Summit’s TWILIGHT sequel set for November 20, but is the franchise in trouble? Director Weitz sank New Line with $180M disaster GOLDEN COMPASS and fans are fighting the ouster of Lautner!

by Steve Mason

Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter.

The teen vampire blockbuster Twilight added another $7.95M this weekend, breaking through the $150M barrier in domestic box office. This performance exceeds even the rosiest box office expectations for the movie, so it is hard to understand why Summit seems to be making huge changes for the sequel New Moon, based on the second book in Stephenie Meyer’s mega-selling series.

I have seen Twilight, and, given the budget constraints that director Catherine Hardwicke was under, it was a very solid piece of popular entertainment. Before it finishes its domestic run, it could hit $175M-$180M, which is almost 5 times its budget. Twilight is already the most successful movie ever directed by a woman, but as we know, Hollywood is an “old boy’s club,” and she is not “one of the boys.”

Over the weekend, Summit announced that Hardwicke is out and that a guy named Chris Weitz is in. 1999’s American Pie was his career breakthough as he teamed with his brother to produce and direct the $11M movie, which went on to a $102M domestic gross.  Working with brother Paul, he followed with Chris Rock in 2001’s Down to Earth ($64.1M cume) and 2002’s About a Boy starring Hugh Grant, which managed only $41M in US ticket sales, but did earn the Weitz brothers an Oscar nomination for adapting Nick Hornby’s novel of the same name.

Then came The Golden Compass released last December. Weitz adapted the screenplay and was given $180M to shoot a great big fantasy film for New Line. The result was only $25.7M on opening weekend and a total domestic cume of $70.1M. The disastrous box office performance was earned according to critics as the would-be blockbuster managed only a 42% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.

So let me get this straight. Summit fires the woman who guided Twilight to a monstrous box office performance on a shoestring budget and replaces her with a guy who is best known for sinking New Line, which Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne were forced to fold in the wake of his $180M fantasy film flop? Bad move.

Hardwicke should continue as director, but if the personalities didn’t work, then Summitt should have chosen another woman to direct. Perhaps Katherine Bigelow, who has proved that she can do big action with Point Break, sci-fi with Strange Days and vampires with 1987’s excellent Near Dark. Despite the soft opening for Punisher: War Zone (Lionsgate) in theatres now, I think that former World Karate and Kickboxing Champion-turned-director Lexi Alexander would be another qualified woman director for the job.

The internet is now rife with reports that actor Taylor Lautner, who played the small but pivotal role of Jacob Black in Twilight, will not return for New Moon. Lautner plays the native American kid who befriends Bella Swan (Kristin Stewart) in the first film and becomes the werewolf rival of Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) in the sequel. In what strikes me as “bad form,” Michael Copon, best known for his work on TV’s One Tree Hill, is openly campaigning for the role including “Status Updates” on his Facebook page like “Michael Copon is the older Jacob Black.” There is no formal announcement from Summit or Copon’s representatives, but there is already some real “push-back” from Twilight fans as evidenced by a new Facebook group that is gaining steam -  I REJECT Michael Copon as Jacob Black: SAVE TAYLOR NOW!

In addition to what could be the ouster of Lautner, Ben Barnes of from the Narnia franchise (Prince Caspian) is angling for a role in the Twilight sequel. He has his sights set on the part of Aro, a vampire who plays a pivotal role in the Bella/Edward romance in New Moon.

Summit has dramatically accelerated the production schedule for New Moon with a November 20, 2009 release date now set. Another werewolf movie, Wolfman, from Universal starring Oscar winners Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, is set to debut 2 weeks earlier on November 6. Then on that same November 20 date is the sci-fi animated film Planet 51 (Sony), powered by the voices of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson,  Jessica Biel and Seann William Scott along with Guy Ritchie’s re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes (Warner Bros), featuring Robert Downey, Jr. as the lead sleuth and Oscar nominee Jude Law as Watson. The Farrelly Bros’ new, yet-to-be-cast version of The Three Stooges (MGM) is also tentatively slotted on this date.


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Posted Dec 15th 2008 at 11:45 pm in Steve Mason's Box Office | 120 Comments