Fifty Shades Of Delay As Release Date Slips

The release of the movie version of Jamie Dornan taking over from Charlie Hunnam - but a studio exec claimed that was not the main reason for the delay.

"We see this movie as a global event," Universal Pictures' Donna Langley told EW.

"The strength of this book is really worldwide, so we want to be able to take advantage of women who are invariably on vacation with their families during the month of August in Europe.

"Together with the international marketing and distribution team, we've been looking really closely at the August date and becoming more and more convinced that the right thing to do for the movie was to push it.

"So even if Charlie had stayed, we still would have been making the date change."

Fifty Shades would have been up against Marvel Studios' new superhero venture Guardians Of The Galaxy next August.