Talk about a quick turnaround. The second film in the Twilight series hasn’t been released yet, but the making of the third movie is already ramping up, with Production Weekly reporting that principal photography on The Twlight Saga: Eclipse is due to start in August, three months before Twilight 2, AKA The Twilight Saga: New Moon, reaches cinemas in November.
In fact with filming due to run from August 17th through October 31st at the Vancouver Film Studios, Eclipse will finish shooting just in time for the stars to go off on the worldwide promotional tours for the cinema release of New Moon.
The fast pace means yet another director has come on board, with David Slade following in Catherine Hardwicke and Chris Weitz footsteps. He’ll be helming The Twilight Saga: Eclipse from a script by Melissa Rosenberg. It isn’t Slade’s first brush with vampires, as he also directed the blood-drenched graphic novel adapatation, 30 Days Of Night. We’re presuming he won’t bring such a gruesome touch to the hit teen franchise.
Both Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson have already signed onto Eclipse, which continues the story of Bella, her vampire boyfriend Edward, and werewolf friend Jacob.
The pace won’t slow after Eclipse either, as there already plans to start filming the fourth film, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, as early as next spring. This will allow the distibutors to release a Twilight film every November, culminating with Breaking Dawn in 2011.
I suppose they better get all the movies out quickly, before their target audience grows out of their love for heartthob vampire, Edward.