Ever since director Bill Condon was confirmed to be taking charge of the adaptation of the fourth and final novel in the “Twilight” series, it’s been widely believed that it would take the form of two movies — indeed Condon’s deal says as much. However, the cast of the anemic vampire romance franchise were only signed for four films, so the film’s stars, the likes of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner are closing deals for a huge raise for the final movie.
Not all of the film’s supporting cast, however, are being quite so well treated by Summit Entertainment. The Hollywood Reporter say that while deals for Peter Facinelli and Billy Burke are sorted, some of the younger actors, including Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz, are holding out for a bigger pay rise, despite allegedly being offered fees ten times what they earned on “Twilight.”
If a deal can’t be reached, there’s a real possibility that their roles (of vampire siblings Emmett and Alice Cullen) could be recast — Summit has experience in this, having replaced Rachelle Lefevre with Bryce Dallas Howard for the upcoming third movie after her reps played hardball; the studio are keen to keep costs down, while still milking what they can from the end of their tentpole franchise. Alternatively, the possibility of “Breaking Dawn” only being one movie does apparently still exist, but we can’t imagine Summit sacrificing the extra box office cash.
Like many associated with the series, both Greene and Lutz are rising stars; the former is toplining the Dark Castle horror film “The Apparition,” while the latter, an actor so charismatic that we literally forgot his existence, despite sitting through both “Twilight” films, will play Poseidon in Tarsem’s “Immortals.” But, so long as the three leads are in place, we imagine the fans will show up to the theater, even if they do kick up a fuss online, so the relatively minor likes of Greene and Lutz aren’t in very strong positions to negotiate; Hollywood’s full of attractive young people who can look pale and give stilted line readings. Either way, it’s unfortunately unlikely to derail the franchise.