Fifty Shades of Grey Casting Petition: White Collar Star Matt Bomer 'Touched' by Fans Reaction

Matt Bomer has responded to the fans petition to see him play the role of Christian Grey in film version of E.L.James' best-selling erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey.

Fans of the book were disappointment after Dakota Johnson and Charlie Hunnam were cast as the leads in the movie and an online petition against the casting has garnered over 50,000 signatures. The petition on Change.org states, "We want Matt Bomer and Alexis Bledel as Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele in 50 Shades."

"Matt Bomer is the PERFECT DESCRIPTION OF CHRISTIAN GREY AND ALEXIS BLEDEL IS THE PERFECT ACTRESS TO REPRESENT ANASTASIA STEELE and if THEY ARE NOT, NOBODY WILL BE And I read the whole trilogy and I can assure that Matt is the perfect actor for this movie and Alexis too. So please PLEASE, all of the GREYsessed and Bomerettes in the world NEED those actors. They always will be for us the Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. WE CAN DO ANYTHING GUYS, ANYTHING," the petition read.

The 35-year-old White Collar actor said he was "touched" by fans reaction.

"I'm so grateful for the fans and touched," Bomer told Entertainment Tonight, "I'm looking forward to seeing the movie with Charlie and Dakota."

Bomer, who plays criminal consultant Neal Caffrey in White Collar, will return for a fifth season on the USA Network on 17 October.

"We're definitely embracing more of a bad boy version of Neal this year," he added, "Neal's starting to realize that he doesn't have to be a good boy all the time and that maybe not doing the right thing is what he's best at."

Meanwhile, it was previously revealed that the Fifty Shades of Grey film will release in the United States on 1 July next year. British visual artist and filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson will be directing a script written Kelly Marcel. Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca (producers of Oscar-winning The Social Network) will work behind the scenes.