With New Moon hoovering up money like a financial black hole, it's not surprising that development of fourth Twilight tome Breaking Dawn is moving on apace. But now comes added fuel to the rumour that it'll get a case of the Deathly Hallows and split in two.
We've known since May that Team Twilight were planning to produce an adaptation of the book, but until recently it's been a lot less firm than, say, Eclipse, which has already finished shooting under the direction of David Slade. That's at least partly down to the rather out-there plot of **Breaking Dawn **which is, to put it mildly, borderline insane.
Now, however, the rumour fire is flickering once more, with Variety reporting that the franchise's overseers at Summit are trying to figure out how to make the hefty final book work. Top of the idea tree? Crafting two films, as Warners did with the final **Harry Potter **outing.
Trouble is, that'll mean hefty extra payouts to everyone involved, with the likes of Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner all in line for healthy raises since they were only signed for four movies. There's also the fact that it's even harder than in the case of Deathly Hallows to see a mid-book breaking point, and while readers can probably guess at what point of mortal peril they'd split it and leave us on a cliffhanger (sorta), it does risk leaving both films without enough plot to really stand up.
And there's still the small matter of locking down a director. Summit is said to be favouring** New Moon**'s Chris Weitz, but he's been adamant in recent interviews that he wants to direct small-scale drama The Gardener.
Given that Summit would want him to focus on Breaking Dawn in whatever final shape it will take, the film company has cannily stalled on making a deal with Weitz for The Gardener.
If you love Twilight, this sounds like the best news ever. And if you list yourself among Team Hate, then perhaps a quick perusal of the insane plot description for the novel (to avoid spoilers, you can find it over here) will convince you that this thing needs to be made, if only to see if anyone can actually get it to the screen...