Friday
12Dec2008
'Twilight' Hires New Director, Eyes Yearly Releases
Friday, December 12, 2008 at 5:33AM
If I were a
Twilight fan, and by that I mean someone who is
legitimately interested in high quality movie versions of the books and not some
crazed girl wearing a Team Jacob shirt, this news and the speed at which it is taking on new angles would trouble me. Actually,
the events of the past week would really bother me, but this would be the icing
on that cake.
But Bloody Disgusting has learned that the script for New Moon has already been turned into the studio, so it was a bit of a rush job, and given our collective history with hurry-up-and-get-it-out sequels, that's our first red flag. The story goes that Summit really wants to release New Moon next year. And all of a sudden, this potentially gargantuan franchise is running its shop like a Filipino psychic surgery clinic.
Really? You're just going to hire a director over a period of two weeks, spend two months in pre-production, shoot it for six weeks, edit together a trailer for Comic Con and go with what you've got next November? I'll concede the point that it could work for the next movie, but franchises can't keep that kind of heat for four straight years. You have to give the fans time off.
Don't argue the Saw franchise with me, because its numbers, while still impressive for low budget fare, have fallen off every year since the second film. And that series has never been a cultural phenomenon. You can't expect the crowd that was there on opening weekend 2008 to be there four years later if you keep hitting them over the head with the product. It's called burn, and every hit show, every hit album has a slump when it saturates the market.
That appears to be the plan, however: Eclipse would follow in the fall of 2010, and Breaking Dawn would hit theaters in 2011. For a series that a lot of people have compared to Harry Potter (although the raw data would laugh at that), Twilight could sure learn a lot from that business model: You want to make big money? Make 'em wait.
Colin Boyd | Permalink | in Adaptations, Sequels, Twilight, Vampire Movies | Print Article | Email Article | 9 Comments | Share Article
Reader Comments (9)
I hope both Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson have good lawyers.............
Everybody still thinks of the fandom as screaming 14 year old girls who will go watch anything Twilight related. They don't care about the quality of the product, since they know the fandom will watch it no matter what. They should take their time with the movie and make it good.
But did Stephenie Meyer wirte the books very quickly, and they turned out wonderful. So is it not fair to say that it is possible that these movies, while moving very quickly good go just as well, I mean Twilight (the movie) may not have turned out exactly like some may have liked but having talked to people who have not read the books first, there was not of gaps for them and is that not the whole point. We as readers have a deeper understanding than the viewers so it may turn out to be some of the best movies that are out there. Don't discredit things that are quick. While somethings are not good rushed others, ie the "Twilight" book series, are better rushed.
I do agree with everything said, but you have to think about one other fact that Summit is worried about. Characters in the Twilight series do not age. So therefore if they want to keep the same actors and actresses they are going to have to rush all of the movies. Which I agree they will probably end up being just as far off from the book as the first movie, but that's life. We can't stop the actors and actresses from aging and it would be rediculious if they had to hire a whole new cast for each movie just so they can make the movies as close to the books as possible. Summit is going to make tones of money on opening nights no matter how crappy the movies turn out to be. Twilight has a huge fan base and humans are curious creatures by nature.
Just goes to show you it's all about money. They fast track these sequels because they can do it cheap and they know they have a built in audience. But fans of Weitz's underrated The Golden Compass are left behind.
I saw twilight yesterday and, even going in with low expectations, I was underwhelmed and thought that the screenplay felt like it had been hastily scrapped together so the prospect of knowing that the sequels HAVE and WILL be treated that way is quite disappointing. I always expected that the movies would be treated in this way as purely "blockbuster" moneymakers but am still frustrated by the fact that they are ignoring such an opportunity to really use the material that is provided by really well written books to create truly amazing movies that give the story (and the in built audience of fans of the story) the respect they deserve.
They should be making movies for the audience instead of using us to make themselves richer
I think twilight was great.. Its impossible to fit a whole book in two hours.. There's too much to talk about... I give them credit for putting together as much as possible even though they had to change somethings.
I think twilight was great.. Its impossible to fit a whole book in two hours.. There's too much to talk about... I give them credit for putting together as much as possible even though they had to change somethings.
I agree with this article. Yes the books can be written quickly, because they are only dependent upon ONE mind. A movie takes far more than that, and as we saw with the weirdness of the first release ( which will get better with a new director thank goodness.) It is not best to rush this series. A sped through soap opera type verion of the books is not good enough. I think they will have a much better production with the new director, but I also think that they need to take their time. Add another 6 months onto the date etc, Do not rush through it, especially since it is not going to be the same style. Had they kept the old director it wouldn't matter since her works are more comparative to high school expose's and not huge blockbuster films. BUT with the new director and the demand for a sequel, it requires more planning and responsibility. And hopefully it makes up for the poor quality of the first.