Summit Prepares Twilight Sequel, New Moon Movie

Published by Jeff Leins on October 14, 2008

New update here: Twilight tickets are selling out, plus more on the sequel.
Second update: Summit acquires rights to the rest of the novel series.

Over a month before the release of Twilight, Summit Entertainment is already preparing a sequel based on the second novel in the series, New Moon.

The second of four vampire/teen romance novels from Stephenie Meyer, New Moon rose to the top of the New York Times bestseller list under the category “Children’s Chapter Books.” It remained on the list for 30 weeks, 11 of those at #1.

Summit’s CEO Rob Friedman is already moving ahead with a sequel, according to Nikki Finke. He made the decision purely based on the early buzz for what will be a surefire hit on November 21.

I was covering this rabid fan base early (back in May) and even read the books. I’ve been saying it all along, but I’ll say it again: This movie will be huge. The studio is low-balling the opening weekend figure at $20 million, but I expect it to at least double that.

The unfinished soundtrack is already in the top five on Amazon from pre-sales alone. The exclusive Borders calendar sold out in just a few days. The pre-order demand for an Edward Cullen action figure has already sold the item out and been pulled from the site. The latest trailer for Twilight debuted recently and received 2 million views on MySpace in the first 24 hours and a total of 3.5 million views in 48 hours. (Speaking of which, did anyone notice the reference in the trailer to the “hands holding the apple” cover from the book? What was that?)

In May there were rumors circulating that Summit planned to shoot two sequels back-to-back. No word if that is still the case.