ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Shocker: How the World Reacted

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Award season has launched early this year as the movie industry’s hometown gives out its own film awards.

Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey, Harrison Ford, Jerry Weintraub and Lee Daniels received top honors at the 17th annual Hollywood Film Awards Gala held on Monday at The Beverly Hilton.

Bing: Oscar buzz for Sandra Bullock

Each recipient was presented with an award by esteemed cohorts as the stars enjoyed the untelevised, and unedited, evening.

Robert Downey Jr. praised Jared Leto’s work in “Dallas Buyers Club” when presenting him with the “Breakout Performance” award. “August: Osage County” actress Julia Roberts accepted her supporting actress award while barefoot.

“12 Years a Slave” actress Lupita Nyong’o offered a tearful speech in accepting her “New Hollywood Award.”

There is talk of televising the show next year.

By Tony Maglio
TheWrap

Martin Sheen is huge in Dubai, and he will soon have the award to prove it.

The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor will be honored with the DIFF Lifetime Achievement Award for his service to the film industry during the opening ceremony of the 10^th installment of the festival, which runs from Dec. 6 to the 14.

Bing: Johnny Depp honors Christopher Lee

“I am truly honored to accept the Dubai International Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award and looking forward to celebrating the region’s gifted cinematic storytellers,” Sheen said.

In addition to the presentation, a “Conversation with Martin Sheen” QA will take place at the festival.

DIFF Chairman Abdulhamid Juma said: “Martin Sheen is a cinematic legend whose remarkable career has spanned five decades. In that time he has brought to life a huge variety of compelling, intelligent and wonderfully engaging characters on the big and small screen. We are honoured to present Martin Sheen with a DIFF Lifetime Achievement Award and we look forward to welcoming him to Dubai.”

Previous Lifetime Achievement honoree’s at DIFF include Morgan Freeman, Sean Penn, Oliver Stone and Danny Glover. Sheen has appeared in more than 80 films.

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By Greg Gilman
TheWrap

Ben Whishaw (“Skyfall”) is Queen‘s top choice to play Freddie Mercury in a role once occupied by Sacha Baron Cohen.

“We’re hoping for a guy with B.W. initials,” Queen drummer Roger Taylor said on Friday while appearing on BBC’s “The One Show.”

Bing: Why Sacha Baron Cohen left Mercury biopic

“Is it Ben Whishaw?” one of the hosts asked later in the program.

“Well, we hope so,” Taylor said.

Whishaw’s representative declined the opportunity to comment when contacted by TheWrap.

The 33-year-old actor played Q alongside Daniel Craig’s James Bond in the 23rd installment of the spy franchise, and had a big role in “Cloud Atlas” last year, as well.

Also from TheWrap:  Daniel Radcliffe as Freddie Mercury? Another Casting Rumor Bites the Dust

Cohen was attached to play Mercury in the long-gestating project, but exited in July due to creative differences with the band, who is producing through Queen Films.

Guitarist Brian May told Classic Rock Magazine in a recent interview that they felt Cohen’s “presence in the movie would be very distracting.”

“What led us to that conclusion was the last three movies that he’s made “The Dictator,” “Les Miserables” and “Hugo,” in which he makes outstanding performances, but they’re very much Sacha Baron Cohen performances,” May said. “And we thought there has to be no distraction in the Freddie movie. You have to really suspend that disbelief – the man who plays Freddie, you have to really believe is Freddie. And we didn’t that could really happen with Sacha.”

“That’s not any criticism of his talent whatsoever,” May added, before noting that the artists parted ways on “very good terms.”

Peter Morgan (“The Queen”) wrote the script for the Mercury movie, which Graham King and Tim Headington are producing with Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal.

Daniel Radcliffe Talks Gay Sex, ‘Ridiculous’ Freddie Mercury Rumors and ‘Frankenstein’ (Video)
Michael Jackson Wrongful Death Trial: AEG Live Found Not Liable
Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury Duets to Be Released This Fall

Entertainment Tonight.

Forget all the X-rated talk surrounding “Nymphomaniac” — Shia LaBeouf is already taking it all off in his latest film, “Charlie Countryman.”

“Tune in, turn on, drop out – #CharlieCountryman,” Shia tweeted Sunday, along with a photo showing the 27-year-old in the buff.

Bing: Michael Bay attacked in Hong Kong

The “Transformers” actor plays the title character in the film, who heads to Bucharest as directed by a vision from his late mother. When his fellow passenger dies right next to him during the flight, his life takes yet another direction that leads him into the arms of a beautiful musician (Evan Rachel Wood). But complications quickly arise when her complicated past in the form of a vicious gangster played by Mads Mikkelsen lays claim to her. Inspired by love, Charlie is determined to protect her and enters into the hallucinatory, Romanian underworld filled with violence and excitement.

