Academy Award winner Bill Condon has been confirmed by Summit Entertainment as the director of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, based on the fourth novel in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. Melissa Rosenberg, who adapted the three previous books for the screen, is currently writing the screenplay.

Summit plans to break the fourth novel’s story into two movies, the first including Bella’s wedding, pregnancy, and delivery, and the second covers her transformation into a vampire and her child’s growth. Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner are set to return. Filming will likely begin this November.

Condon wrote and directed the films Dreamgirls, Kinsey, and Gods and Monsters, which won him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He was also nominated for another Academy Award for his screenplay for the movie Chicago. Condon’s current project, the indie movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, written by Slumdog Millionaire‘s Simon Beaufoy, has been put on hold until he is finished with Breaking Dawn. His planned Richard Prior bio-pic has also been put on hold indefinitely.

The upcoming third film in the Twilight series, Eclipse, comes out on June 30, 2010.

The final trailer for the third installment in the Twilight saga premiered on Oprah on Friday, and now it’s available online. Check it out below the official plot synopsis for the movie:

“In The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between Edward and Jacob knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.”

Well, I’m not anticipating this very much. I’ve seen the first two, and did not enjoy either, although New Moon was slightly more watchable. Anyway, I hope all of you Twilight fans enjoyed this sneak peek.

The third film in the “Twilight” series was helmed by director David Slade (30 Days of Night) and opens in theaters and IMAX on June 30, 2010.

The array of novel adaptations from writer Stephanie Meyer continue to grow as her latest book The Host gets the feature film treatment. Andrew Niccol will write and direct the adaptation, adding onto his credits which include Lord of War and Gattaca. The project was picked up by Nick Wechsler, Paula Mae and Steve Schwartz out of their own money Variety reports.

Meyer’s novel is a love story set in the near future on Earth, which has been assimilated by an alien species that call themselves “Souls.” They are benevolent parasites that subsume the conscious of humans and take possession of their bodies. One such soul, The Wanderer (so named because she has wandered among so many different worlds) is fused with a dying human named Melanie Stryder, in an attempt to locate the last pocket of surviving humans on Earth. The Wanderer cannot subsume the forceful Melanie, and they battle for the girl’s memories and her spirit.

This will be the fifth of her books to be adapted into a film, the first four being the popular teen fueled Twilight frachise. Currently the second in the series, Twilight Saga: New Moon, is heavy under post production with a set November 20th release date. Along with that, the third installment entitled Eclipse is underway with initial filming with a summer 2010 release. To see more about the sequel to the hit 2008 fall film, look here on Atomic Popcorn.

Columbia has moved Michel Gondry’s upcoming adaptation of TV’s The Green Hornet back two weeks to accommodate Denni Dugan’s comedy, Grown Ups. Green Hornet will be moving from June 25, 2010 to July 9, 2010 while Grown Ups moves from March 12th to a spiffy new June 15th date.
Columbia is hoping to rake in some cash before the third entry in the tween vampire series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, drops in to swoon suburban goth girls.
The Green Hornet stars Seth Rogen as newspaper publisher Britt Reid. When not working to save his daily from the evil of the economy, he puts on a green mask and saves damsels.

Fuzzy face.

Dugan’s Grown Ups stars the fabo cast of Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider and the lovely Ms. Salma Hayek. The story is about five best friends from high school who reunite 30 years later on a Fourth of July weekend.

Dugan has also directed Big Daddy and Happy Gilmore.

Thanks to ERC via /Film

He works hard for the money.

As if he would not come back to the financial jackpot that is the Twilight series. Robert Pattinson, you know, the guy that played the sparkly vampire in Twilight and in it’s upcoming sequel The Twilight Saga: New Moon, has tentatively confirmed that he will reprise his role as Edward in the fourth and final chapter in the Twilight series. As if there was any doubt?

Pattinson, for all the jokes about being the world’s weakest/lamest vampire in cinematic history, has been pretty lately. After he’s done with New Moon, the 23-year-old goes to work on Remember Me then jumps back into the third entry in the Twilight series, with Eclipse.

As if that’s not enough, the hardest-working man in tween dramas has been cast in Bel Ami.

It’s not what you think.

The original story centers on Georges Duroy’s corrupt rise to power from a poor ex-serviceman to one of the most successful men in Paris, most of which he achieves by manipulating a series of powerful, intelligent, and wealthy mistresses.

Shooting on Ami kicks off in Paris next year under the helm of first time director Declan Donnellan.

Slade getting back into vampire mode

David Slade, the Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night director, is already getting ready to sit into Summit Entertainment’s golden franchise at the moment, Twilight. Hopping in as the director for the third installment, Eclipse, he will be on a strict deadline with a June 30, 2010 release date. In other words, the already established filmmaker will have to kick his work immediately into high gear if he even wants to make a remotely appealing third movie to the Twilight saga.

“As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob — knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death.”

Currently the Twilight Saga: New Moon is full force through it’s initial filming, keeping track with it’s November 20th release. Melissa Rosenberg, writer of New Moon and Twilight, is well underway with penning Eclipse. With what is one of the most action packed story lines in the entire franchise, a choice like Slade could be worth it, only time will tell.

The cast of Twilight?

Yes, I know, it seems like Twilight media day on here so far. Since the rumor mill has been a brewing away with tons of Twilight news, the latest is from something that almost everyone thought was confirmed already (including myself). The Orphanage director Juan Antonio Bayona is now apparently up in the air with being the creative captain on the third installation in the Twilight series, Eclipse.

Surprisingly, it is not Bayona who’s saying that this is not set in stone but the people from Summit Entertainment who have their hands on the entire Twilight franchise. The president of production at Summit Entertainment (Erik Feig) stepped out amongst the flurry of reports on the director, stating “The Eclipse directing job hasn’t been offered to Juan Antonio or anyone else. We’ve met with three or four talented filmmakers and we’ll be meeting with three or four more other candidates before we make any decision. No one has been offered the job.”

So now Bayona is back in the race among other directors such as Drew Barrymore (Whip It!), Paul Weitz (Cirque du Freak) and James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma). I have no idea what to guess as far as the final choice of the director goes, but it would be nice to know that most of us movie sites were right if Summit comes out with an announcement early next week saying that Bayona got the job. Filming is currently going on for the second movie in the franchise, New Moon.

Bayona is ready to fix up some werewolves and vampires.

Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage) was announced today as the newest director to pop up in the third installment of the Twilight series, Eclipse. Bayona is a protege of our ever favorite Pan’s Labyrinth director, Guillermo Del Toro, or Hellboy if you prefer me to be a tad more mainstream. An addition of this director that has a different take on filmmaking that rubs off from Del Toro, he could possibly fit for the some what darker sequel in the Twilight Saga.

Others that were previously being considered for the slot were well known actress but newcomer to directing Drew Barrymore (He’s Just Not That Into You) and  Paul Weitz (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist). Since Summit Entertainment is already revving to have Eclipse released by Summer 2010, they didn’t hesitate to waste any time in finding the director for this tween flick.

New Moon, the second film of the Twilight Saga, is currently filming with a November 20th release date. Why it’s called the ‘Twilight Saga’, I have no idea, because normally sagas mean its only two films in the series, while this is four (possibly). There has been no talk whatsoever about adapting Breaking Dawn, the last and most controversial among many a fan girl and the last chapter of the Twilight story, though the rumor mill has spat out that Robert Pattinson has shown his displeasure of possibly starring in the last film. That’s a nice bit of information to crush fangirl’s hearts about seeing him in the nude.