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'Breaking Dawn' salary squabble: co-stars want $4 million each

It’s no surprise that salary negotiations would be the key stumbling block to splitting the fourth and final Twilight book, Breaking Dawn, into two movies. (The actors’ contracts cover only four movies. This would make it five.) But who could have guessed it would be the supporting actors, not the stars, who would go to the mat for more money. As first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, co-stars Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz are taking a hard-line approach to negotiations, while Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner are close to signing their deals for both films. Director Bill Condon has already done so.

Greene and Lutz don’t have huge roles. Greene portrays Alice Cullen, the future-seeing sister of Edward Cullen and Bella’s closest friend in the Cullen clan. Lutz plays older brother Emmett Cullen and his part, so far, has been minor. Yet sources tell EW.com that the duo are asking for $4 million a piece for each of the final two films. Greene and Lutz had initially banded together with fellow co-stars Nikki Reed and Jackson Rathbone to form a united front, but sources say Reed backed down and is now close to finalizing her deal, which is said to be in the $750,000- $1 million range per film–the amount Summit initially offered the four cast members. (Rathbone’s status remains unclear, and his reps had not returned a call for comment at press time. Reed’s manager declined to comment.)

The studio declined to comment on the negotiations. But sources tell EW.com that Greene and Lutz believe that because the supporting actors do as much publicity as the lead actors, and have to log almost as many hours on set, they should be paid accordingly. One source involved in the negotiations says that Greene and Lutz just want to get $1 million or more.

Either way, what is peculiar is that Greene and Lutz are banding together at all. Greene’s Alice is a much more instrumental character than Lutz’s Emmett is. And considering that Summit has replaced actors before who played hardball (Rachelle LaFevre was dropped from the upcoming Eclipse in favor of Bryce Dallas Howard), it wouldn’t be a surprise if Summit chooses to replace either actor. It’s just fans will probably be much more outraged over Greene leaving than Lutz.

The Cullen Family Cast Returns For Summit Entertainment's THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN

The Summit press release:

Los Angeles, CA May 19, 2010 – Summit Entertainment has confirmed that Peter Facinelli, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Elizabeth Reaser, and Nikki Reed will all return as members of the Cullen Family in THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN. These cast members join Billy Burke as Charlie Swan.

Academy Award winner Bill Condon will direct THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN based on the fourth novel in author Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, starring Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. The project is currently being written by Melissa Rosenberg with Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt, and Stephenie Meyer producing. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN is slated to be released November 18, 2011.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions.

The family of vampires, to which the leading male character Edward Cullen belongs, is comprised of Facinelli as Carlisle, Greene as Alice, Lutz as Emmett, Rathbone as Jasper, Reaser as Esme, and Reed as Rosalie.

The third film in the franchise, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE is due in theaters on June 30, 2010.

About the TWILIGHT film series
The TWILIGHT film series stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson and tells the story of 17-year-old Bella Swan who moves to the small town of Forks, Washington to live with her father, and becomes drawn to Edward Cullen, a pale, mysterious classmate who seems determined to push her away. But neither can deny the attraction that pulls them together...even when Edward confides that he and his family are vampires. The action-packed, modern day vampire love story TWILIGHT, the first film in the series, was released in theatres on November 21, 2008 to a blockbuster reception. The second installment of the film franchise, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON was released November 20, 2009. The franchise has grossed over $1.1 billion in worldwide box office ticket sales to date.

A special note from Bill Condon

Hello fans!

Has it really been five months (and a day) since my last dispatch? In my defense, they've been five months spent immersed in the world of TWILIGHT - something I'm sure you can all appreciate. We're in the thick of pre-production now, juggling everything from casting to storyboarding to location scouting, getting it all ready to go, but I do want to take a moment to announce to you exclusively a few of the amazing production team members who are hard at work alongside me, bringing these movies to life. I hope you'll be as excited about them as I am:

Guillermo Navarro, who won an Academy Award for the beautiful PAN'S LABYRINTH, is our cinematographer. Guillermo and I have been painstakingly planning each shot, with a team of very talented storyboard artists.

Michael Wilkinson, our costume designer, is bringing his brilliant vision to the styles of all your favorite characters. Michael's created fantastic looks for 300, WATCHMEN, and the upcoming TRON: LEGACY - just wait 'til you see his take on the vampire witnesses who come to Forks from around the globe.

Jean Black, our makeup designer, has worked extensively with the Coen Brothers and David Fincher, most recently making exquisite, award-winning contributions to THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. I'm honored to be working with her.

