Ladies, there's good news coming your way end of this year,: Edward Cullen is finally going to mesmerize you once again with his cool, magnetic charm in Twilight sequel: New Moon!!
And so, the lion fell in love with the lamb. But as $70.5 million worth of moviegoers watched the closing scenes of "Twilight" this past weekend, one thought unavoidably filled their love-struck minds: Where do Edward, Bella and all the other undead denizens of Forks go from here?
As Twilighters are all too happy to point out, author Stephenie Meyer has already penned three smash sequels to her intimate ode to human-immortal romance. The first, "New Moon," got the green light for production this past weekend, less than 24 hours after "Twilight" began breaking box-office records. The best-selling sequel tells a decidedly darker story that has Bella receiving a nasty paper cut, getting attacked by one of her potential in-laws and becoming an adrenaline junkie while an in-hiding Edward teeters on the edge of suicide. (Read our "New Moon" wish list and add your own in the MTV Movies Blog.)
"It's got werewolves, it's got visual effects that turn people into werewolves, it's got motorcycle stunts, you go to Italy. It's probably twice as much as this [to film]," "Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke explained when we asked her about the sequel just before "Twilight" opened.
Although the novel greatly reduces Edward's presence, Robert Pattinson insists that "New Moon" is the installment he loves best. "I'm looking forward to doing the re-emergence ... at the end of the second book, when he's killing himself," the star said when we spoke with him last week. "I think that'd be kind of spectacular seeing that. And the second book is my favorite book, so I'm quite looking forward to doing it."
And as the final shot in "Twilight" promises, hell hath no fury like a woman who just lost her man. Luckily, the producers of the "Twilight" films were smart enough to sign Rachelle Lefevre, Edi Gathegi and their soon-to-be-far-more-important co-star Taylor Lautner for both "New Moon" and the potential third film "Eclipse."
"We're so ready to do it," Lefevre said, assuring us that Don Cheadle won't be replacing them any time soon. "If we get a chance to do two and three, we'll be back for two and three."
Crossing his fingers, Edi Gathegi said he's looking forward to shooting Laurent's travels to Alaska and half-hearted attempts to become a vegetarian. "I've got to clear my schedule no matter what's on the books, because it was just so much fun to work on this film."
The good news for fans is that studio Summit Entertainment recently took the official step of acquiring all of Meyer's "Twilight" books and has rehired screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. Pattinson even told the Seattle Times that Rosenberg's "New Moon" script is already done.
But today, the actor most likely to be doing the dance of joy is the fast-rising, fan-kissing, underwear-signing Lautner. After establishing in the first film that he has a thing for Bella and the nerve to stare down Edward, he's already busy practicing his lines for Jacob Black's expanded role as a lover, fighter and werewolf in the next flicks.
"The quote I love the most is Jacob's quote, 'Does my half being naked bother you?' That quote just cracks me up," he laughed when we met him for the first time, on the "Twilight" set. "Because, you know, that's when he's shirtless, not wearing a top — we'll have to wait to see what he looks like."
Lautner plans to begin bulking up now that "New Moon" has received the official green light, and is also hoping to work some of his real-life martial-arts background into Jacob's upcoming battles. "They found a YouTube video of me on ESPN when I was 11, and they were just freaking out and were watching it over and over again. ... I said that it'd be cool if Jacob did some of that in the fight scenes," he told us in August. "[Hardwicke] said, 'Yeah, that would be cool.' "
After this weekend, it appears that fiercely loyal "Twilight" fans may similarly have some cool scenes to look forward to in the not-so-far-away future.
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 said 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 uttered, “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 say that 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.
So what director would want to take on such a big headache? Well, at press time, an offer was out to Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass), who put Summit on the map years ago when its foreign sales operation made tons of cash off of his first film, American Pie. (One source says Weitz has already had conversations with below-the-line crew for New Moon.) “We are in a recession,” reminds one Hollywood insider. “It’s a hit franchise. Whoever steps into it is guaranteed a $100 million gross. Everyone wants this movie.” Adds an exec at another studio, “You’d have to have a very high standard for art, hate the movie business, and hate money to walk off this sequel.”
Well, let's just pray that the movie will be finished as soon as possible without further distraction, huh??
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