Breaking Dawn splits in two

In one of the most ironclad business decisions made this year, Summit Entertainment have confirmed that they have given the greenlight to filming the fourth and final Twilight novel, Breaking Dawn .

The hulking 700+ page book will be split into two films (ala Deathly Hallows ), which we will be shot back-to-back. Filming is scheduled to begin in October 2010.

Summit are looking at “high end” directors for the project, though no names have been leaked just yet.

Breaking Dawn is the least popular book in the series - author Stephenie Meyer calls it the “Rob effect”, reasoning that fans can’t accept that the series had to come to an end, just as they couldn’t at first accept Pattinson in the role of Edward. Uh, okay. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Scribe Melissa Rosenberg, who has adapted all of the Twilight films for the screen, is working on this final adap.

Obviously Summit are cranking these out as fast as they possibly can for two reasons: first to capitalise on their immense popularity (though Harry Potter hasn’t suffered from being a decade-spanning film series), and secondly to catch the actors while they’re still young.

David Slade’s third entry in the franchise, Eclipse , opens this June.

Swoon? Or couldn't care less? Drop us a comment below...

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.