Richard Sherman, with whom I made GODS AND MONSTERS and KINSEY, is on-board as our production designer. Richard's one of my oldest collaborators and a terrific designer, and you may be interested to know that he also happens to be a lifelong vampire aficionado.

Our Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor John Bruno has been responsible for some of the most memorable special effects ever, with his groundbreaking work on display in everything from POLTERGEIST to AVATAR. He and his team are working intensely to develop solutions to the host of special effects challenges that Stephenie created for us in BREAKING DAWN, including that remarkable kid...

Wonderful, imaginative people all and very exciting, intense times for us. Even with the months of work we've already put in, we're barely underway on the journey, and I do hope to get back to you much sooner next time with more news. Until then, thanks for your warm reception and continued support!

Very best regards,

Bill

bd script: sex scenes, wedding toasts and baseball
Spoilers about the BD script. At least according to Lainey Gossip


The entire group will soon be reunited as production is scheduled to begin shortly on the fourth and fifth films in the franchise. Bella and Edward get married, there’s some sex, and then a hybrid baby, and then a really lame war which will actually play ever so slightly better on film because, well, someone other than Stephenie Meyer wrote the screenplay.

Having said that, for the faithful, there is still So.Much.Cheese for you to enjoy. Like the wedding toasts. The wedding toasts in Part 1 are perhaps the most cliché and uninspired words you will hear next year. And when delivered by Kellan Lutz, Jesus Christ it’ll be a great time, to go and laugh yourself silly with your friends. Or squeeze their hands from the pain of the fontrum. It really depends on how you react to such things.

If it were me, because you never know what will end up in editing, I would cut that sh-t out and leave the sex scenes intact. Before that though, if they stay true to the script, Edward and Carlisle have a birds and the bees talk that is supposed to be, I guess, the vampire advice equivalent to human boys and “baseball”. When does a boy think about baseball? Baseball is for bringing you back from the brink. Therefore Edward Cullen’s premature ejaculation = crushing his wife to death when he’s taking her virginity, preventable, according to his father, by thoughts of baseball.

F-cking unintentional comedy gold. Please leave that sh-t in. Please, please, please.

And what’s Kristen Stewart looking forward to? She spoke to Access Hollywood, video is below, about being excited about heading back to work on the blockbuster series, and perhaps some of that has to do with shooting those highly anticipated intimate moments.

There are three of them in total in Part 1 right now. The first is in the water, and they get the business started with a super cringe line, as Bella walks naked into the ocean and looks at the moon and sighs that “it’s beautiful”, to which Edward replies, while looking at her and obviously not the moon...

“Very.”

See, I just laughed out loud writing that.

Happily though, they dispose of the dialogue quickly and then it’s supposed to be all limbs and writhing and wrapping around each other from the sea to the house and much of it is relayed, rather cleverly actually, in flashback form. After they show the initial hook up from beach to bedroom, we jump to the morning after as Edward is constipated about something and Bella is examining her body. Cut to her memories of the night before, the touching, and his kissing the length of her body, and the clenching, and her head thrown back, and his struggle to, um, think about baseball, and her resulting pleasure, and some furniture gets broken. It actually reads pretty erotic, and if they cut it the way it’s written, it should be even hotter to watch. Even I would enjoy watching it if they stay with that spirit.

She keeps begging for it afterwards, and the two following love scenes are more of the same soft porny vibe which, to be honest, totally impressed me because having blue balled it for 3 straight movies, I thought they would pull that sh-t all over again. On paper though, they appear to be totally going for it. Which means that’s how they’ll shoot it. So you’ll just have to hope they don’t f-ck around with it in the edit suite.

Breaking Dawn script details - Spoiler alert, look away if you can't deal. Bella has the baby and drops dead. The Jacob is all sad and leaves. Then he comes back to kill the Evil Thing. Then he lays eyes on it. You see it through his eyes like tunnel vision - she's 2, she's 4, she's 9, she's a teen, she's a woman, and that's when he falls in love. It actually doesn't read creepy at all. It reads not bad. Because ANYTHING IS AN IMPROVEMENT ON STEPHENIE MEYER.

Then Edward's all sad because Bella dies. And he hears Jacob's thoughts. And he beats the sh-t out of Jacob. Jacob doesn't fight back because he's a weak and sh-t from imprinting.
(...)
she dies as a human. Then at the end of the movie, you feel her suffering and the burning and smash to her eyes, they open red. Credits. Then at the end of the credits.. Volturi Scene. Michael Sheen's character, I cant remember his name, gets word that Bella is a vampire and he's all like - I want her. Then it's over.