Summit's 'Twilight' dilemma

From Variety

Splitting last novel into two films means expensive talks
By MICHAEL FLEMING

The two-week $481 mil­lion world­wide gross of “New Moon” has vaulted Sum­mit Enter­tain­ment into the big leagues, but it also has cre­ated a high-class chal­lenge for top­pers Rob Fried­man and Patrick Wachsberger.

They will likely have to cut a few big checks if they decided, as rumored, to split Stephe­nie Meyer’s final “Twi­light” novel, “Break­ing Dawn,” into two pic­tures. Sources said Sum­mit has set Melissa Rosen­berg — who wrote the first three films — to fin­ish the series, but Sum­mit has to clear sev­eral hur­dles before Rosen­berg learns how many more scripts she’ll write.

One of those hur­dles is fig­ur­ing out whether “New Moon” direc­tor Chris Weitz will respond favor­ably to over­tures from the film com­pany and the cast to shoot two more films, back to back. (Kate: PLEASE say yes Chris, I'm on my knees here )

Sum­mit execs would not com­ment, but mul­ti­ple sources said the com­pany wants to go the two-film route, which means reopen­ing nego­ti­a­tions and secur­ing approval from the author. It also means mak­ing new deals with a prin­ci­pal cast that is only locked up for four films. If “Break­ing Dawn” becomes two pic­tures, all of the key cast mem­bers will get fat raises, and the three prin­ci­pals — Robert Pat­tin­son, Kris­ten Stew­art and Tay­lor Laut­ner — could land pay­days in the eight-figure range.

That’s what hap­pened with key cast mem­bers when Warner Bros. extended its block­buster “Harry Pot­ter” fran­chise by turn­ing J.K. Rowling’s last book, “Harry Pot­ter and the Deathly Hal­lows,” into two films that will be released in Novem­ber 2010 and July 2011. The global suc­cess of the fran­chise made the pay­days worthwhile.

While the solu­tion to most of Summit’s chal­lenges will be deter­mined by its will­ing­ness to open its wal­let, the prospect of a Weitz return is more complicated.

While the solu­tion to most of Summit’s chal­lenges will be deter­mined by its will­ing­ness to open its wal­let, the prospect of a Weitz return is more complicated.

After feel­ing vio­lated by New Line’s alter­ing of his pic “The Golden Com­pass,” Weitz said he felt redeemed and rein­vig­o­rated by the suc­cess of “New Moon.” Yet, just before the film’s release, Weitz was stead­fast that he would next direct “The Gar­dener,” a com­par­a­tively tiny film scripted by Eric Eason, with Paul Witt and Chris­t­ian McLaugh­lin pro­duc­ing. At the time, he said Sum­mit was in dis­cus­sions to fund that film.

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. Can Weitz resist the chance to fin­ish a global fran­chise he helped build, even though it will mean more time away from his fam­ily for a long shoot? That’s the ques­tion the helmer and his reps will weigh shortly. Though Sum­mit hasn’t offi­cially made Weitz an offer, sources said the job is his if he wants it. After bring­ing in “New Moon” at around $50 mil­lion and keep­ing the cast happy, he’s the log­i­cal choice.

David Slade directed the next install­ment in the “Twi­light” series, “Eclipse,” which bows June 20.

Source

Kate: I'm not sure how I would feel about "Breaking Dawn" being split into two films. For me it was my least favourite book but I would LOVE to see Chris directing it. And please God if it goes ahead someone rewrite the fight scene because (for me) what was in the book is just not gonna work on film!