The annual Comic-Con costume parade last weekend revealed a sizable Twilight backlash. Basically, many comics fans are using Twilight as an example of the studio exploitation of The Con for marketing purposes. What really irked people was that many movie fans missed the panels in Hall H Thursday because the Twilight: New Moon fans staked out the line, forcing other less intensely dedicated folks to miss other panels. Twilight also brings in women, not necessarily the dominant demo at Comic-Con, though certainly well-represented there.

Check out full costume photo gallery on the jump. Here's my (noisy) flip-cam survey of the costume paraders:

The Twilight franchise has a new Victoria. Summit is announcing that in the third Twilight film, Eclipse, Bryce Dallas Howard (Terminator Salvation) will replace Rachelle Lefevre.

UPDATE: When Lefevre protested that a ten day overlap with another project should have been possible for the production to accommodate, Summit sent out a statement Wednesday describing why that was impossible.

Press release and statement on the jump.

About 600 people camped overnight to get into the Twilight: New Moon panel, which started at 1:45 PM in Hall H. Some came from as far away as the Philippines. But first there was a press conference at the Biltmore Hilton adjacent to the gigantic blocks long convention enter, which at 9 Thursday morning was already a sea of jostling people.

I drove down this morning and parked at Petco, grabbed my badge without much fuss, and headed for the Twilight: New Moon press conference. And at 1:45 PM Kristen Stewart, Rob Pattinson and Taylor Lautner said all the same things again. A lot of the conversation was about the difference between working with Catherine Hardwicke and Chris Weitz. Stewart suggested that Hardwicke was more "impulsive" and fast and reactive. Pattinson said she used more fast shooting and hand-held cameras, and said he preferred Weitz's more calm, smooth and "balletic" approach. The actors seemed to appreciate being looked after by a grown-up this time around, and indeed, the footage looked more studio-glossy. (I'll need to see the film.)

Pattinson, Stewart and Lautner form the romantic triangle of New Moon and the next film, Eclipse. Stewart (sporting her Joan Jett look) admitted that she enjoyed the acting challenge on New Moon, as her lovelorn character Bella is left behind by vampire Edward, who is trying to keep her safe. Lautner talked a lot about buffing up to play werewolf Jacob, who takes on the role of protector. He also kept saying how much he didn't want to disappoint fan expectations. In one scene, Jacob (Lautner) teaches Bella how to ride a motorcycle; she crashes when she sees Edward (Pattinson) hovering in the air. (This is how the film deals with is absence for much of the film. "I play a supporting role," Pattinson said, keeping things low-key.) Jacob whips off his shirt to wipe blood off Bella's face. The fans seemed impressed by his sixpack abs, but they really went nuts in the climatic second scene when Bella is rushing to save Edward as he stands pale and shirtless, about to step into the sunlight. The clip ended on the verge of their big reunion, which has already been broadcast across the web by a contingent of Twilight fans on vigil throughout all the filming. "They applaud after every take, like theater," said Weitz. There was something slightly anti-climactic about the proceedings. It's no longer innocent and new. As the actors kept saying, "it's a franchise." The fans screamed when Edward came on-screen, but the roar that went up this morning for Johnny Depp, who made a surprise appearance at Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland panel, was worthy of a real movie star.

I just greeted Avatar director Jim Cameron and producer Jon Landau as they arrived at the outdoor patio area next to the press rooms where the studios are running press conferences and roundtables. The Avatar panel goes on at 3 PM.

UPDATE VIDEOS:

The New Moon stars arrive at the press conference:

Here's the press conference:

Lautner and Stewart talk to MSN's James Rocchi:

Here's the Comic-Con Hall H press conference:

While Twilight star Rob Pattinson will not do backstage press interviews at Comic-Con this week for New Moon, he and co-stars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner will participate in an off-site press conference in San Diego early Thursday morning. That's how Summit is handling huge demand for the film's stars, who will also attend a Hall H panel later Thursday afternoon at the San Diego Convention Center. Fans are expected to line up overnight to gain entrance to that panel.

Comic-Con 2009 is front-loaded. Most of the key movie stuff happens on the first day, Thursday July 23, and Friday, with Iron Man 2 the main play on Saturday. (Here's the EW Iron Man 2 cover-preview.) The trick is to balance the crowded Hall H panels, trawling the exhibition floor, backstage interviews, screenings and parties with actual blogging. Yikes.

Last year I took the Fox City of Ember train down to San Diego, which worked great, actually. I loved not having to worry about a car, but I was staying at the Omni, right across from the Convention Center, so I was spoiled. This year I'm farther away, so I'll drive down at the crack of dawn Thursday to get my pass in time (!) to start off the day with the 11 AM Disney 3-D panel. Tim Burton (Alice in Wonderland) returns to the Con for the first time since college, while Bob Zemeckis (A Christmas Carol ) is coming for the first time. Burton will stay to do some press, Zemeckis will not.

The combo of Disney's 3-D animation panel and James Cameron's Avatar pushed the Comic-Con folks to install 3-D in the 65,000-square-foot Hall H. The Titanic director will attend the Con for the first time to show the first U.S. 3-D footage of Avatar, along with stars Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. (Exhibs in L.A. screen the 20 minutes already shown in Amsterdam at Cinema Expo on Thursday July 16.) Sam Worthington, who debuted at The Con last year with Terminator: Salvation, is stuck in Wales playing Perseus in Louis Leterrier's Clash of the Titans. (Check out the photo: Gerard Butler, watch your back.) Fox will also promote off-site Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama's horror comedy Jennifer’s Body , starring Megan Fox.

