Now that Summit’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” has amassed an almost unholy $481 million dollars worldwide in two weeks of release ($230 million domestically), the studio is setting its vampiric sights on what’s next and no, we don’t mean the third installment, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.”
Directed by David Slade (“3o Days Of Night”) the third film in the ‘Twilight’ series is already shot and in the can and will hit theaters next summer on June 30 (every third MTV report says how guy friendly it will be with more action and aggression, fyi). No, what Summit is now looking at is how to proceed with “Breaking Dawn,” the fourth and final chapter of the series and the only picture in the franchise they didn’t set a date for a year out.
In fact, “Breaking Dawn” has no release date yet, but a plan is formulating according to Variety. The rumor from day one is that Summit would like to do what the “Harry Potter” franchise has is doing it — milk their final chapter into two installments to get more bang for their buck. Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg will be tapped once again for “Breaking Dawn,” but right now it’s unclear how many scripts she needs to write.
Summit’s biggest challenge? Luring back “New Moon” director Chris Weitz, which could prove to be somewhat difficult as Weitz already wants to move on to a smaller scale project called, “The Gardener” that he vows is simple, and features no CGI, werewolves, vampires or over-sexed teenagers with their shirts off for no apparent reason.
So the plan, according to Variety, is to shoot two films back to back, but right now it appears to be contingent on whether Weitz will return. Another, potentially bigger obstacle, is renegotiating with “Twilight” scribe Stephenie Meyer. Summit bought the rights to four books for four films, and adding a fifth story will likely require finessing their original deal which leaves the studio a little vulnerable to her lawyers (though approval shouldn’t be hard, in the past Meyer has said she knows the exact spot where to break ‘Dawn’ in half).
A fifth film also means the principal cast — Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner — will have to renegotiate their deal with Summit and that could mean some fat pay raises, and perhaps of a girth that’s not exactly amenable to the studio that has raked in a ton of dough, but largely made these films on the cheap (the trade says their new pay days could be as high as eight figures, but the worldwide gross could make it worthwhile).
Their main hurdles seems to be Weitz who seems pretty set on doing “The Gardener,” but Summit has a bargaining chip as they have been in discussions to fund that film. But ideally, their plan is to convince him in delaying the small-scale indie (with promises of a bigger budget afterwards we’re sure), so he can close out the franchise and earn everyone a bundle of cash (does this mean, ‘Hurt Locker’ aside Summit will actually put out good films??).
Evidently Summit hasn’t made an official offer, but if Weitz wants the gig it’s his. The thing about “Twilight” films is that they seem directorially interchangeable as their doesn’t seem to be much authorship there other than Meyer. Summit shouldn’t sweat it whether they get Weitz or not. The fans will be happy, but they’ll also clap like trained seals to get a glimpse of Taylor Lautner’s glistening chest and do half of them even know who Weitz is? Chris Columbus, if you want a sizable paycheck gig that could be up for grabs, get your agent on the phone now.