This isn’t the first — and let’s face it, probably not the last time — Shia LaBeouf has appeared completely nude. He dropped trou in Sigur Ross’ bizarre “Fjogur Piano” music video a year ago.

“Charlie Countryman” hits theaters and OnDemand November 15.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Kumar Pallana, an Indian character actor with small parts in movies such as “The Terminal” and “The Royal Tennenbaums,” died suddenly Oct. 10 at the home he shared with his son in Oakland. He was 94.

“He lived life to the fullest,” said his daughter Sandhya Pallana of Dallas, who confirmed the death to The Associated Press. “It was really wonderful how well he was received and how well he was liked and that people appreciated his unique and creative style.”

Pallana was a yoga instructor living in Dallas when in the mid-1990s he met Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, who were working on their breakout movie “Bottle Rocket,” the Los Angeles Times reported. They cast Pallana as a bumbling safe cracker.

His thick accent and diminutive stature combined to help him steal scenes and earned him parts in more films, including three more directed by Anderson and one by Steven Spielberg.

Sandhya Pallana said her father had been in good health, but collapsed while getting ready to play bridge with friends. He was making plans to travel to Dallas to see his first grandchild, whom she adopted earlier this month in India.

“They just missed each other by days,” she said.

Despite his age, Kumar Pallana seemed timeless, his daughter said. He loved his iPad and iPhone, and drove a Prius until just shortly before his death.

“He embraced the moving and changing times of our modern age better than any 90-year-old that can be found today,” Sandhya Pallana said.

In August he shot a TV pilot in New York.

Kumar Pallana was born Dec. 23, 1918, in Indore in central India. His father lost his lucrative car dealership when Pallana’s brother was arrested for aiding in the fight against British colonial rule.

Pallana dropped out of high school with the goal of becoming an actor, but he could not get seen at the studios in Bombay.

He trained as an acrobat and plate spinner, touring festivals in India and Africa performing balancing acts. In 1946 he came to the U.S. as the act Kumar of India.

He took his juggling and acrobatic act to “Captain Kangaroo,” ”The Mickey Mouse Club,” and others.

Eventually he opened a yoga studio above his son’s Cosmic Cup coffee shop in Dallas, where the chance meeting with Anderson and Wilson helped to fulfill his dream of becoming an actor.

“They were nice kids,” he told the Times in a 2004 interview.

He was the eccentric airport janitor in Spielberg’s “The Terminal,” starring Tom Hanks.

In 2008 Pallana told the Oakland Tribune that he entertains “to make people happy.”

Thank God it isn’t all some cheap publicity stunt… like for the opening of a new movie or anything… What?  They are…?   It is…?

Oh!

Never mind.

By Sara Morrison
TheWrap

Gwyneth Paltrow’s tightly-controlled image might get an unauthorized write-up in an upcoming Vanity Fair profile, but it shouldn’t hurt her reputation with fans and will probably help the magazine’s reputation to hit the entertainment world a little harder than it used to, according to brand strategists.

“This is not her Paula Deen moment,” Howard Bragman, longtime publicist and vice-chairman of Reputation.com, told TheWrap. “She’s a smart, talented actress, singer, brand.”

“Her die-hard fans will have a hard time being alienated by her,” Linda Ong, brand strategist and president of TruthCo., said. “They love buying into the fantasy that she’s revealing her authentic self on GOOP.”

Also read: Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor Join Johnny Depp in Lionsgate’s ‘Mortdecai’

But Ong thinks that people who are not Paltrow superfans will be turned off by her actions and attempts to control her image.

“She’s not doing herself any favors by trying to be very controlling and perfect in an era when there’s post-economic collapse, it’s widely acknowledged that nobody’s perfect and that there’s no such thing as control,” Ong said. “It just seems out of touch.”

Bragman thought the controversy would blow over without doing much, if any, damage.

“Gwyneth as a personality, as a brand, is stronger than one potentially critical article,” he said. “I think she will not only survive this, she will thrive.”

Also read: Conde Nast Launches ‘Vanity Fair’ Channel: Celebs, Snobs and Swinger Parties

Paltrow emailed her celebrity friends asking them not to participate in the profile — and not to “do” the magazine ever again, according to the New York Times. In an interview with London’s Times, Vanity Fair’s longtime editor in chief Graydon Carter confirmed his magazine was writing about the star and that it would go forward with or without her consent.

