Stephenie Meyer becomes Biggest Selling Writer In U.S. For 2008

Stephenie Meyer, whose novel Twilight launched a vampiric franchise that led to November’s hit movie of the same name, was the biggest selling writer in the U.S. last year. She moved 15 million books as of Dec. 28, according to figures released by Nielsen BookScan USA.

Meyer’s novels accounted for a remarkable four of 2008′s top 10 titles, and nine of the top 50.

Her most recent novel, Breaking Dawn, was the No. 1 book of the year, selling 3,310,000 copies, followed closely by her debut novel, Twilight, with 3,175,000 copies. It’s rare for sales of older titles to return to the bestseller lists, but her 2006 novel was boosted by the release of the film, which proved so successful that a cinematic sequel was immediately put into the works.

Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling came in at No. 8 with The Tales of Beedle the Bard, followed closely by Christopher Paolini’s Brisinger at No. 9.

Source: Scifi Wire

Looking Ahead: ‘New Moon’ movie

Sarah Jaffe over at Newsarama has some thoughts about the future of the ‘Twilight’ saga in the cinema…

I’m a formerly-resistant Twilight convert who’s now seen the movie twice. I’m about halfway through the third book, and having just finished New Moon, I’ve got more thoughts on the film adaptation as it moves forward, with a new director and possible other changes.

The Twilight books are written in first person and read like a teenager’s gushing diary, with little description of action–or even of characters besides hair color, size, and beauty. This allows readers to project whatever they want to see onto them, but makes it hard to create characters for a performance.

But the books get better as they go along–fewer adverbs and gushing descriptions comparing Edward Cullen to male models, and more action. There are motorcycles, cliff diving, werewolves, more evil vampires, and a daring daylight rescue scene where Bella gets to do the rescuing, for once. So New Moon has the potential to be a better movie than Twilight.

(possible spoilers below. Just sayin’) Read more

Will ‘Twilight’ Become A Comic Book?

At a recent “TwilightLive” event, MTV’s resident “Twilight” authority Larry Carroll was asked by a fan if there would be graphic novels based on the vampire love story anytime soon.

Given the fact that we’ve seen comics and graphic novels based on everything from Barack Obama to “The Ghost Whisperer,” it’s not only a valid question, but one that seems like the next obvious step in “Twilight” mania. After all, a marriage of Stephenie Meyer’s wildly popular series and comic books — arguably one of the hottest storytelling mediums going today — seems like a match made in vampire heaven, right? (Read some of our own ideas for a “Twilight” comic series in the Splash Page blog.)

Naturally, one would assume that comic book publishers would be lining up for the chance to give “Twilight” the four-color treatment, but surprisingly, when asked directly if they’d made any attempt to obtain the rights for a series of “Twilight” comics or graphic novels, nearly all the comic book publishers MTV News contacted gave the same response: “No comment.” Exactly why they chose to remain silent varied for each publisher, but if you’re looking for a similar situation in terms of popular books that never made it to the comic shops, look no further than “Harry Potter.”

“What I have heard — like ['Harry Potter' author] J.K. Rowling supposedly did — Stephenie Meyer had it in her deal that there wouldn’t be any comics, that that licensing wouldn’t be available,” speculated Dark Horse Comics senior managing editor Scott Allie, who works with writers such as My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon.

“I’ve heard of similar things, where basically an author or creator didn’t want to have comics because that extends the story in a way that’s out of their control,” Allie continued. “The film is going to adapt the ‘Twilight’ novels very faithfully. If you do comics, does that spin the story out in some new direction?” Read more

‘Twilight’ Sequel ‘New Moon’ to Open November 20, 2009

Tough to say whether or not speeding up the process like this will help the finished product or not, but you can’t really blame Summit Entertainment for wanting more Twilight, pronto. After all, the studio has no other calling cards in the minds of the audience, no franchises people are dying to see other than the one with a horny but chaste teenage girl dating a vampire 100 years her senior.

So with the announcement today in Variety that New Moon will be released November 20, 2009, the same weekend that saw Twilight explode at the box office this year, Summit is letting it be known once and for all that it is going to play the hand it’s been dealt.

The big difference here, and where Summit may be acting with a wee bit of arrogance, is that November 20th is already staked out by Sherlock Holmes, the animated Planet 51, and the new Three Stooges movie, which will probably die a miserable box office death. So is the studio engaging in a little Cuban Missle Crisis action here, waiting to see who blinks first? Would Warner Bros. move Sherlock Holmes to avoid the head-to-head battle?

Source: GetTheBigPicture.net

Twilight Author Stephanie Meyer on Hardwicke’s Departure and ‘New Moon’ Director Chris Weitz

Last week we told you that Chris Weitz was in talks to helm the Twilight sequel New Moon, and that the female director who launched the film series, Catherine Hardwicke had basically been let go by Summit Entertainment.

Well Weitz has since officially signed on to the project, and now Twilight author Stephanie Meyer has posted a message on her official website addressing Hardwicke’s departure and the hire of Weitz:

“Like you, I’m sad that Catherine is not continuing on with us for New Moon. I’m going to miss her, not just as a brilliant director, but also as a friend. She has such a distinct, authentic voice that did amazing things for Twilight. I’m looking forward to every movie she does in the future. And she didn’t leave us empty handed. We still get the benefits of her amazing casting and the beautiful visual world she created. This foundation puts us in a good place for New Moon.”

“Summit Films is moving forward with a new director for New Moon. They’ve asked Chris Weitz, director of American Pie, About a Boy, and The Golden Compass, to join us, and I am very pleased to announce that he’s agreed to be a part of our Twilight world. I’ve had the chance to talk to Chris, and I can tell you that he is excited by the story and eager to keep the movie as close to the book as possible. He is also very aware of you, the fans, and wants to keep you all extremely happy. (Torches and pitchforks are not going to be necessary.) I’m excited to work with Chris and I think he brings a lot to the table, not the least of which for me is that he wrote the screenplay for and directed one of my favorite movies of all time, About a Boy. I’m really looking forward to seeing his vision for New Moon.”

Sounds like a bit of fan pr if you ask me. And to top this off, Chris Weitz himself has written a message to the Twilighters. You can read that message after the jump. Read more

‘Twilight’ Hires New Director, Eyes Yearly Releases

If I were a Twilight fan, and by that I mean someone who is legitimately interested in high quality movie versions of the books and not some crazed girl wearing a Team Jacob shirt, this news and the speed at which it is taking on new angles would trouble me. Actually, the events of the past week would really bother me, but this would be the icing on that cake.

First, Summit Entertainment parted ways with director Catherine Hardwicke. From what everyone heard, that’s not a total loss. Entertainment Weekly just confirmed this morning that the studio has hired Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass) to step in and direct the sequel New Moon and possibly Eclipse, the third book in the Stephenie Meyer series. With me so far? OK…

But Bloody Disgusting has learned that the script for New Moon has already been turned into the studio, so it was a bit of a rush job, and given our collective history with hurry-up-and-get-it-out sequels, that’s our first red flag. The story goes that Summit really wants to release New Moon next year. And all of a sudden, this potentially gargantuan franchise is running its shop like a Filipino psychic surgery clinic.

Source:

GetTheBigPicture.net

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