Cameron is participating in another Thursday panel on The Future of Filmmaking with Avatar's VFX czar, Weta chief Peter Jackson, who is also coming for the first time--he usually beams video to Hall H from Wellywood. Attendees are expecting to see Adventures of Tin-Tin footage. Jackson is also pushing his production of the sci-fi thriller District 9 on Friday. He's not involved in LOTR fan site Onering.net's side panel on pre-production of Guillermo del Toro's The Hobbit, which Jackson is also supervising in Wellywood. UPDATE: Word from Jackson's people: it's way too early for a Bilbo announcement.

Another Comic-Con virgin is Disney/Pixar animation czar John Lasseter, who will host an animation panel Friday with Japanese master Hayeo Miyazaki (must-see Ponyo screens Wednesday night), Disney's John Musker and Ron Clements (2-D The Princess and the Frog), and Kirk Wise (Toy Story 3). This is my idea of Heaven.

Thursday's crazy madness will be the Twilight: New Moon panel. Heartthrob Rob Pattinson will appear (reminder: must pack earplugs) with co-stars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner and director Chris Weitz, but lovelorn vampire Edward Cullen isn't the main character in the movie, so Pattinson won't participate in any backstage interviews. Summit is screening Twilight for the fans with cast members on hand. Summit is scheduled to film the third installment of the Twilight Saga, Eclipse, from August 17 through October 31 in Vancouver with David Slade (30 Days of Night) directing Melissa Rosenberg's screenplay.

To promote Park Chan-wook's vampire movie Thirst (which played well in May's Cannes competition), Focus Features mailed the press a pouch of blood in advance of the Thursday panel, and will screen the intense horror film Friday night.

Some films won't be rating panels at this year's Con, although they may have some viral or off-site happenings or displays on the exhibition floor. Universal, for one, is skipping Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. Disney is ignoring the live action Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and Surrogates. Cash-strapped The Weinstein Co. passed on promoting Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Rob Zombie's Halloween II, The Road (starring Viggo Mortensen), Youth in Revolt (starring Con-friendly Michael Cera), and Piranha 3-D.

Warner Bros. probably isn't bringing Joel Silver's long-delayed screen adaptation of the graphic novel Whiteout because it was promoed last year. Also missing are Ninja Assassin and Zack Snyder’s animated 3D Guardians of Ga’Hoole. It's early days yet for MGM to promote the Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard horror comedy The Cabin in the Wood, but Whedon fans can catch the first three webisodes of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Thursday night.

Brian Lowry vets Comic-Con on the TV side.

I was going to leave Saturday, but David Tennant is showing up for a Dr. Who panel on Sunday morning. I may have to stay on.

Last year, I remember a few diehard fanboys mocking me when I flagged Twilight as a big deal at Comic-Con. The power of Twilight fans became clear as thousands of girls screamed their lungs out for emerging star Rob Pattinson. Helping to avert certain traffic gridlock, Comic-Con organizers pushed apart back-to-back Thursday panels for Twilight: New Moon and James Cameron's Avatar, by far the most anticipated two panels of the Con. Many were concerned that the threatened tsunami of fans surging toward Hall H Thursday morning (many of them female, in this very male-dominated universe) would make it tough to also cover Disney's 11 AM 3-D panel (Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol, Burton's Alice in Wonderland) and James Cameron's Avatar on the same day. Now New Moon is at 1:45 pm and Avatar is at 3:00 pm. Covering media may have a tough time getting into New Moon without some kind of press pass.

As THR covers how the studio marketers are harnessing the rising power of the online fansites--many of whom will participate in Comic-Con's annual Masters of the Web panel on Thursday at 2 PM--The Wrap examines the countering impact of Twitter on movie openings. As the studios try to use Twitter to disseminate information, word-of-mouth is taking on a whole new meaning in the Twitter universe. The Wrap also posts a handy short-form entertainment sked (the full Comic-Con schedule is packed with cool but not movie-centric graphics and comics panels). Here's Marvel's collection of panels, including Hall H's intro to Iron Man 2.

HitFix is also tracking Comic-Con. Stay tuned. I'm covering. I'm looking forward to seeing Hayao Miyazaki and Pixar's John Lasseter for one of my fave movies of the year so far, Ponyo, and seeing Terry Gilliam again, who is showing some footage but not the entire Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassas, starring Heath Ledger, who made the cover of Vanity Fair this month, a must-read. And for the first time ever, New Zealander Peter Jackson is appearing at the Con in person, to introduce District 9.

First GQ and EW, now Vanity Fair. If you were the editor of a major magazine, I think you'd want Twilight star Rob Pattinson for your cover, too. He's booked for Vanity Fair in the fall, around the November release of New Moon. On Twitter, Pattinson fans track his every move and flick of an eyelash, from Rome to New York. Bruno is a fan too. He fantasizes about almost landing on Pattinson at the MTV Movie Awards, below.

NYmag.com asks, Would you vote for Alec Baldwin? The 30 Rock star and frequent Huffington Post blogger is sounding dangerously close to making a political bid. It's not a question of how smart or knowledgeable he is. Am I crazy, or is Baldwin way too emotional and volatile and actory to be taken seriously as a candidate?

John Wayne's last performance in a movie is not True Grit The Shootist, it turns out, but an indie sci-fi western, Thunder Rider of the Golden West, that is finally going to be released.

As I head off for an unplugged holiday weekend--to a pal's Idyllwild hideaway with no wifi (thanks Lili)--here are some weekend links.

We will see how Michael Mann's Public Enemies fares: usually, if the highbrow critics on Metacritic grant a movie a 71 ranking and the masses at Rotten Tomatoes vote with 58 %, that's a bad sign for playability, even if Johnny Depp gets folks on the first weekend. Time Out asserts that Mann is running on empty. And Michael Phillips shares my concerns with the film's HD approach. Patrick McGavin begs to differ.

