I’ve honestly run out of things to say about The Twilight Saga: New Moon. I think Chris Weitz is a fantastic director and I’m chomping at the bit to see his full director’s cut of The Golden Compass, but nothing except the handful of glimpses at the end of this trailer make me think this film will be anything other than a giant cash cow. In lieu of any other derogatory remarks, I will instead use the brand new film synopsis as a way of breaching the gap before we get to the new trailer:

In the second installment of Stephenie Meyer’s phenomenally successful TWILIGHT series, the romance between mortal and vampire soars to a new level as BELLA SWAN (Kristen Stewart) delves deeper into the mysteries of the supernatural world she yearns to become part of—only to find herself in greater peril than ever before.
Following Bella’s ill-fated 18th birthday party, EDWARD CULLEN (Robert Pattinson) and his family abandon the town of Forks, Washington, in an effort to protect her from the dangers inherent in their world. As the heartbroken Bella sleepwalks through her senior year of high school, numb and alone, she discovers Edward’s image comes to her whenever she puts herself in jeopardy. Her desire to be with him at any cost leads her to take greater and greater risks.

With the help of her childhood friend JACOB BLACK (Taylor Lautner), Bella refurbishes an old motorbike to carry her on her adventures. Bella’s frozen heart is gradually thawed by her budding relationship with Jacob, a member of the mysterious Quileute tribe, who has a supernatural secret of his own.
When a chance encounter brings Bella face to face with a former nemesis, only the intervention of a pack of supernaturally large wolves saves her from a grisly fate, and the encounter makes it frighteningly clear that Bella is still in grave danger. In a race against the clock, Bella learns the secret of the Quileutes and Edward’s true motivation for leaving her. She also faces the prospect of a potentially deadly reunion with her beloved that is a far cry from the one she’d hoped for. With more of the passion, action and suspense that made TWILIGHT a worldwide phenomenon, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON is a spellbinding follow-up to the box office hit. U.S. release date is November 20, 2009.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Trailer 2

After 24 hours of online time, this teaser trailer had been viewed 5.8 million times.  Since then, counting everywhere it’s been posted, the number has likely tripled.  We’ve had it up since June 1st, but to those of you who only look at the news stories and haven’t yet explored the big video box on our homepage, check it out:

The official word is that Summit Entertainment hired him because they liked the look of The Golden Compass.  That’s valid enough — Compass had professional-looking special effects, and Twilight did not — but Compass was, uh, a flop, at least here in the U.S.

As part of a PR blitz to soothe the nerves of Twilight fans unhappy about Hardwicke’s departure, both Weitz and Stephenie Meyer, the author of the books, have written open letters assuring that everything will be O.K.

That’s where things get hilarious.  Here’s the beginning of Weitz’s letter:

Dear fans of Twilight, New Moon, Bella, Edward, and Jacob,

In the past few days I have been involved in a whirlwind romance with Stephenie Meyers’ extraordinary books.

Her name is actually Stephenie Meyer, meaning that grammatically, as any fourth grader will tell you, it should be “Stephenie Meyer’s extraordinary books.”  If her name was Stephenie Meyers, obviously what Weitz was assuming when he wrote this, he’d be right.  But it’s not, and he’s not.

Way to be reassuring.

Another problem: look at the full sentence.  It’s a tacit admission that Weitz had not read, and had barely any knowledge of, Meyer’s books a week ago.  As the books mostly appeal to teenage girls and their romance-starved mothers, I understand it would be hard to find a director who was a pre-existing fan, but still.

This is to say nothing of Weitz’s gender.  The stories are all crazily anti-feminist to begin with, but at least the movie was female-driven and had a female director.  So much for that now.

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid Summit is feeding you, Twilight fans!  Revolt!

(Read both Weitz and Meyer’s letters here.)

First came word that Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Twilight, got fired.  Well, okay, she left “due to timing,” according to Summit’s pitifully transparent press release.  But wait — Summit president Rob Friedman told Deadline Hollywood Daily her departure was because their “visions were different.” In a typical example of Summit’s brilliantly boneheaded P.R. effort, Friedman’s statement was an attempt to confirm the official press release…when it actually just contradicted it.

DHD also hears from other sources that the removal of Hardwicke from the project was because Summit found her to be difficult to work with in general, as well as out of her depth in terms of special effects.  (Okay, that last one might be valid.)  But whether it was just one of these reasons or a combination of all of them, it was a particularly nasty move by Summit because Hardwicke is still on Twilight’s European press tour — meaning now every question she has to field will be about her departure.

Summit tied its own hands, though, because due to their sped-up schedule on New Moon, they needed to hire a director quickly in order to meet their start date.  You see, the plan is for New Moon to come out not in 2011, not in 2010, but next November.  I can understand why they would want to fast-track the sequel, but usually “fast-tracking” means you get it out two years after the original — think Iron Man 2 or Quantum of Solace.  (The sequels that fare best tend to wait three years — think Batman and Bourne.)  At this schedule, Summit needs to hire a director by the 15th — yes, four days from now — to start pre-production in Vancouver, to prep for filming beginning in March, and then to finish all the post-production by November.

(Some sequels have successfully come out one year after the original — the second Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings trilogy comes to mind — but in both of those cases, the dates were planned from the get-go, the same team was assembled for each movie, and the filming was scheduled concurrently.  Of those conditions, Twilight and New Moon are 0 for 3.)

And just because all of the above wasn’t bad enough, now news has leaked that they’re thinking of recasting Taylor Lautner, who plays Bella’s bud Jacob and has a much-expanded role in New Moon.  (If you didn’t figure it out from the title or the hundreds of hints in Twilight, turns out he’s a werewolf.)  This never should have been leaked, first of all — it’s publicly embarrassing for Lautner (who, for my two cents, did just fine in the first movie).  But beyond that, why is Summit getting cold feet now?  They already O.K.’ed his casting in the first film, knowing he’d play a much bigger role if there was a sequel, and now he’s been firmly established among all the Twilight fans.  Recasting will be idiotic.

In short, Summit Entertainment is a public relations black hole with questionable creative decisions to match.  Word is their top choice of a director replacement is Chris Weitz (of The Golden Compass), who’s being sought because…he’s friends with Eric Feig, the president of production at Summit.

You keep at it, Summit.  You’re doing a bang-up job so far.