‘Twilight: Breaking Dawn’ Will be Made, and It Sounds Crazy!

In the Making Of interview to the right, Twilight franchise producer Wyck Godfrey briefly discusses the plans to turn the fourth novel in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” franchise into a feature film. He says:

We are about to embark on that. Getting New Moon and Eclipse finished in the amount of time we did, given that Twilight came out just last year has kind of taken all of our efforts. There’s every intention of making Breaking Dawn and that’ll begin November 21, figuring out the stage and what the time schedule is for it.

Considering The Twilight Saga: New Moon was just released and is already breaking records having amassed $230 million domestically and nearly $474 million worldwide in just ten days you may be thinking this is an absolute no-brainer. So why is this a story that has hit every website today and why hasn’t Summit already announced The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn? After all, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse finished principal photography before New Moon even hit theaters and it is already set for release on June 30, 2010.

Well, the best way to look at it is to consider Devn Faraci’s article headlined “Why ‘Breaking Dawn’ Must be Made into a Movie.” I had heard plenty about the ridiculous nature of the fourth book, but having only read the first one and decided that was enough I just assumed I would let the films tell me the rest of the story. However, if the story laid out by Devin in his piece is what gets filmed I don’t see how it could possibly be anything other than R-rated and considered a screwball comedy.

You can read Devin’s full piece here, but in an effort to summarize quickly here is what I got out of it — SPOILERS FOLLOW SO BE WARNED.

Bella and Edward finally get married and can now have sex, however Edward is scared to do so because he is super strong and is afraid of hurting her. Eventually Bella wears him down and, believe it or not, is knocked unconscious and left badly bruised after their first session, which even leaves the headboard destroyed. She still goes back for seconds, gets knocked up (by an undead vampire) and the ensuing pregnancy becomes incredibly painful as a result of the speed the baby is growing as its powerful kicks break her ribs and sever her spine. This leads Edward to give Bella an emergency C-section with his teeth before turning her into a vampire to save her life with super-healing undead-vampire powers. (Stop laughing)

Sounds exciting right? Well, apparently Jacob, the werewolf played by Taylor Lautner, falls in love with Bella’s baby (like actual love) and can’t stand to be away from it and visits everyday. I have asked a friend if this last part is actually true because it is so ridiculous and she confirms saying they have a “connection” and Jacob gets extremely protective of Renesmee. Oh, did I forget to say that was the baby’s name? It’s okay, sounds about right doesn’t it? Bella. Edward. Renesmee. Okay, maybe not. I guess they weren’t looking in the big book of baby names for their little one.

As for Jacob’s werewolf love for a human baby Wikipedia simplifies it nicely:

Jacob, who was present for the birth, almost immediately “imprints” — an involuntary response in which a werewolf finds his soul mate — on Edward and Bella’s newborn daughter, Renesmee.

I would say you can’t make this stuff up, but Stephenie Meyer obviously has.

However, as detailed in Mike Fleming’s Variety piece this morning it appears the studio is angling to get New Moon helmer Chris Weitz back in the chair to make two films back-to-back before allowing him to make his passion project, The Gardener, a comparatively tiny film scripted by Eric Eason, with Paul Witt and Christian McLaughlin producing.

Fleming says Summit hasn’t closed a deal for The Gardener, probably because the film company wants Weitz to postpone it and work on Breaking Dawn instead. Gotta love it when a studio dangles a carrot eh? I just wonder what kind of fat pay day everyone involved is going to request to make the werewolf-human-baby-lover movie every fangirl and TwilightMOM is dying to see… Not to mention myself as well.

The move to make two movies out of the final book is obviously inspired by Warner Bros.’ move to break up “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” into two films, but from what I can tell Potter has the content for two films but does “Breaking Dawn”? Considering “New Moon” didn’t have enough content for a 30-minute sitcom and yet they turned it into a two hour bore leads me to believe screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg can do anything. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Movie News

Marvel and DC

X