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.