The end of a franchise is always bittersweet — for the fans, for the creator, but most of all, for the studio executives it’s made rich.
The four “Twilight” movies have already made $2.5 billion worldwide. The fifth — and final — chapter of the vampire saga created by novelist Stephenie Meyer is scheduled to have teenaged girls weeping in theaters this November.
It’s even harder for the head honchos at Lionsgate, which now owns “Twilight” studio Summit Entertainment, to say goodbye.
Lionsgate co-chair Rob Friedman told Stephenie Meyer — through the media — that the new owners will “be there to support her” if she decides to extend the series with a sixth book.
That brief statement made headlines — which is laughable. Can it really be considered “news” when a studio executive says he’d be happy to make another multi-million-dollar-grossing film?
Fans might be on pins and needles, wondering if they’ll get to read about Edward and Bella’s daughter Renesmee growing up to be stalked by a werewolf many years her senior, and then see it on the big screen. But Meyer has no plans to end the suspense. “I’m not going to say no,” she said. Of course not — her children might want to go to college one day.
But will a sixth film satisfy bloodthirsty fans?
Some of the films’ success must be credited to the man and woman who play its central couple. But Robert Pattinson, the not-exactly-classically handsome English actor who plays Edward, might not be around for a sequel.
It’s not that he’d necessarily turn down a hefty paycheck. He’s just not sure he’d actually be asked back.
“I’d be curious what Stephenie would write, but I just think I’d probably be too old,” he told reporters at the Berlin film festival, where his latest film, “Bel Ami,” was screened. “I’m already too old. But yeah, it’d be kind of interesting.”
He makes a good point. Pattinson is 25 years old — still young, even by Hollywood standards. But Edward is a vampire, and so will never age. He’ll always look 17 — even though he’s spent more than a century on Earth.
Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella, has a better shot at appearing in a sixth film. She’s only 21. And she just became a vampire in the fourth film — so her aging process in the world of “Twilight” has only just stopped.
But isn’t it Meyer’s prose and the world she created that made her one of the few novelist-celebrities? The books were bestsellers before the first film came out. Fans, however, now link the central characters with the popular young stars who play them.
Rob Friedman, in any case, certainly thinks there’s still more money to be made from “Twilight.”
Kelly Jane Torrance is The Washington Examiner movie critic. Her reviews appear weekly and she can be reached at [email protected].
