The signs, it would seem, are everywhere. It might just be the worst-kept secret in all of Hollywood. So, why hasn't the "Breaking Dawn" movie been announced yet?
For starters, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Summit Entertainment just announced a television deal with FX to broadcast four "Twilight" films. Rob Pattinson told us that the movie might be filmed in Portland. Ryan Seacrest's radio show recently furthered the rumor (heard from a Summit exec's wife at a nail salon, mind you) that the final "Twilight" book was being split into two movies. And then there's the fact that it would be preposterous that an opening of $143 million in could be ignored and everyone would just release "Eclipse" and call it a day.
The morning after "New Moon" completed its opening-weekend domination, we went straight to one of the stars of the franchise. And Michael Welch, who plays Mike Newton, was the first to admit that a "Breaking Dawn" movie is as inevitable as death, taxes and grandparents wanting to pinch your cheeks during the holidays.
"Yeah, they're not going to make 'Breaking Dawn,' " grinned the actor who plays Mike Newton, dripping with sarcasm. "Of course, they are.
"I hope I'm not giving away any secrets here," he added playfully. "Now I'm going to get a call from Summit later: 'Why'd you give it away? It was going to be a big surprise!' "
Welch isn't the only one who has no problem talking as if a "Breaking Dawn" movie were far from hypothetical. Ashley Greene, Jamie Campbell Bower, RPattz and Kellan Lutz are among the many who've weighed in over the last few weeks.
"Could you imagine if they didn't make it? If they just said, 'We're going to move on; we're going to move on to our next Nicolas Cage movie,' " Welch teased. "It doesn't make any sense. Of course, it's going to be made; it just is."
For their part, the studio will only respond with a brief comment on the matter: "Summit Entertainment looks forward to bringing 'Breaking Dawn' to the big screen," they said this week in a statement. "But at this point any additional information is premature."
Apparently, that would include what Michael told us is the word amongst the cast. "I don't know how much of this I'm supposed to be giving away; as you can tell, I'm a little more relaxed about the whole thing [now that 'New Moon' did so well]," he explained. "But I heard a rumor that it's going to be made into two films, maybe. It would make sense — there's a lot to the story.
"That's what they're doing with the last 'Harry Potter' movie," Welch said of the move to film "The Deathly Hallows" as separate films to be released in the next two years. "I imagine that they want to prolong this as long as they can."
Asked if he'd prefer to shoot "Breaking Dawn" as two films, Welch said it's a no-brainer. "I think so, yeah," he explained. "There's a lot to get in. ... It doesn't seem like the energy is dying down anytime soon.
"I assume that if it's going to be made — at least, the one film — it would have to start being made pretty soon; early next year, by February or March," he said of when he'd expect cameras to roll, which is a tad bit earlier than Pattinson recently speculated to Collider.com. "That's why we've made these movies so close together; because vampires aren't supposed to be looking older. ... I assume there's going to be an announcement pretty soon. ... It'll probably be coming sometime in the next couple weeks."
Check out everything we've got on "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and "Eclipse."
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