Mann's movie is based on the well-known Bryan Burrough book, which covers bank robber John Dillinger and his various cohorts at length. The Daily Rumpus offers a must-read "Dead Sea Scrolls" for Dillinger aficionados. Patrick Goldstein fills in details on how the ever-finicky Mann spent some of his $80 million Public Enemies budget.

The Independent asks, What ever happened to the great American film director?" I explained the problem in one of my late lamented Variety columns, entitled Studios wary of big-budget auteurs. Meanwhile The Guardian bemoans the low quality Hollywood schlockbusters.

For your viewing pleasure, The Guardian has the trailer for Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces. Cinematical posts an amusing spoof of the New Moon trailer.

The MTV Movie Awards, hosted by Andy Samberg, were the usual lackluster, pseudo-hip, mainstream youth alternative to the Oscars--and huge Hollywood marketing opportunity. Summer movies from Paramount (Star Trek, Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra) and Warner Bros. (The Hangover) got promoed, but the big winner of the night was Summit Entertainment, which colluded with MTV and ardent fans to make the awards show a Twilight lovefest, with five wins.

Lanky hunk-du-jour Rob Pattinson dutifully mounted the stage (amid screams) three times to deliver some version of his self-deprecating "I don't deserve to be adored" routine. He and Kristen Stewart, who are still filming the Twilight sequel New Moon with new director Chris Weitz, pretended to re-stage their MTV-award-winning kiss, but stopped just in time. On Twilight's win for best movie, Stewart and ousted Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke butted uncomfortably at the podium, and Stewart and Pattinson stepped back to let Hardwicke do the talking.

The MTV Awards show debuted the New Moon trailer:

The show's other attention-getter was Universal's Bruno, as Sacha Baron Cohen delivered the gross-out controversy of the night (assuredly his intention) as he flew over the crowd in a feathered, bare-assed get-up inspired by Barbarella; as he descended, his silver crotch landed in the face of comeback rapper Eminem, who couldn't believe it and walked out in a huff. (It may have been staged.) Check the video:

The complete list of MTV Movie Awards is on the jump.

Shock Till You Drop has a gallery of New Moon set pictures from Italy. Some of them feature Kristen Stewart and a shirtless Rob Pattinson. No, they are not official. Enjoy them while you can.

While the Rob Pattinson movies that are set to be released post-Twilight--Little Ashes and How to Be--are unlikely to reignite his passionate Twilight fan base, it's not surprising that Summit Entertainment would squeeze their new matinee idol into another romantic movie between Twilight installments that they could sell in Cannes.

Remember Me, Summit CEO Patrick Wachsberger tells Screen, is a Love Story-style romance written by Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married), directed by Allen Coulter (Hollywoodland), and is still seeking a female lead for a planned summer shoot in New York.

Wasting no time, Summit Entertainment is driving forward on the third installment of the Twilight franchise, Eclipse, by hiring director David Slade. Melissa Rosenberg, who penned the first two Twilight films based on Stephenie Meyer's vampire bestsellers is currently writing The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which Summit plans to open on June 30, 2010, according to Summit production head Erik Feig.

Slade is a far cry from Catherine Hardwicke, whose romantic Twilight so far has grossed $380 million worldwide. Slade directed tough indie drama Hard Candy, starring Ellen Page, and the grisly vampire horror adaptation 30 Days of Night, starring Josh Hartnett.

In Meyer's third vampire tale, Bella (Kristen Stewart) is about to graduate from high school. As she tries to choose between vampire Edward (Rob Pattinson) and werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner), she is in danger again when a malicious vampire goes on a vengeful killing spree. The second installment, New Moon, directed by Chris Weitz, will open November 20, 2009.

There's been a good deal of speculation and spin surrounding why Catherine Hardwicke--who by any measure delivered the goods on Twilight, the first installment of Stephenie Meyer's bestselling vampire series--did not return for the sequel, New Moon. Summit hired Chris Weitz (Golden Compass) instead. The truth is, Hardwicke's reps were negotiating a deal with Summit. The deal fell apart over the return of Hardwicke's first assistant director boyfriend to the picture. Summit wasn't willing to commit to him. That, coupled with other issues having to do with time and money--Hardwicke was burned out and wanted more time to prep the script and the movie--dive-bombed her shot at directing the sequel. (Hardwicke was not available to comment on this.) Nonetheless, Summit is making nice with Hardwicke, confirming that she's directing another young femme-targeted book adaptation, Gayle Forman's If I Stay, set to be published this spring.

In this UCLA podcast with the Twilight cinematographer and editor, I am reminded how much Hardwicke brought to Twilight--insisting on a page-one rewrite of the script that had been developed at Paramount that hewed closer to Meyer's book. She complains about a lack of consistency in the producing of Twilight--she'd rather praise the producers of 13. One producer went off to make Marley and Me, she said. (That would be Karen Rosenfelt.) "Once the film was successful they thought, 'we need to hit the November 21 date next year, too.' Vampires are not supposed to age, a lot reasons. For me, I didn't have a script ready to go. Summit offered me another book, I think I'm going to do that," she told the crowd.

The reason there's so much heat around Twilight again (and New Moon--Summit finally announced Dakota Fanning's casting as Jane) is that the DVD is coming out March 21. Access Hollywood aired two deleted scenes from Twilight. Sometimes directors cut scenes from movies for a reason.

Let's play a game of true or false.

Summit says NO, Madonna will not appear in Twilight sequel New Moon, despite what you may read.

