The second movie in the Twilight franchise, New Moon, has a lot riding on it. The studio must be confident that it will bring in the big bucks, because they have already agreed to produce a third, based on the third book in Meyer’s series, Eclipse. Chris Weitz, who is replacing Catherine Hardwicke as director for the second movie, did not sign on for the third, and the search has been on to find a director. There have been a lot of names flying around – Drew Barrymore and Paul Weitz (Chris’ brother) were just two possible directors mentioned – but the producers have finally settled on Juan Antonio Bayona, a protege of Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro, and recently the director of the Spanish-language horror film The Orphanage.

Summit, which had no comment Wednesday, is expected to make the official announcement soon. The minimajor recently gave “Eclipse” a release date of June 30, 2010.

Summit’s opted for a different director on each “Twilight” pic. Chris Weitz replaced “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke on “New Moon.” Production’s due to start shortly on “New Moon” with the key thesps — Robert Pattinson as Edward, Kristen Stewart as Bella and Taylor Lautner as Jacob — reprising their roles.

“New Moon” is set to open Nov. 20. Melissa Rosenberg, who penned the “Twilight” and “New Moon” scripts, is working on “Eclipse,” in which Bella is forced to choose between Edward and Jacob. The four books in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series have sold more than 17 million copies worldwide.

[from Variety]

The turn-around for this movie is very short, considering that they are just now beginning to film the second, so they’ve probably secured a director this early in the game so that they can begin planning it now. Though this is a series and there is plot continuity between the movies (they have kept the same screenwriter), they have decided to change directors for each movie, which means that the visual aspects probably won’t be similar.

Eclipse is a much darker book than the first two, so they probably made the right decision not to use Drew Barrymore. She’s great and I can’t wait for her new film, Whip It!, to come out, but I feel that she would have only added star power, and not necessarily done much for the movie itself. I also imagine her creating a lighter feel than a movie about vampires demands. A horror director, especially one of Bayona’s imaginative capacity, will be able to create the sense of gritty danger and reality that some reviews said were lacking from the first movie.

Juan Antonio Bayona is shown at a photocall for The Orphanage in Rome on 11/12/08. Credit: PRPhotos