Does the 'Fifty Shades' director choice hint at its leading man?

Yesterday, fans of E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Gray rejoiced at one crew announcement, while still holding out for news about who will play the leading man and lady in the erotic romance. Sam Taylor-Johnson, who directed the 2009 film Nowhere Boy about the young John Lennon, will direct. She's

married to Aaron Taylor-Johnson (they met when she directed him in Nowhere Boy). Aaron is no stranger to playing a romantic lead--he was Vronsky in Anna Karenina last year and shows off his six-pack abs in the upcoming Kick-Ass 2. There is a chance that Aaron could be believable as Christian Grey, who seduces recent college graduate Anastasia Steele. In the book, Grey is described as a wealthy, successful industrialist, which most people would see as someone in his thirties or forties, but he's actually much younger: THR puts his age at 27, which is confirmed by the fan Wiki for the book. Fifty Shades was originally Twilight fan fiction, which means that Grey was an unaging vampire who was young, but had hundreds of years to build up a fortune. But in the Seattle-set romance, maybe Grey is just the latest young tech millionaire. The young industrialist would go even younger if he were played by Aaron, who is just 23. But maybe the question is beside the point. At least historically, it hasn't been great for many couples to film intimate scenes together: Kate Winslet split from director Sam Mendes not long after the emotionally raw Revolutionary Road, and Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise divorced not long after they wrapped Eyes Wide Shut together. That being said, the Taylor-Johnson relationship itself is a bit unusual: Sam is in her forties, and met Aaron when he was just 18. They married last year and have two children together. Sam is a former video artist whose projects include Crying Men, a series of photographs of celebrities in tears.

The Focus features production may not have cast its stars yet, but it's being shepherded by producers Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti, who shared an Oscar nomination for The Social Network. De Luca has also received an Oscar nomination for Moneyball. Kelly Marcel, whose picture about the clash between Walt Disney and Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers, Saving Mr. Banks, comes out this December, is still a bit of an unknown in terms of her screenwriting style. Still, the producing and directing team, as well as the writer, all suggest that Fifty Shades of Grey has pulled the right ingredients together--now it's just a matter of cooking it to perfection.