Twilight Sequel: New Details on ‘New Moon’

Summit Entertainment has tentatively slated Nov. 20, 2009, as the release date for New Moon, the Twilight sequel, which means any director who signs on to replace Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke has to be in Vancouver by Dec. 15 to begin 12 weeks of preproduction before a mid-March start date. Reports have speculated that Hardwicke was fired for being difficult on set, but sources close to her suggest Summit’s aggressive production schedule turned her off. “She’d love to do the sequel if she could do it better than Twilight,” says one. “It ­became clear that Summit didn’t have those same priorities.”

Indeed, at press time the second movie appeared to have ­little more than a rough first-draft working script. As Summit’s production president Erik Feig told EW during Twilight’s ­record-busting first weekend, “There is that first…script. All the finesse that turns a screenplay into a movie hasn’t ­happened yet.” Two weeks later, Summit is saying it’s happy with screenwriter ­Melissa Rosenberg’s progress.

Another of Hardwicke’s primary concerns was that hunky vampire Edward remains MIA throughout New Moon’s middle portion. In her own opening-weekend interview, she told EW, “You have to get the chemistry as strong ­between Jacob and Bella as it was between Bella and Edward. You also have to do ­some­thing with that arc: She’s in love with somebody, he disappears, she falls in love with someone else, and the first guy comes back. Movies like Pearl Harbor have tried it. It absolutely didn’t work.”

With or without Hardwicke, Summit ­faces other snags. Two sources tell EW the studio doesn’t want to rehire baby-faced Taylor Lautner (pictured) as Jacob, though Lautner’s agent has apparently reached out to the ­imaging company behind The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in an attempt to demonstrate to Summit how a digitally bulked-up Lautner could work. (Summit says it won’t make a decision until a new filmmaker is on board.) There’s also the matter of finding a cast of Native American actors to play Jacob’s werewolf clan — a difficult challenge Hardwicke was also faced with before ­settling on Lautner, who isn’t completely ­Native American. And with a slightly increased budget of $50 million — much of which is ­assumed will go to leads asking for heftier paydays, location shoots in Italy, and ramped-up F/X — Summit will have to scrimp somewhere. Read more

Catherine Hardwicke Won’t Be Directing ‘Twilight’ Sequel

Twilight fans, start your protest campaign now. Summit Entertainment has announced that it will not move forward with director Catherine Hardwicke for the Twilight sequel New Moon.

According to Summit’s press release, the studio and Hardwicke could not come to terms on a schedule; Summit’s plan to release the film at the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010 did not work with the amount of prep time Hardwicke wanted to dedicate to New Moon. Similar to the Harry Potter franchise before it, Summit will now look to hire a new director to helm New Moon.

According to a statement released by Hardwicke, “I am sorry that due to timing I will not have the opportunity to direct New Moon. Directing Twilight has been one the great experiences of my life, and I am grateful to the fans for their passionate support of the film. I wish everyone at Summit the best with the sequel—it is a great story.”

Source: HollywoodInsider.com

How Twilight Is Destroying America and Harming Our Nation’s Youth

Editor’s Note: I am posting this article as a source of information and discussion.  Personally, I think that Twilight is a piece of fiction, period.  I have no problems with my daughter reading the books.  People will read into things whatever they want, and like it or not, Twilight and Stephenie Meyer are now targets for peoples’ many opinions.

From David Chen over at slashfilm…

When I discovered the vice-like grip that Twilight has on the popular imagination of this nation’s tween and middle-aged female demographic, I was content to just ignore it. After all, there are so many movies that come out which cater to my demographic that a bunch of people going insane over what I thought was a mediocre-flick at best shouldn’t affect me. Nonetheless, in the past couple of weeks, the Twilight backlash has begun in earnest. People are making well-articulated claims saying that not only is Twilight a bad film, its messages actually do harm to our nation’s youth. What exactly have they been saying?
The most decisive, thoughtful, and damning post, “Dangerous Liasons” comes courtesy of Lucy Mangan at The Guardian: Read more

Showtime Will Be Airing ‘Twilight’ in 2010

Showtime has secured the first bona fide smash movie since chief film suppliers Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate opted to start their own network.

