The Los Angeles Times talked to “Twilight” franchise producer Wyck Godfrey about adapting the fourth book in Stephenie Meyer’s popular series, Breaking Dawn. The David Slade-directed Eclipse has been set for a June 30 release this year for a while now, but the big question has been when and how Summit Entertainment would shoot the fourth (and possibly fifth) film(s).
If you haven’t read the novel and still plan to do so, the rest of this article will be a spoiler for you, so turn back now if you’d rather not know a thing.
In “Breaking Dawn,” Edward Cullen and Bella Swan get married and are on their honeymoon when Bella realizes that she is pregnant and that her condition is progressing at an unnaturally accelerated rate. They quickly return to Forks where Bella gives birth to a half-vampire, half-human they name Renesmee. Renesmee rapidly grows both mentally and physically, able to speak only seven days after her birth, and by the end of the book, she can read, run, hunt, and perform other tasks at advanced levels for her young age.
Godfrey told the newspaper the creative team still doesn’t know how they’ll handle the character, but that the plan is for the production to move forward as either one or two films – with an eye toward beginning to shoot in Vancouver this fall. Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner have all three signed up to reprise their roles. Franchise screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg is penning the script.
“The issue [of whether there will be one or two movies] is not going to be resolved until we get the full treatment and see whether it’s organic,” said Godfrey, adding “It really has to do with how much level of detail from the books there is, with all of these new vampires that appear in ‘Breaking Dawn,’ the whole section about Jacob… It’s a very long single movie if it does become a single movie.”
He said that they haven’t signed a director yet who will be able to handle “the emotions and the intensity of the love story,” as well as the “action and visual effects.”
Bringing Renesmee to life on the big screen is going to be one of the biggest challenges. “It’s certainly going to be visual effects in some capacity along with an actor,” the producer revealed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being a full CG creation, but it also may be a human shot on a soundstage that then is used to shrink down.”
The second film, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, opened on November 20th and earned an impressive $685 million worldwide.
