Fifty Shades Darker: Eric Johnson to play Anastasia Steele's boss Jack Hyde

The casting for Fifty Shades Darker is going on in full swing. After hiring Kim Basinger to play Christian Grey's ex-lover Elena Lincoln, Universal Pictures has signed Eric Johnson to portray the character of Jack Hyde, Anastasia Steele's (Dakota Johnson) boss.

Variety reported that Basinger, who played the role of Dr Everett Gallinger in Cinemax's The Knick, will play Christian's rival who has a crush on Johnson's character.

In the second movie, Ana lands the job of a personal assistant to the editor Jack Hyde of Independent Publishing (SIP) in Seattle. In an attempt to forget her traumatic experience in the red room of pain inflicted on her by her lover and billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), she tries to submerge herself in the job. But to her disappointment, she soon learns that her boss is trying to get extra cosy with her.

This will invite the ire of her BDSM-obsessed boyfriend who buys the publishing house. The movie producers had earlier revealed that the upcoming movie is going to be more of a thriller. Jack plays an important role as he becomes a possessive boss, smitten by Ana's beauty and ultimately blackmailing her.

The first movie, Fifty Shades Of Grey, was a huge box-office success, which prompted the producers to cut down on the love making scenes in the sequel and make it more of a thriller in order to attract more fans.

Dakota Johnson teases naked Jamie Dornan (Christian Grey):

The filming for the second sequel of the erotic franchise is yet to begin but before that Johnson has teased that there could be a full frontal view of the Irish actor in the upcoming movie. During an interview in Bravo's Watch What Happens Live, she was asked whether the actor will have any naked scenes in the sequel as she was shown topless in the first movie.

"That's an interesting question," she answered adding "I'll probably get in trouble for this answer. Um, yeah. I'm going to make him get fully naked in the next one. ... Everybody wants to see the D."

Universal Pictures has recently hired Niall Leonard, husband of author EL James, to write the script for the second part of the BDSM-themed movie series. Fifty Shades Darker and its sequel will be shot back-to-back and are scheduled to premiere on 10 February 2017 and 9 February 2018 respectively. Both the movies will be directed by James Foley.