Director Marc Forster has worked with screenwriter David Benioff, twice, on Stay and Kite Runner, but until the Quantum of Solace director sees a finished screenplay, he's just interested in Benioff's Kurt Cobain biopic.

In a sign that studios are in no mood to take any chances these days, Ridley Scott's Nottingham will now be called Robin Hood. Don't mess with a brand name. And Russell Crowe will not only be trim and fit, he will play just the one role, not two, Scott tells MTV News. Production starts in two months.

TRUE, DreamWorks' money woes have jeopardized Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, which was to be his next picture after the currently filming TinTin, reports Kim Masters on Slate. EW has more.

TRUE, Zac Efron and Rob Pattinson will present on the Oscar show, but not together. The show will stress young Oscar attendees on the Red Carpet, hiding many others for a big reveal on the show itself. (TRUE, the Academy is trying to pull younger viewers.) TRUE, Dreamgirl Beyonce will sing, but new mother MIA will NOT sing on the Oscars. UPDATE: She might attend, though.

TRUE, Watchmen screens for junket press Tuesday night in L.A. Unfortunately, I have to do something else. Here's an early Time "non-review" and the latest clip:

The Oscar producers are starting to leak things--on purpose, natch--to whet our appetites for Oscar night. It's called marketing. Between Academy president Sid Ganis and producer Laurence Mark, these guys know what they're doing. So what better way to draw some fans to the kudocast than to invite some Twilight stars to participate? And even if Peter Gabriel is out, the very pregnant MIA may be in. UPDATE: MIA gave birth to a healthy baby boy Wednesday. Which gives her time to get ready for the Oscars...

Next up: On March 21, the Twilight DVD hits stores, and on March 27, Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart's new movies open: he plays Salvador Dalí in the arty biopic Little Ashes, while she goes for laughs in Sundance entry Adventureland.

Marc Malkin is reporting that Dakota Fanning is in talks to star as vampire Jane in the Twilight Sequel New Moon. She didn't audition for director Christ Weitz, he writes, but has been offered the role of a deadly Volturi opposite Rob Pattinson.

[Photos courtesy Eonline.com]

Don't believe everything you hear about Twilight and its sequels. Things are heating up already on the third installment, Eclipse. They haven't even started the second one yet, New Moon. When you've got a robust franchise, filmmakers are eager to get on board. Word is, the Spanish director of The Orphanage, Juan Antonio Bayona, and 3:10 to Yuma helmer James Mangold are both circling the project, but Summit insists that no meetings are scheduled as yet. Both would be strong choices.

As to the last two unfilled roles in New Moon, vampires Jane and Aro, no offers have yet gone out, despite what you may have read. And the role of Leah Clearwater isn't being filled, because according to writer Melissa Rosenberg, she isn't in the script!

Even Twilight fans may get a kick out of this funny reworking of the Twilight script.

Summit is confirming that the Twilight sequel decision has been made: after buffing up, Taylor Lautner was able to convince Chris Weitz, the director of New Moon, that he could carry the physical demands of the transformation from lovelorn puppy dog Jacob Black to powerful seven-foot Werewolf. "If the turns work physically and emotionally," said one source close to the movie this week, "we'll go with Taylor."

While other actors have been telling the press they have the part, the filmmakers never met with another actor. Summit was willing to replace Lautner if he couldn't handle the demands of a more mature role. But in the end, they've gone with the young actor--and kept the fans happy.

“I'm very happy that Taylor will be playing Jacob Black in NEW MOON and that he's doing so with the enthusiastic support of Summit, the producers and Stephenie Meyer,” said Weitz. “The characters in Stephenie's books go through extraordinary changes of circumstance and also appearance; so it is not surprising that there has been speculation about whether the same actor would portray a character who changes in so many surprising ways throughout the series. But it was my first instinct that Taylor was, is, and should be Jacob, and that the books would be best served by the actor who is emotionally right for the part.”

In cased you missed it, here are the Twilight Puppets, performing the entire Saga in just three minutes:

[Hat Tip: EW Popwatch.]

Summit Entertainment is announcing that Chris Weitz will direct the sequel to Twilight, New Moon, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer.

Weitz isn't a bad choice, not so much because he delivered the rather flat fantasy adventure Golden Compass (which served to demonstrate that he could handle VFX) but rather that he is a good screenwriter with a light touch who can handle relationships (About a Boy). As reported, Summit plans to open the film at the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010. So far Twilight has grossed $142 million in North America.

"Chris very much understands the world of New Moon and has the skill set required to bring the book to glorious life as a movie," said Summit production chief Erik Feig. Weitz promised to protect on Twilight fans behalf "the characters, themes and story they love," he said. "This is not a task to be taken lightly, and I will put every effort into realizing a beautiful film to stand alongside a beautiful book.”

Why would Weitz want to do this? Well, he hasn't yet really proved his directing chops separate from his brother Paul, who directed About a Boy with him, and directed the very good In Good Company with Chris producing. They wrote and directed American Pie, but Chris Weitz took a producer credit.

A juicy franchise hit would give Weitz a lot of breathing room.

Here's Summit's synopsis of the next Twilight movie:

In New Moon, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black. Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested.

The Catherine Hardwicke story continues. Still at issue are: why she didn't get the gig on New Moon, the Twilight sequel, and who will take her place.

Patrick Goldstein suggests that Hardwicke's strong points (intensity, intuition) were also her weak points. But it dismays me that someone at Summit leaked their bile against her to the press. All directors are saved by their collaborators, on some level.

