Breaking Dawn may go into production this fall (Updated)

In a new interview with The LA Times, Twilight producer Wyck Godfrey has confirmed that they are set to go with the production of the last Twilight book, Breaking Dawn. However, they are still wondering how they would adapt the book and how they would handle the character of Renesmee, the child vampire of Edward and Bella.

“It’s a work in process,” Godfrey said in an interview Friday. “The issue [of whether there will be one or two movies] is not going to be resolved until we get the full treatment and see whether it’s organic. If it’s not organic, I don’t think it will be done, and if it is, it will be. It really has to do with how much level of detail from the books there is, with all of these new vampires that appear in ‘Breaking Dawn,’ the whole section about Jacob… It’s a very long single movie if it does become a single movie.”

“I keep having visions of ‘[The Curious Case of] Benjamin Button’ in my head,” Godfrey said, referring to David Fincher’s Oscar-nominated 2008 fantasy about a man who becomes physically younger as he ages. “It’s certainly going to be visual effects in some capacity along with an actor. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being a full CG creation, but it also may be a human shot on a soundstage that then is used to shrink down. I don’t know. We need a director. When we get a director, that director will need to come with a point of view of how they want to tackle it.”

Godfrey also confirmed that its three lead stars are signed for the movie and if everything goes right, the production will start this fall.  He also spoke about the possible return of New Moon director Chris Weitz for the fourth movie but hasnt downplayed the chances of a new director for the franchise.

“I think everyone would be happy and excited if he came back, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

but right now,” Godfrey said, “we’re just focused on the treatment and getting that right. At that point, we’re going to see who’s available and who’s appropriate. It’s such a complicated book because you have the emotions and the intensity of the love story — so you need somebody who’s just a wonderful director of actors — and yet it’s really complicated from an action and visual effects standpoint. They’ve got to have both tools in their kit.”

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Update: There were also rumors that Twilight author Stephenie Meyer was putting her foot down regarding the splitting of the book into two movies. Stephenie updated her site, mentioning that whether Breaking Dawn will be split into two movies or not, she would be happy either way.

Just a quick note on the subject of the Breaking Dawn film: there is no drama over whether the book should be one movie or two. My personal feeling is that it would be very difficult to cram the whole story into one movie (as I’ve said in many interviews previous to this), but if a great way of doing that surfaces, I’m all for it. Two or one, whichever way fits the story best is fine by me, and everyone I’ve spoken with at Summit seems to feel the same way. We’re all excited to move forward on this, and we are slowly and surely getting there. I know people are anxious for news, and so sometimes gossip gets fabricated to stir things up, but there’s no basis to this particular story.

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