It is being reported that Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village, Terminator Salvation) has joined the cast of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Who is she playing? Well, the character of Victoria, replacing Rachelle Lefevre who played the role in the first two Twilight movies.
[Update: Both Summit Entertainment and Rachelle Lefevre have issued opposing statements with regards to the actress being replaced. See bottom of the post for details]
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Howard joins the already established Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner (as if you needed reminding) in the third installment of the successful vampire-love franchise. Summit Entertainment is citing scheduling conflicts as the reason for replacing Lefevre, and if you look at her IMDB resume, you can get an idea of what she might stupidly be favoring over the cash-cow that is the Twilight franchise. She currently has one film in definite pre-production for 2010 called Barney’s Version, and she’s rumored for another film called Web Cam.
Summit Entertainment had this to say about the switch in casting:
“We are incredibly happy that Bryce has agreed to come into the franchise… Rachelle brought Victoria to great screen life and Bryce will bring a new dimension to the character. The franchise is lucky to have such a talented actress as Bryce coming in to fill the role.”
I admit I haven’t read the Twilight books, so consider me uninformed as to how big of a role the character of Victoria plays in Eclipse. If the reasoning behind the switch of actresses was due to the fact that the character has an expanded role, then I’d say Summit was looking for a better actress (shock horror!) to do the role justice. But since it’s scheduling conflicts, that may not be the case.
UPDATE: It appears that there is indeed more to the story than simply “scheduling conflicts.” Lefevre is arguing that Summit would not accomodate her shooting on another film (which her commitment to was only for 10 days). Here is part of Lefevre’s statement:
“I was stunned by Summit’s decision to recast the role of Victoria for Eclipse. I was fully committed to the Twilight saga, and to the portrayal of Victoria. I turned down several other film opportunities and, in accordance with my contractual rights, accepted only roles that would involve very short shooting schedules. My commitment to Barney’s Version is only ten days. Summit picked up my option for Eclipse. Although the production schedule for Eclipse is over three months long, Summit said they had a conflict during those ten days and would not accommodate me.”
Summit Entertainment are very much opposing Lefevre with their statement, stating the actress knew full well that Eclipse would be shooting in August and that she should have kept the franchise in mind when committing to another film. Here is part of their statement:
“We at Summit Entertainment are disappointed by Rachelle Lefevre’s recent comments which attempt to make her career choices the fault of the Studio. Her decision to discuss her version of the scheduling challenges publicly has forced the Studio to set the record straight and correct the facts.”
- “Ms. Lefevre’s representatives were advised as early as April that THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE was expected to start shooting in early August.”
- “If Ms. Lefevre was, as she describes “passionate,” about being part of THE TWILIGHT SAGA, we feel that she and her representatives would have included us in her decision to work on another film that would conflict with the shooting schedule of THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE.”
Are you Twilight fans out there pleased with the change of casting? Who do you agree with about the change of actress: Rachelle Lefevre or Summit Entertainment?
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is set to start shooting in Vancouver in August, and has a release date of June 30th, 2010.
Source: Variety
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17 Comments
That is the book that Victoria play the biggest roll in. She’s barely in the first two, not in the 4th one at all. The end of the 3rd book is primarily about her story line.
I won’t be seeing this film, but I am a big fan of BDH and happy to see her get high-profile roles like this.
Those two girls look nearly indistinguishable to me. I don’t like the idea of changing actresses mid-series, but they may be able to pull it off. Is BDH a good actress? She was a complete non-entity in Terminator: Salvation.
She was a non entity in T4 because of cuts that were made.
She was fine in the scenes that were left in.
I hope Twilight fans understand this was because of scheduling difficulties in Victorias schedule.
It was unavoidable.
I’ve read all of the books and yes, this movies she has the biggest part in. However, her part is still very small. She is talked about throughout the book, but you don’t really see her until the end. The part that you do see her is when she is fighting with Edward, not much dialect. I don’t see a reason to replace the original actress, but since they do look alike, it isn’t that bad.
she must have been oblivious to the signifigance of her role for the third film, or she wouldn’t have signed on to other projects that conflict with her Twilight schedule.
Hey, I’ve just thought that Bryce Dallas Howard could have done a very good Black Widow in Iron Man 2 too. Of course, with red hair like in the pic above.
Iron Knight,
She already screwed up Gwen Stacy in “Spiderman 3″.
Yeah, but that was because it was a bad movie.
I’d bone the living hell out of her….
they shouldn’t change the characters because even thought that she doesn’t have a big part on eclipse she has really brought the character to life. u can see it on her face,her attitude,
and her beautiful hair. she really is victoria and the other girl doesn’t really have any victoria in her at all. Summit should really reconsider.
bryce is spiderman 3. i didn’t really like her role.
I love Bryce Dallas Howard.However, I have always thought sha has a very natrual sweetness to her but she is an actress so, I suppose she should be able to do well in the role. I really did like Rachelle. She was fiesty, and did well as Victoria. I think she is probably not the msartest person in the world though. She should have been thanking her lucky stars she was involved in the Twilight Saga. The EXPOSURE, the fan base, the money. WHO cares about scheduling, if you have to drop an entire film role, especially one that no one has heard of, or is looking forward to, to be in Eclipse. You DROP that other role. I think it’s a no brianer but oh well, her loss. I do HATE when that happens though in movies, changing the actors. It really helps a movie series as a whole to keep the same actors. Can you IMAGINE if Kristen or Rob got changed? Now THAT would be something to be upset over.
i think that Rachelle should keep the role she’s the maddest victoria screw what else she’s doing let her keep the part man its just one more movie and a couple scenes thats cut material to her she probly didnt know cut her some slack and let Rachelle play Victoria she rox as that character
look at how rachelle rocks that photo as victoria up the top like seriously derrrr!!!!!
she’s made for that role
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