Corona | Coming Attractions

Nikki Finke is reporting that 30 Days of Night director David Slade is not just being considered to call the shots for Eclipse, but that he's already met with Twilight creator Stephenie Meyer and Summit Entertainment president of production Eric Feig. But would Slade go from one vampire film (30 Days) to another?

Drew Barrymore is out of the running to helm Eclipse. "No, we're not doing to do it together," the actress told MTV Movies Blog. "Oh, I wish that I was! I adore that project and I adore the team that’s making it."

Patrick Goldstein at the Los Angeles Times calls into question Nikki Finke's report that Juan Antonio Bayona has been hired to direct Eclipse. The reporter cites a lunch he had yesterday with Eric Feig, the president of production for Summit Entertainment. "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," Feig is quoted as saying to Goldstein. "No one has been offered the job."

Finke quickly fired back on her Deadline Hollywood Daily blog, retorting that Feig called her to apologize about Goldstein's "misquoting" of his words and that he plans on "confronting" Goldstein about what he wrote. This sounds more like a blogger/reporter war than anything to do with the hiring of Bayona.

Variety now follows up with its confirmation that Juan Antonio Bayona has been hired as director of Eclipse. V also mentions that screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg continues to hammer out the Eclipse screenplay.

Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz blog has uncovered another candidate for the director's chair of Eclipse: Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona. Bayona has directed eight films to date including 2007's The Orphanage.

According to Entertainment Weekly one of the directors that Summit is talking with about directing Eclipse is actress Drew Barrymore. If she seems like an odd choice to be given total control over a popular film franchise, consider that Barrymore doesn't just have three decades worth of acting experience but has also produced shows like Charlie's Angels and just finished her first film as director, Whip It!, starring Ellen Page.

Before one scene has been shot on the first Twilight sequel Summit Entertainment has announced a release date for Eclipse, the movie to follow after New Moon. The studio has circled June 30, 2010 for the three-quel's bow in theaters, a mere 7 months after New Moon's opening which is presently scheduled for November 20 '08.

No production schedule or a director has been announced as of yet for Eclipse but with Summit's aggressive release date one would expect details to begin solidifying fast. New Moon begins shooting next month.

According to Thompson on Hollywood's column in Variety, there are two directors rumored to be frontrunners to helm Eclipse: Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage) and James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma). When Summit Entertainment was asked about the rumors being true, the studio said that neither director has met with them...yet.

With a week remaining until Summit Entertainment's Twilight arrives in theaters, the pre-release buzz for the film is already high. It's then no wonder that the studio has announced plans to begin adapting th enext two novels in Stephenie Meyer's book series, New Moon and Eclipse, into feature-length screenplays. The screen rights for the fourth Twilight book, Breaking Dawn, are also in possession by Summit but won't be adapted into movie format just yet.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Twilight screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg has accept the task to adapt books two and three into screenplays. Rosenberg told THR that she chose not to read the series past the first novel so she could "stay true to the evolution of the characters" for any movie continuation plans.