The CBS Corp.-owned net has inked an exclusive four-year output deal with Summit Entertainment for as many as 42 movies, including fall breakout “Twilight,” which has earned $124 million domestically in two weeks of release. The movie will be on the network beginning in 2010.

The deal encompasses upcoming movies such as Nicholas Cage thriller “Knowing” and Lisa Kudrow comedy “Bandslam” and also two potential “Twilight” sequels, which are in development. It further gives Showtime first dibs on any subsequent movies in the franchise.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the license fees will be a percentage of the movies’ domestic boxoffice, with those familiar with the deal saying those percentages will be in the mid-single digits. Summit topper Rob Friedman acknowledged that deals had to change as pay-cable networks revised how they valued feature-film acquisitions. “There were deals in the old world and deals in the new world, and we live in the new world,” he said.

The Summit pact will not include a prepayment from the studio, as Showtime’s recent agreement with the Weinstein Co. did.

The deal had been in the works for more than a year, with Showtime brass waiting for “Twilight” to hit theaters before making the final move.

Friedman said that the company had waited to sign a deal as it explored all options; asked if Summit had spoken to execs on the Par-MGM-Lionsgate startup, he said, “We talked to everybody.” Read more

Kristen Stewart Anxious for ‘Twilight’ Sequel

We don’t make many references to Ryan Seacrest here at The Big Picture, and can you blame us? But Kristen Stewart from Twilight this week went on Seacrest’s radio show to talk about the phenomenon and the recently announced sequel, New Moon.

“A lot of the book takes place in Italy, and I think we’re going to get to go to Italy, which is so cool,” said Stewart, who also hinted that the sequel might begin filming as soon as March.

In its opening weekend, Twilight made just under $70 million, and seems likely to hit $125 million without much effort. The 18-year-old thinks she understands why the books and now the movie has been so successful.  adding that production will probably “You read the book and you feel like you are the character. It’s a totally vicarious experience,” she told the radio host.

“She’s such a good strong female character. I can understand why girls put herself in that position.”

As for the quick turnaround on the sequel, Stewart sounds unsurprised. “For a while there, they were like, ‘oh, we don’t know if we have the money’, but now I think we may have the money!”‘

Source: GetTheBigPicture.net Read more

Twilight Stars Get $10 Million Pay Raise For Sequel

Making a Twilight sequel isn’t going to be cheap. Stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, who were each paid $2 million for the first film, will be getting enormous pay raises. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Pattinson and Stewart will be paid $12 million each for the sequel, New Moon.

It’s worth noting that the first film was made for only $37 million. Sounds like the budget will be upped considerably for the sequel. I think I’m going to be sick.

Source: /film Read more

Twilight In Top 10 Of Pre-Release Ticket Sales

Even though Twilight just hit theaters, it’s already one for the records.

MovieTickets.com officially named the film, based on the vampire romance novel created by Stephenie Meyer, number 10 on the Top 10 Movie Ticket Pre-Sales of All-Time list. It joins the ranks of films such as Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and The Dark Knight.

“This rush of early ticket purchases, especially among the youth demographic, is evidence that we will continue to see a steady shift in consumers using the Web to purchase their movie tickets,” said Joel Cohen, executive vice president of MovieTickets.com.

According to the website, 86 percent of tickets went to moviegoers under the age of 25, 81 percent of the buyers were females. Overall, 1,100 viewings of Twilight were sold out before the film’s release date.

MovieTickets.com Top 10 Pre-Sale List of All-Time:

1. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
4. The Dark Knight
5. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert
6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
7. The Matrix Reloaded
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
9. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
10. Twilight

Source: AcedMagazine.com Read more

« Previous Page