Surprise! “The Twilight Saga” in print form is not quite finished yet, as author Stephenie Meyer has announced that a new novella, “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner,” will be released on June 5th.
The story revolves around a minor character in the third novel “Eclipse” who is played by fifteen-year-old Jodelle Ferland in the upcoming film adaptation. As the novels are written from protagonist Bella’s perspective, this story will move the narration beyond the main character and examine the life of a newly-made vampire (whose death is featured in “Eclipse,” thankfully, there’s no room for more expansion here).
According to an announcement on her website, Meyer originally planned the story to be part of an upcoming Twilight official guide book, but it ended up being too long for inclusion. As the subject matter stems from a minor character in the upcoming film, the story serves as a companion piece to the film and is sensibly being released a few weeks prior to the June 30th theatrical release of “Eclipse.” (not dissimilar to the sixth “Scott Pilgrim” book being released a few weeks earlier than the film later this summer). The novella in progress also apparently served as a guiding piece for screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, director David Slade, and the supporting cast of the film.
Of course, we immediately wonder if “Bree Tanner” will inevitably be adapted to film. From the description, it doesn’t really strike us as the type of material that would or should get a full on feature treatment. Instead the novella strikes us as something that might be relegated to a DVD extra feature like an animated short or narrated feature. But as far as this particular series goes, money speaks enough and we wouldn’t be surprised if you eventually saw a spinoff feature as an afterthought.