And there are so few talented women directors, much less commercially viable ones, that I also hate it when a woman who fights for her movies is labeled as difficult. David O. Russell continues to get work, not to mention countless others who don't always behave well during production. Sometimes making a fuss is the only way to get your way in a town that tends to reward bad behavior. According to the A.P., Hardwicke's home message answering machine says, in part:

"We've been kicked out of the `Twilight' editorial, so we're homeless, so please leave your name and number after the tone."

I will repeat herewith that Hardwicke is developing two movies with her Thirteen producer, Groundswell's Michael London, and maintains strong ties with Sony, which made Lords of Dogtown.

As for New Moon, who should Summit hire? Actually, Chris Weitz isn't a terrible idea.

One plausible theory has Summit turning to Jeff Wadlow, who has already directed two films for the young demo, one of which, Never Back Down, was Summit's biggest film prior to Twilight and starred rogue vampire Cam Gigandet.

Variety staffers have suggested Wong Kar Wai, Eli Roth, David S. Goyer, Gurindher Chadha, Deepa Mehta and Mira Nair. None of these has the right combination of skills. Some of them are too hard, some too soft. Hardwicke will be trickier to replace than Summit might think. She has the right combo of skills: the ability to not be afraid of strong, powerful romantic emotions (which send most men running for the door), tune into the taste of young audiences, and pull off VFX and action. How many directors, male or female, can do that? One of the reasons Twilight scored was not only its faithfulness to Stephenie Meyer's book, but also its sheer originality. There has never been anything quite like this young adult/PG-13/horror/romance/thriller.

While Summit has wasted no time moving ahead with the next installment in the Twilight series, New Moon, Catherine Hardwicke will not direct the picture. This is unusual when a director has successfully launched a franchise of this magnitude. The problem that stalled negotiations was that Hardwicke had strong opinions about what to do with the next installment, and so did Summit. The debate was how to focus the adaptation of the second book, which deals more with werewolves than vampires, as well as Bella's long depression after her vampire lover leaves her. One issue will be how to get more of teen heartthrob Rob Pattinson into the film. UPDATE: There's more in my Variety story.

Last week reports surfaced that Summit was checking out other directors for the Twilight franchise while they insisted they were still negotiating with the director, who delivered them the highest-grossing movie opening ever for a woman. The movie is still going strong as the director and cast promote it overseas; it came in second this weekend with $13.2 million, grossing a total $138.6 million. Was Hardwicke fired or did she fail to get her way? There will be spinning now to protect her reputation. But the damage is done.

Bowing to the inveitable, I herewith give you the Bella and Edward Twilight action figures from Tonner. They will undoubtedly fly off the shelves next spring, no matter what the price-tag.

[Hat Tip: Collider]

Twilight stars Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart top IMDb's STARmeter, which measures weekly rankings of who gets the most hits on the site, which is visited by 57 million visitors each month. Twilight stars have taken over the top ten: Edward, Bella, Rosalie, Carlisle, Alice, Jasper, Jacob, Emmett, James, and Charlie. Amazing.

1 Robert Pattinson
2 Kristen Stewart
3 Nikki Reed
4 Peter Facinelli
5 Ashley Greene
6 Jackson Rathbone
7 Taylor Lautner
8 Kellan Lutz
9 Cam Gigandet
10 Billy Burke

Needless to say, Summit is wasting no time moving ahead with the sequel, New Moon.

UPDATE: The question of whether or not Catherine Hardwicke will direct it is still up in the air. Negotiations are in progress. She is the director of the biggest opening ever for a woman director. Her agent is trying to get her paid: will it be what a man would get after delivering the successful launch of a huge franchise? Summit also has to calculate, if they are willing to walk away from Hardwicke, how upset the fans will be if she leaves. Apparently, there is some debate as to how to focus the second movie, which focuses more on werewolves than vampires and deals with Bella's depression after Edward leaves her. One issue will be how to get more Pattinson into the film.

Here's the trailer for Pattinson's next, Little Ashes:

All those teens in love with Rob Pattinson as the dishy Edward Cullen in Twilight may be in for a surprise when they see his next: the arty Bohemian romp Little Ashes, in which he stars as the young painter Salvador Dali--in love with poet Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltran). MTV has a photo gallery on the film, due in 2009.

Here's an early clip:

Well before the opening of Twilight, Rob Pattinson's fame lured long lines of girls for the recent Austin Film Fest screening of his upcoming Brit indie flick How to Be, which still lacks a distributor. The producers sent me this rather strange behind-the-scenes footage of Pattinson taken during his Austin promo tour which will be of interest only to Pattinson obsessives: you know who you are. Here's the updated How to Be website.

Behind the Scenes with How To Be at the Austin Film Festival from How To Be on Vimeo.

Two and a half weeks before Twilight the movie hits theaters, the music is already topping the charts.

Stop the presses! Barack Obama is reading Stephenie Meyers' Twilight vampire series with his daughters. Will there be a screening of the movie in the White House? Summit Entertainment won't want to miss that trick.

Brit actor Robert Pattinson's life changed the instant Catherine Hardwicke cast him as Edward Cullen, the vampire lover in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series.
"How old are you?" asks Bella (Kristen Stewart), a new student at Forks High.
"17," he says.
"How long have you been 17?"
"A while."
Pattinson has seen the way women react to him as Edward at Comic-Con and festivals. (They tend to scream.) In this flip-cam interview, he talks about how tricky it was to play this kind of swoony leading man, figuring out the makeup, his music, his upcoming films Little Ashes and How to Be, and the new movie he starts in January, playing Dennis Hopper's grandson in writer-director Brian Horiuchi's L.A.-set multi-generational marriage drama Parts Per Billion, also starring Olivia Thrilby and Rosario Dawson. Hollywood is sending him scripts, but everyone it seems, is waiting to see how Twilight fares when it opens November 21:

Pattinson, who hasn't seen the movie, says he's prepared to play Cullen in two more Twilight films in the original trilogy. (There's a fourth, more controversial and adult Twilight novel.) Pattinson's next movie, Little Ashes, a gay romance between Salvador Dali and Gabriel Federico Garcia Lorca, is due in March. And the bare-bones, quirky Brit coming-of-age movie How to Be debuted at Slamdance in January, where it won an honorable mention, failed to pick up a distrib at Berlin in February, and still has no home in the U.K. or the U.S. Pattinson plays a sad-sack acoustic guitar player trying to pull himself out of depression. This pic might benefit from an online release--there are countless Pattinson fans who would want to sample it. But only a micro distrib would ever release it theatrically. Here's the How to Be website, which has a trailer.

