The film adaptation of E.L. James' bestselling erotic novel '50 Shades of Grey' has been pushed back until a February 13th 2015 release date, just in time for Valentine's Day.

Charlie Hunnam
Hunnam dropped out of production 6 weeks after being cast as 'Christian Grey'

The film was originally slated to be released on August 1st 2014 but now fans will have to wait a further 6 months to see 'Christian Grey' grace the big screen.

Shooting was already delayed after former leading man, Charlie Hunnam, dropped out of the production six weeks after being cast on October 12th.

The 'Sons of Anarchy' actor opted out of playing the billionaire due to his "immersive TV schedule which is not allowing him time to adequately prepare for the role of Christian Grey."

Northern Irish actor Jamie Dornan has since replaced Hunnam for the 'Christian Grey' role, the 31 year-old actor, who dated Kiera Knightly for two years and modelled for Calvin Klein, is best known for his roles in BBC drama 'The Fall' and US fantasy series 'Once Upon A Time'.

Jamie Dornan
Jamie Dornan is now the new 'Christian Grey'

Dornan will star alongside Dakota Johnson as 'Anastasia Steele', Luke Grimes will play Christian's brother 'Elliot Grey', Victor Rasuk is cast Anastasia's close friend 'José' and Jennifer Ehle will portray Anastasia's mother, 'Carla'.

Sam Taylor-Johnson will direct the adaptation.

Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley told Entertainment Weekly, "We see this movie as a global event."

"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."

Langley also stated that Charlie's withdrawal from the movie had nothing to do with pushing back the date, "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," he said.

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

Universal Pictures and Focus Film made the announcement on Wednesday (Nov 13th).

Dakota Johnson
Dakota Johnson will play 'Anastasia Steele'