Twilight's Breaking Dawn Split into Two Parts

Why Make One Film When They Can Charge Fans for Two?

JUNE 11, 2010 - The fourth Twilight Saga, 'Breaking Dawn', will be broken into two parts, with the first half scheduled for release on November 18, 2011, its distributor Summit Entertainment confirmed yesterday.

It said Bill Condon will be directing both and shooting them consecutively. There is no release date given for the second film.

The announcement, coming ahead of the June 30 release of the third film, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, will not surprise Twilight fans. Stephenie Meyer's 900-page 'Breaking Dawn' book is simply too complex to be adapted into a single movie. Breaking Dawn is the fourth and final novel in the Twilight series. Divided into three parts, the first and third are written from heroine Bella Swan's perspective while the second is written from the perspective of Jacob Black.

The studio had reportedly signed the cast for only four movies and had to renegotiate costly deals with the cast before it could officially announce the new plan.

In addition to leads Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart (pictured above), and Taylor Lautner, other returning cast members include Peter Facinelli as Carlisle, Elizabeth Reaser as Esme, Jackson Rathbone as Jasper, Nikki Reed as Rosalie, Ashley Greene as Alice and Kellan Lutz as Emmett. Word has it that Tinsel Korey (who plays Emily), Alex Meraz (who plays Paul) and Julia Jones (who plays Leah) will reprise their roles from Eclipse in the first Breaking Dawn film.

The first two films of the Twilight franchise grossed over US$1.1 billion at the box office, Summit said. By the time it gets to its fourth and fifth instalments, dare we hope that Stewart, Pattinson and Lautner would have learnt how to act?