The LAT interviews Pattinson, as does EW, as part of its cover package. UPDATE: My fave gossip Marc Malkin gets Pattinson to dish about bare bellies.

My column this week runs down the entire Twilight phenom: what makes this movie unique and a very likely blockbuster. How big is the question, and that comes down to little issues like, does it play beyond the core fan base? It only cost $37 million. So for Summit, it's a question of how high is high, how much of a cushion they can rely on going forward during nasty economic times.

When EW ran a Twilight cover five months ahead of the movie, it beat out The Dark Knight as its bestselling cover of the year. So EW is running three collectible covers, again.

Slashfilm posts a sked of the cast's mall tour. And here's my pre-Comic-Con interview with Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke.

True confession. I am into vampires.

Raised on Hammer Dracula films starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, when I was nine I dressed up as a Chinese vampire on Halloween. F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu is a fave. I devoured Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, as well as the classic movie starring Bela Lugosi. ("I don't drink...wine.") I read all of Anne Rice's Lestat novels. Interview with a Vampire the movie was pretty good; so was Francis Coppola's Dracula. I even went to see Underworld, though not the sequel, and suffered manfully through Van Helsing. (A third Underworld, Rise of the Lycans, pitting vampire leader Bill Nighy vs. werewolf Michael Sheen, is due in January.)

I rushed through the first two Stephenie Meyer young adult Twilight vampire romances, and witnessed the femme takeover of Comic-Con at the Twilight conference in Hall H, when thousands screamed en masse for Rob Pattinson. Here's my pre-Comic-Con interview with Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke (the full interview is on the jump). The movie junket is coming up. A cadre of women in my office are begging to screen the movie ASAP. This is not normal.

Even though Twilight doesn’t open until November 21, moviegoers are already buying advance tickets for the film via Fandangotwilighttickets.com. According to the results of a Fandango survey of 5000 moviegoers interested in Twilight:

92% of respondents say they’ll see Twilight on opening weekend; 85% say they plan to see the film more than once; 56% are planning to see the movie with a group of friends; 97% have read the novel by Stephenie Meyer; 86% would be interested in visiting the locations where the movie was filmed; 95% of the respondents to the survey are female; 42% of respondents are 25 or older; 58% are younger than 25.

HBO's True Blood also plays around with similar romantic ideas, but does so with a more mature, sexy edge. I can't get enough of this bloody stuff. What's the appeal? Brian Lowry sinks his teeth into the vampire trend. The WSJ parses the movie power of the vampire. Here's the Twilight trailer:

This trailer for Let the Right One In, a well-reviewed Scandinavian vampire romance that is currently in theaters, also creeps me out:

The new Twilight trailer hits hard as an action thriller---the Romeo + Juliet vampire/human romance between Rob Pattinson and Kristin Stewart is still front and center, but this one also targets the male action demo. Summit wants the whole pie on this one. They spent extra bucks for reshoots. And they want to score when the pic opens November 21.

Twilight

One of the set pieces of Twilight is a scene in a meadow when Edward Cullen (Rob Pattinson) reveals his dazzling skin to his human love interest, Bella (Kristen Stewart) in the sunlight. It's a sign of Summit's confidence in the movie, as well as their expectations of getting their money back, that they funded a reshoot of that scene to really make it play. Recognizing that Twilight fans are demanding a lot of this adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's bestseller, they're also adding two new scenes (planned before the distrib's move of the vampire romance onto the vacated Harry Potter slot on November 21), including a flashback of vampire Edward Cullen's backstory and a prom scene featuring his rival, Jacob.

Summit Entertainment co-chairman and CEO Rob Friedman knows how to play the distribution game. So when he saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince move off the November 21 date to next summer, he jumped on the chance to move his vampire romantic thriller Twilight onto that date.

Here's the story.

Twilight fans will be thrilled to be able to see the pic three weeks earlier. Buzz has been building for months and reached a crescendo at July's Comic-Con, when young girls screamed for Brit star Robert Pattinson, and in August, when the fourth Stephenie Meyer novel Breaking Dawn hit bookstores and broke sales records. The comparison between Meyer and J. K. Rowling and her passionate followers has often been made.

UPDATE: I don't buy the theory that Warners wanted to move Harry Potter because Twilight would impact it. Believe me, a major studio like WB isn't worrying about a low-budget movie without stars from an upstart distrib like Summit--even if they should be. It was about filling out their summer sked, which was thin because of the Writer's Strike.

The Stephenie Meyer/Twilight train keeps rolling, with record-breaking sales of her fourth vampire novel in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, which sold 1.3 million copies on its release date, August 2. (It's still not Harry Potter territory, though; last July Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours.)

It became clear to me at Comic-Con that while there are legions of rabid fans of the Twilight books, many of whom eagerly await seeing the lovers, vampire Edward and human Bella, come to life on the big screen December 12, there are also many young women who have already adopted Brit actor Robert Pattinson (who starred as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) separate from Twilight.

