LA Times has an excellent take on today’s news that Juan Antonio Bayona was picked to direct Eclipse–news based primarily on reports from Nikki Finke and Variety. In fact, Summit President of Production Erik Feig tells the LA Times Big Picture Blog–

“The ‘Eclipse’ directing job hasn’t been offered to Juan Antonio or anyone else,” he told me. “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.”

further, it’s not ever certain that Bayona wants the job–

As it turns out, Bayona was in town and had a Wednesday meeting with Summit execs, who are certainly impressed by his resume. Bayona has also met with “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer, who has a lot to say about any key creative choices made on each film in the series. On the other hand, Bayona has told friends that he isn’t sure he wants to tackle the film. Though he also admires the series, he’s concerned about how much creative involvement he would have coming in to direct the third installment in a series, where most of the casting and character development is already in place.

The whole blog post is a good read, and a good lesson on believing any rumor on the web before official confirmation from the parties involved. Summit hires new ‘Twilight’ director, right? Wrong!

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Buddy TV has a pretty cool list of things that New Moon needs to get right–I’d say most are pretty spot-on. Here’s a small sampling:

10. Victoria’s plan must loom ominously.

Obviously we shouldn’t know exactly what she’s planning or what she’s up to, but we should know that she is actively pursuing a way to get to Bella.

7. Be careful with Jacob’s heart.

At times, Bella’s interactions with Jacob can seem cruel. The girl is already really depressed and if the viewers are to sympathize with her, they can’t see her as insensitive when it comes to Jacob.

6. Edward and Bella in love.

Although New Moon is told from Bella’s point of view, it’s pretty obvious that we’ll need to see a lot more Edward Cullen than the amount of time he is in the book.

2. The Volturi are straight from a horror film.

The scene with the Volturi needs to be terrifying. There’s a whole lot of talking and scheming but the truth is that the Volturi are extremely dangerous and Bella, Alice, and Edward come very close to being killed.

Twilight: 10 Ways to Turn ‘New Moon’ Into an Awesome Movie [ via TwiCrack, New Moon Poster by ERD]

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It has begun: the first photos from the set of New Moon have shown up. Basically, so far the movie looks a bit like Mad Men–a whole lot of smoking in fabulous clothes. What are you waiting for? Check them out! [thanks, TwiCrack!]

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TwilightItalia has a cool new set of graphics and videos on a timeline in support of the City of Volterra becoming the location for filming of New Moon in Italy–which is still unofficially decided, apparently.

We went there. We tracked the “real” steps of Alice, Bella and Edward in Volterra with beautiful photos and videos.

Watch our footage, completely translated in english for your users: you’ll realize why having a fake Volterra in New Moon would mean stripping the film of a part of its magic.

Here’s one of the videos they made–of the tolling of the bell in Volterra, as seen in New Moon. Check out the whole feature!

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Amanda Bell at the Examiner wonders if the stories of Twilight being nearly 100% tween-based are true. She asks–

Critics of the Twilight Series suggest (sometimes often) that there is only one type of fan of the series: that which consists of young, teenage girls. However, the demography of a Twilight fan might be slightly more complex and vast than critics of the series and its popularity would like to admit.

The demography of a Twilight and New Moon fan

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The time has come at last–the April issue of GQ has arrived, and with it, the cover story on Robert Pattinson. Pretty intense, heartfelt interview–

“Everybody came in doing something empty and shallow and thoughtless,” Stewart says. “I know that’s a f-cking great thing to say about all the other actors—but Rob understood that it wasn’t a frivolous role.”

Hardwicke still had to convince Summit Entertainment, the studio bankrolling Twilight, that Pattinson was the guy.

“There was a call from the head of the studio,” Hardwicke says. “ ‘Are you sure you can make this guy handsome?’ ”

They sent him to a trainer, dyed his hair and cut it. Pattinson immersed himself in the lore—the novels and Midnight Sun, Meyer’s unpublished, unfinished retelling of Twilight from Edward’s point of view. (“I was a vampire, and she had the sweetest blood I’d smelled in eighty years.”) He showed up to shoot the movie with a lot of ideas about how it could be more than a horror-tinged tween romance. How Edward could be less like the turtlenecked Prince Charming from the novels—“If you met a guy like that in real life,” he says, “you’d think he was kind of dorky”—and more like the edgy dude burning himself with cigarettes in the corner at the high school party. Less hottie, more monster. He thought that at the end of the movie, when Edward and Bella slow-dance to Iron & Wine on prom night, they shouldn’t kiss. “I thought that would be interesting,” he says, “for a teen thing.”

Check out the rest in the April Issue of GQ, or in the Online Feature. [thanks to Anna C. and CBA for letting us know!]

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Variety is reporting that Juan Antonio Bayona, protege of Guillermo del Toro, will be directing Eclipse, making the rumor quite a bit more official–

Summit Entertainment has tapped Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona to direct “Eclipse,” the third pic in the “Twilight” vampire series.

Summit, which had no comment Wednesday, is expected to make the official announcement soon. The minimajor recently gave “Eclipse” a release date of June 30, 2010.

Bayona’s a protege of Guillermo Del Toro. He directed the Spanish-language horror-thriller “The Orphanage,” which was exec produced by Del Toro, and is attached to helm the Universal thriller “Hater,” with Del Toro and Mark Johnson producing.

What do you guys think? Anyone seen his film The Orphanage?

Third ‘Twilight’ film finds director

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