December 11

NEW MOON MOVIE DETAILS
Entertainment Weekly - New details on New Moon and the possibility that Taylor won’t be back as Jacob. Read about it below:

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.

POTIENTIAL NEW MOON DIRECTOR
Two sources (Perez Hilton and Nikke Finke) are claiming Chris Weitz has been offered the position of directing New Moon. At this point, it’s not confirmed by Summit.
From Perez:

The makers of Twilight, Summit Entertainment, has reportedly offered the sequel director job to Chris Weitz.In addition to directing About a Boy, Weitz was also one of the producers of American Pie.

Hollywood insiders say Weitz scored the big job because he’s super good friends with Summit’s president of production, Eric Feig.

It’s nice to have friends in high places!

Summit also reportedly liked the job he did directing The Golden Compass, that Nicole Kidman film no one saw.

From Nikki Finke:

Yes, he’s had tremendous success working with tweens and teens (About A Boy as director and writer, American Pie as producer and uncredited director). But Chris Weitz also did The Golden Compass (as writer and director), and my source says Summit Entertainment liked the look of that even if it didn’t heat up the domestic box office (but did better overseas). I don’t have official confirmation yet that this Twilight sequel offer has gone out to Weitz. But my insider says another reason it came down is because Weitz and Summit’s president of production Eric Feig are longtime pals. The source tells me Weitz is “still considering” the offer to helm New Moon and possibly also Eclipse if the sequel and threequel movie adaptations of Stephenie Meyer’s series of vampire books are made back-to-back. This info follows my news that Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke is off the film franchise.

Late Breaking Article from EW confirming what had been rumored by various sources earlier, that an offer has gone out to Chris Weitz of The Golden Compass and Oscar Nominee for About a Boy fame. There is no info on whether that offer has been accepted. Also under discussion is how Taylor Lautner can fit in given the state of graphic technology seen in such movies like Benjamin Button where Brad Pitt ages and then youthens before our eyes.

NEW TWILIGHT ITEMS AT HOT TOPIC
Hot Topic is piling on the new merchandise before the holidays. They have added new patches, stickers, puzzles, and much more to their inventory. In addition to the merchandise, they’ve also added two new videos from the Hot Topic Twilight tour!

Here is a full list of all the newly added merchandise:
• Twilight Edward and Bella Puzzle
• Twilight Cast Puzzle
• Twilight Tour T-Shirt
• Twilight Sparkle Boys Sticker
• Twilight Edward Sparkle Pin
• Twilight Heart Arrow Necklace
• Twilight Broken Heart Necklace Set
• Twilight Logo Sticker

To view and/or purchase these items from Hot Topic, click here.

And to watch the two Hot Topic Twilight Tour videos that they’ve added to their site, click here.