We all kind of chuckled when Summit put out feelers earlier this year to Gus Van Sant, Sofia Coppola, Stephen Daldry and Bill Condon to direct the final installment(s) of the Twilight franchise, “Breaking Dawn.” We never thought those high profile directors, who usually shepherd their own, more personal projects to the big screen, would even consider jumping on the fourth and potentially fifth film in the vampire saga for teens. But apparently, one of them has.
Deadline Hollywood reports that Bill Condon is now in negotiations with Summit to helm the films, after taking several meetings with the studio. It appears that Summit’s drive to get a filmmaker with some prestige to tackle the franchise’s final installment(s) has paid off. If Condon signs on, it will mean definite delays for two films he was supposed to shoot this year: “Salmon Fishing In Yemen,” which was aiming for a June shoot and the long gestating Richard Pryor biopic, “Is It Something I Said?” which was supposed to go in front of cameras this fall.
Apparently, “Salmon Fishing In Yemen” was having trouble locking in the cast of Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz and Kristin Scott Thomas while the delay of “Is It Something I Said” seems about right for a project that seems destined to never find its way in front of a camera. Sorry, Marlon Wayans.
We’re still trying to wrap our heads around why Bill Condon would push aside two interesting projects to deal with emo vampires, mutant babies and werewolf clans but we imagine Summit is making an offer he simply can’t refuse.
Because Breaking Dawn is a guaranteed huge hit and will give himself a boost with potential financiers of said projects. One (well two) for them, one/two for me.
Plus with all the wacky shit that apparently happens in Breaking Dawn he can have an awful lot of fun with it.
Well…no offense to Bill Condon but Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth are both well established actors now (especially Colin Firth who is just starting to eek his way onto the A-list with his much overdue first Oscar nomination this year) so I don't think that either of them would want to get involved with a director that has been making such…immature movies as of late, catering only to preteens.
BUT, I could be wrong – I notice that at least Colin Firth seems to choose projects based on the degree of interest he has in playing the character vs. the caliber of director/money offer (which is also one the things that makes him such a good character actor).
He was clearly the most likely of the directors on that list, in my view. The man made KINSEY and DREAMGIRLS, which don't exactly compare to PARANOID PARK and MILK, seeing as how they're just run-of-the-mill hack prestige films (in that sense not unlike those of Stephen Daldry).
This is one mutant, cracked out movie baby.
I don't understand how either the director or the project will be helped by this association. While the director may make a big truckload of money, his looooong, slooooow climb to artistic relevance is going to take a major ding. It will just come off as a money grab by Condon. And just look at those "Harry Potter" directors. They each may have directed one of the highest grossing movies of the year but no one is begging for their services based on their contribution to the series. The box office success was seen as a foregone conclusion. Those directors get no credit for the gross (but could have received plenty of blame if the pictures had underperformed.)
And as for "Breaking Dawn", "from the director of 'Kinsey' and 'Dreamgirls'" isn't going to sell even one more ticket, but I bet it will cost Summit some big bucks to have the privilege of the tag line. So why do it?
Major fail for all involved.
Why on God's green earth has Summit not reached out to Cronenberg yet?