UPDATE: Pattinson has several movies coming up, including two Brit indie entries, Little Ashes (in which he plays the 18-year-old Salvador Dali) and How to Be, the comedy he finished just before starting Twilight, which has been playing the indie circuit. Here's the trailer.

The folks at Summit sent me this Twilight widget via Facebook:

[Posted by Peter Debruge]

It's starting to feel a little all-Twilight-all-the-time over here, and as much as I like the tween Vampire tale, nothing compares to Harry Potter. Here's a teaser for the latest, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (also available in HD from WB bedfellow AOL:

Ooh, scary Harry! I love how things are getting progressively darker with the series, although WB's The Dark Knight proves that no matter how grim they get, we can count on the MPAA to slap a kid-friendly rating on the film. Am I the only grandma-minded critic out there who thinks the R-rated Billy Elliott is more appropriate for kids than, say, Lord of the Rings or The Love Guru?

Judging from Comic-Con, vampires and werewolves of all shapes and sizes are on the rise.

Besides the romantic vampire phenom Twilight and the sexy HBO-targeted True Blood, a host of other vampire movies were on display at the Con.

Greek production designer and creature maven Patrick Tatopoulos has taken over the Underworld franchise, heading into prequel territory to provide equal time for the werewolves in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, starring a well-buffed, long-maned Michael Sheen (The Queen) as a werewolf in love with a sword-wielding, horse-riding, warrior vampire, Rhona Mitra (Doomsday), the daughter of vampire overlord Bill Nighy. "The last two stories were through the eyes of the vampires, in the air," said Tatopoulos. "This is about earth, a love story and quest for freedom."

"I'm a vampire, I'm a zombie and a squid," said Nighy. "How many people do you know can make that claim?"

Some of the fans actually booed a trailer showing Noah Wyle as a gentle librarian who falls for a sexy vampire in Jonathan Frake's The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice, basically a Something Wildish romantic comedy for TNT. The sequel Lost Boys: The Tribe looked pretty warmed over, too. “You’ll never grow old, you’ll never die and you’ll never know fear again,” one vampire tells a new recruit. Also not something I will ever see is Quarantine, a 2009 Screen Gems horror flick that traps a bunch of terrified people inside a tenement which has been infected by rabid vampire/werewolf attackers. It's done Cloverfield-style, and we're looking at the videotape. Or not.

X-Men's Wolverine is a kind of mutant superhero werewolf, right?

Hugh Jackman brought down the house when he popped into the Con, surprising the denizens of Hall H with a remarkable amount of energy for someone who had been on a plane from Australia, having just wrapped the X-Men spin-off, Origins Wolverine. It's his first visit with an X-Men movie, he said. Impulsively, Jackman jumped into the audience and greeted Wolverine comics creator Len Wein. "I have to shake your hand, buddy," he said. Without your pen I wouldn't have a career."

The movie is due May 1, 2009, based on a script by David Benioff. "The movie is big, it's action packed," Jackman said. "If I can describe the Wolverine movie in two words: It's badass." He added, "You're going to see a lot of berserker rage."

Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman and Jim Gianapulos were in the house as they screened some footage of Jackman and Liev Schreiber pitted against one another in training as they learn to control their powers. Gambit (Friday Night Light's Taylor Kitsch) was also unveiled. After the panel, Jackman flew off across the Pacific again, this time to Japan, for a vacation.

Yes, having Rick Baker (American Werewolf in London) do prosthetic make-up for The Wolfman is a good thing. CG will be used for the transitions, Baker admitted at the Hall H panel: “Something magical happens when you get an actor in good makeup, when he sees himself in the mirror, and says, ‘I’m the Wolfman.' This is an old-school gothic horror movie.”

“Everybody talks about how boring the makeup process is,” said Benicio del Toro, whose manager Rick Yorn sold Universal on this period remake of the Lon Chaney, Jr. classic, a fave of his client. “I loved watching him build the makeup for four hours. It’s about becoming. It’s exciting. The tough part is taking it off. That gets desperate.”

Even if del Toro is a genuine fan who argued for staying true to the original, the actor (as directed by last-minute helmer Joe Johnston) looks uncomfortable in 19th century tweeds as the estranged American son of Brit noble Anthony Hopkins and pursuer of corseted beauty Emily Blunt.

“I was running and screaming,” Blunt said. “I liked the whole idea of being a damsel in distress.”

“And I was chasing her,” said del Toro.

[Photo Jackman and Len Wein courtesy LA Times]

Click here for more photos from Comic-con

According to a San Diego State University study released on July 22, if things are bad for male film critics, they are worse for women.

Here's a sample of the findings in Thumbs Down: The Representation of Women Film Critics in the Top 100 U.S. Daily Newspapers:

*Men write the overwhelming majority of film reviews in the nation's top newspapers. In Fall 2007, men penned 70% and women 30% of all reviews.

*Of the newspapers featuring film reviews, 47% had no reviews written by women critics, writers or freelancers. In contrast, only 12% had no reviews written by men critics, writers or freelancers.

*Films with women filmmakers (directors and writers) and films with female protagonists and ensemble casts comprise a larger proportion of films reviewed by women than men. Thus, the under-representation of women film critics, writers and freelancers may cause films featuring females or with women filmmakers to receive less coverage.

The bottom line is that film criticism in this country's newspapers remains a largely male enterprise, echoing the heavy male dominance behind the scenes and on screen in the film industry.

