Why make one Twilight film when you can charge moviegoers to see two of them?
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, the fourth movie in the vampire franchise, will be split in two, with the first half scheduled for release on Nov. 18, 2011, distributor Summit Entertainment confirmed Thursday.
The announcement, coming ahead of the June 30 release of the third film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, was not a surprise. The closely held studio had signalled that author Stephenie Meyer's 900-page Breaking Dawn book was too complex to be adapted into a single movie.
But it had reportedly signed the cast for only four movies, and had to renegotiate costly deals with the newly minted A-list actors before it could officially announce the new plan.
The films will shoot back-to-back in the fall, with Bill Condon directing from a script being written by Melissa Rosenberg. A Summit spokesman said there was no release date scheduled yet for the fifth film.
The fourth book centres on Bella's marriage to the vampire Edward, her subsequent pregnancy, and her fulfilled desire to be transformed into a vampire.
The first two films in the franchise have grossed over $1.1 billion at the box office, Summit said.
Subject: Fourth 'Twilight' film gets release date; fifth to follow 
Fri Jun 11, 2010 3:11 pm