On Friday, the New York Post said Paltrow’s main objection to the article was her fear that it would explore her close friendship with billionaire Jeff Soffer, and the possibility that they had an extramarital affair in 2008.

Paltrow’s rep (who declined to comment to TheWrap, as did Vanity Fair) denied it, and Bragman doesn’t think it will matter much to GOOPaphiles or even the wider audience if it turns out to be true. “Sexual indiscretion is not something they judge particularly harshly,” he said.

Also read: Miley Cyrus Re-Brands Herself With Raunchy VMA Shocker: A Success or Major Fail?

“The best thing Gwyneth could do is go do a positive piece in another magazine and get a thick skin and get over it,” Bragman said. “I don’t think we’ll be seeing Gwyneth at the Vanity Fair Oscar party next year.”

Vanity Fair’s new tougher stance on its celebrity coverage is a marked departure from the fluffy profiles for which it’s become known. That’s also a good way for the magazine to raise its own profile, Ong and Bragman agreed.

“Graydon and Beth, his PR woman, are probably sitting there, ‘Let’s pick a fight with Gwyneth Paltrow! Who loses this one?'” Bragman said.

“Everyone knows there’s no news in entertainment news,'” Ong said. “When Vanity Fair makes a move like this, it makes them more trustworthy. That’s the bottom line.”

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Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor Join Johnny Depp in Lionsgate’s ‘Mortdecai’

WENN

Samuel L. Jackson and the cast of Spike Lee‘s 1989 movie “Do The Right Thing” were constantly harassed by gang members and hoodlums in New York during filming  because they ruined “business” on the streets.

Lee hired members of the Fruit of Islam organization to work security on the set, but whenever Jackson or his co-stars left the safety of their surroundings, thugs threatened to beat them up.

Bing: Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee on ‘Oldboy’

During a recent cast reunion, organized by Entertainment Weekly, Jackson revealed, “Once the Fruit of Islam cleared out the crack houses, it was quiet in there, nobody bothered us. (But) the occasional time when you roam off set and go to a store in the neighbourhood, some guys would say something to the effect of, ‘You acting [expletive] came in here and ruined our business, we’re gonna [expletive] you up!’ “I’d be like, ‘Well, you know, I haven’t always been an actor, so I’m not gonna stand here and take an a**whupping’.”

Co-star Rosie Perez adds, “I was living with my sister, Carmen, and her common-law husband during shooting, and she was four blocks from set. So for me it was, ‘OK, I’m just going to walk down the road and film something’. Not a long commute. But for others I remember them being very wary of the neighborhood and being on constant guard.”

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee is suing a museum in her hometown of Monroeville to stop it from selling souvenirs with her name and the title of her Pulitzer Prize-winning book.

The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Mobile, said the Monroe County Heritage Museum has traded on Lee’s fame without her approval and without compensating her. It seeks an unspecified amount in damages.

“Every single statement in the lawsuit is either false, meritless, or both,” museum attorney Matt Goforth said Friday in an email.

The lawsuit comes after Lee sought a federal trademark for the title of her book when it’s used on clothing. The museum opposed her application, saying its souvenir sales are vital to its continued operation. A ruling is over a year away.

Bing: More on Harper Lee

Lee’s book is set in fictional Maycomb County, but her suit says the setting was inspired by the real Monroe County where she lives in south Alabama. The museum in Monroeville has displays honoring her and presents the play “To Kill a Mockingbird” each summer in the old county courthouse courtroom, which served as a model for the movie’s courtroom. The museum pays royalties for using the play, and that is not an issue in the suit.

The suit contends the museum has profited from the unauthorized use of Lee’s name and book title through the sale of clothing and a variety of souvenirs. Its website also uses the title (http://www.tokillamockingbird.com ) without any compensation, the suit says.

“Ms. Lee has suffered a stroke and is in ill health. The defendant apparently believes that she lacks the desire to police her trademarks, and therefore seeks to take advantage of Ms. Lee’s condition and property. The defendant is mistaken,” the suit says.

The suit says that in August, the museum refused an offer from Lee to sell it merchandise she had authorized.

Clay Rankin, the Mobile attorney representing the 87-year-old author, did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

The museum’s Birmingham attorney said the tourist attraction is within its rights to educate the public and preserve the area’s history. “It’s sad that Harper Lee’s handlers have seen fit to attack the nonprofit museum in her hometown that has been honoring her and the town’s rich history associated with that legacy for over 20 years,” Goforth said.

The suit says the museum took in more than $500,000 in revenue in 2012. Goforth said the museum earned $28,566 from merchandise sales in 2012.

U.S. District Judge William Steele has not scheduled any hearings in the case.