And the coverage that movies with femme appeal do get from male critics is not the necessarily as positive or understanding as that from female critics. Mamma Mia! and Sex in the City would be recent examples. Why would a guy particularly engage with a romantic comedy like 27 Dresses? Professional film critics will argue that it is their job to know how to review such a movie. Let's put it this way. Some men are better able to adopt the female POV, and tap into their femme side, than others. Many men are not trained to do see things from the perspective of the opposite sex. All women are.

That's one reason why today's movies are so geared toward men, while women starve for material aimed at them. Women are accustomed to going along and accepting slim pickings in pictures by and about men. Even at Comic-Con, there's a sense that female fans are yearning for romance. The screaming response to Twilight's Brit heartthrob Robert Pattinson was enormous. He could be the next Leo di Caprio after Titanic, if Twilight hits as big as I suspect it will.

Men here were scratching their heads over Twilight. No clue.

Here's the LAT's video interview with Pattinson at Comic-Con. I feel sorry for the guy:

[Variety photo of Twilight's Robert Pattinson by Martha Hernandez]

Photo Gallery: 'Twilight' panel

When EW writer Nicole Sperling posted a Twilight item on her blog, she got 821 comments in 15 hours. Thus it was no surprise Thursday that screaming women flocked into Hall H prepared to screech like Beatles fans whenever Harry Potter star Robert Pattinson opened his mouth.

The poor guy was "tweaked," admitted one Summit staffer who tried to prep the guy in advance. He could barely talk amid the screams in a room packed with some 7000 people. "Let me focus," he begged. One fan asked a question about The Day the Earth Stood Still and Twilight opening on the same day, December 12. 'Who will win?" The fans screamed their answer.

"I just wanted to play the hottest vampire in the world," joked Pattinson. "He's a fantastical dude and he dazzles."

Comic-Con Photo Gallery: Twilight Panel - includes more photos of Robert Pattinson

Comic-Con is coming at the end of the month, and two movies sure to make a splash at the San Diego convention center are Frank Miller's neo-noir The Spirit and Catherine Hardwicke's vampire romance Twilight. I interviewed both directors for my column: Miller says The Spirit is in color, not black and white, and that he colors with emotion. Hardwicke talks about auditioning Robert Pattinson to play the vampire Edward Cullen opposite Kristen Stewart's Bella--- on the bed of her Venice beach pad. Only with those two was there serious heat.

And here's the Comic-Con sked. UPDATE: And here's EW's cover story and backlash to their ultra-glam cover shoot, which alters the appearance of the actors from the movie.

With Comic-Con around the corner (it's the last week of July in San Diego), Catherine Hardwicke's movie version of Stephenie Meyer's chick lit vampire phenom Twilight, which doesn't open until December but is already on the cover of EW, is one of the movies sure to pop at the biggest movie launch platform I can think of right now. Is there one bigger?

Cannes is one thing. Sundance and Toronto another. But the impact of Comic-Con on the movie marketplace is huge.

My hunch is Catherine Hardwicke's movie of Twilight is going to be huge. The Stephenie Meyer book is a vampire young adult phenom all over the world. And Kristen Stewart is the star.

Of all the Vanity Fair flavors-of-the-month, she's the one I've been watching. Jon Favreau cast her in Zathura, and she popped. You also saw her in Doug Liman's Jumpers, Sean Penn's Into the Wild and she's coming up in Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? Twilight is the tenth pic she's made since Zathura, and it will make her a star. Summit will release December 12. And sequels are already in the offing.

I told you Twilight was a vampire trilogy. Summit is still negotiating a deal to film the next two installments of the Twilight series, which may be filmed back to back, Pirates-style. That's cocky. The first one isn't out until December. But they have every reason to believe that they've lucked into an enormous franchise. They probably wish they'd nailed down all three books in the first place.

Summit Entertainment is doing cartwheels. That's because they're already in production on a movie, Twilight, based on the first book in a trilogy vampire saga by book phenom Stephenie Meyer.

The 34-year-old Mormon author just landed a takeout in Time Magazine calling her the new queen of fantasy with the head: The Next J.K. Rowling? The article praises Meyer's books for being about the "erotics of abstinence." She "rewrites stock horror plots as love stories."

She's basically the young adult Anne Rice, because Twilight is a romantic 17-year-old Romeo and Juliet with vampires and humans. Rising star Kristen Stewart (discovered by Jon Favreau in Zathura, Panic Room) plays a girl who falls for a handsome guy (Robert Pattinson, of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) who turns out to be a vampire. But he's a good vampire who has renounced sucking human blood. He and his mother coven feed on animals. His virtue--his psychological struggle against his lust for blood--makes him interesting. The movie, directed by thirteen's Catherine Hardwicke, is due December 12.

Vampires have fed Hollywood since its infancy, from Bram Stoker's Dracula and Nosferatu to Rice's Interview with a Vampire, Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Underworld series. But this series has femme appeal.

When Summit slapped a teaser trailer up on MySpace on Monday at 11 AM, it pulled 1 million views in 36 hours and has now passed 2 million. The teaser will premiere on E.T. Friday, and will run in front of family-friendly Speed Racer (maybe that will boost its ticket sales). "I would have been happy with 500,000," says Summit chief Rob Friedman, who scooped up the rights to Twilight when it had sold 10,000 copies just after he started Summit's new production/distrib arm. Paramount had the option and let it go. Since then the first three Twilight books have sold over 6 million copies in the U.S. "I knew the book had a fan base but it's always good to see it's bigger than you think," says Friedman, who has a potential franchise on his hands. This is what any new company lusts after.

UPDATE: Wired is also tracking this. The trailer could break the current record of 4.1 million views in one week set in March by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The internet fan buzz on this is so intense that Summit marketing may want to consider pulling back a tad.

Here's the HD teaser trailer:

Twilight in HD

[Illustration for Time by Anita Kunz]