Screen Rant » breaking dawn

Twilight Saga Author Stephenie Meyer Accused of Plagiarism

Kofi Outlaw — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:47:33 +0000

The Twilight Saga has become an almost sacred entity for fans of the books and films alike – a cherished series that has inspired an almost rabid level of devotion, as evidenced at this year’s Comic-Con Twilight panel, which fans slept on the street overnight just to witness.

That all said, I can’t imagine the level of outcry there is going to be now that Twilight Saga creator Stephenie Meyer is being accused of plagiarizing scenes of her fourth and final entry in the series, Breaking Dawn.

Here are the facts: Yesterday news gossip website TMZ broke a story claiming that Stephenie Meyer’s publisher, Hachette, had received a cease and desist letter from the lawyers of a 21-year-old musician/author named Jordan Scott, who claims that scenes of Breaking Dawn bear too many similarities to her own book, The Nocturne, which was supposedly published in 2006 – two years prior to Breaking Dawn. You don’t have to be a math whiz to figure out that Scott would’ve been in the 15-16 age range at the time she allegedly wrote the book.

Now, according to MTV News, Scott isn’t even looking for a payday out of this, per se – she simply wants public acknowledgement that the theft took place and an immediate end to the circulation of the massively popular Breaking Dawn. Yikes.

Naturally Meyer’s lawyers are all over the case, immediately dismissing Scott’s claims as “frivolous” and adding that the girl is simply trying to “ride the coattails” of Meyer’s success. On an amusing note: I haven’t been able to find copies of The Nocturne for sale just about anywhere online (little help?) and reportedly, Scott has been unable to provide copies of the book to either Meyer’s lawyers or Hachette. Must be a real popular title.

Not to be outdone by the big-shots, Scott’s lawyers have put out their own statement regarding the accusation. Said copyright attorney Craig Williams, the man who filed the cease and desist order:

It’s very close and highly unlikely that it’s a coincidence…Jordan has asked that we draft a complaint and a motion for a preliminary injunction [against Meyer's publisher]…We also want to stop them from making it into a movie and profiting from her [Scott's] work…

Wow, so they’re even going after the recently-announced film adaptation of Breaking Dawn. This could get REAL ugly.

Now, in regards to WHAT Meyer is actually accused of stealing: While the plots and characters of the two books are different enough, certain scenes seem to bear some similarities. These scenes include:

A post-wedding sex scene
A scene about a woman who’s sick because she’s carrying a child with “evil powers”
A scene with the death of the main character’s wife

MTV News has even gone so far as to do a side-by-side comparison of the ‘pregnant with demon-child’ scenes:

From Nocturne:

“Her face was so pale, it was frightening; and there were beads of sweat pouring down her forehead. She couldn’t even stand, she was so weak. … She was violently ill, vomiting and scarcely able to catch her breath.”

And from Breaking Dawn:

Most of her dark hair was pulled away from her face into a messy knot, but a few strands stuck limply to her forehead and neck, to the sheen of sweat that covered her skin. There was something about her fingers and wrists that looked so fragile it was scary. She was sick. Very sick.

Wow, two versions of the same vamp/human love-tale and not one word of quality writing between them! Awesome. Either ways this goes, the literary community is still going to be the biggest loser in the end. And really, when you think about it, how “exclusive” is the idea of a woman having complications from an inter-species pregnancy? I could name you five films and/or books off the top of my head that deal with very same issue in a very similar way. IT’S NOT THAT ORIGINAL.

Still, I’m not going to even ATTEMPT to judge whether this accusation has any merit or not. Hugely successful authors almost always have to face down some kind of plagiarism charge by those seeking the limelight themselves – but then again, just as many successful authors have been caught dipping their pens in somebody else’s ink. However, let’s not forget that Stephenie Meyer was already accused of narrative theft earlier this year, but that accusation was ultimately revealed to be a hoax.

For now, we’ll keep an eye on this developing story and let you know how it unfolds. Meanwhile, drown your legal worries in these two New Moon posters featuring your favorite inter-species couple:

The Twilight Saga’s second installment, New Moon, hits theaters on November 20, 2009.

The film adaptation of Breaking Dawn is currently aiming for a Fall 2011 release.

Source: TMZ, MTV News, MTV Movie Blog

New Moon Poster Source: E! Online via Bloody-Disgusting

Twilight Spinoffs After Twilight Sequels?

Rob Keyes — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:20:00 +0000

With New Moon wrapping up production and its rushed release set for this November and with Eclipse beginning production next month, which will open next summer, AND with Breaking Dawn coming quickly after that, what happens next?

The four (finished) books of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga will have all been translated to the big screen. All will be rushed out within the next two years with nothing left to go on. That is of course, assuming Meyer doesn’t hurry up and finish that fifth book, Midnight Sun, which she stopped working on after an incomplete draft of it leaked online.

However, that book is just the first one all over again from the perspective of Edward as opposed to Bella so it may not be too much new – it’s more of a companion novel. What if fans want more?

Well, the one thing holding Summit Entertainment back is the lack of more books to translate to the silver screen. Or is it?

It now seems that the possibility of spinoffs is very real and come the end of the four current movies, we could be seeing more milkage of the cash cow coming our way in the form of entirely original screenplays based on the world set up by Meyer.

In a brief interview with Radar Online at the 36th Annual Vision Awards in Beverly Hills this weekend, Twilight producers Wyck Godfrey and Greg Mooradian revealed that they are entirely open to the idea of spinoffs after the main four films have been completed:

“Stay tuned. I think if our movies do as well as the first did all possibilities are out there. But right now we need to finish what we have and finish Stephenie’s vision as best we can and then let’s see where the audience demands us to go from there.”

If the movies do well, which is not unexpected, there’s no doubt that they’ll want to cash in on the built-in fanbase’s desire for more. As we start seeing the sequels roll out, there will likely be aspects of the world and/or characters that become stand-out fan favorites and that would be ripe for the making of a spinoff movie(s) to extend the franchise. We’re living in the age of franchise extensions through sequels and remakes so this is not out of the realm of possibility.

The films have a relatively low budget and are being made in mere months. Despite this being very evident in the trailer for New Moon, the movie should make a ton similar (or more) than Twilight did last fall so there’s no reason to stop assuming the sequels perform well.

One idea proposed during the interview is that of a movie centered in on the Volturi vampire guild, which is led by Aro, played by the incredibly talented Michael Sheen. That guy can lead any film in my mind and I can see a movie moving forward on that angle involving the many new characters we’ll be introduced to this Fall in The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

In the novels, the Volturi rule the vampire world and play a major part in New Moon but not so much in Eclipse (could be slightly different in the film). Some other members of the Volturi include Jane, Heidi, Marcus and Caius who are being played by Dakota Fanning, Noot Seear, Christopher Heyerdahl and Jamie Campbell Bower respectively.

Do Twilighters want more films that extend past Stephenie Meyer’s work? If so, in what should they be about?

The Twilight Saga: New Moon opens this November 20, 2009 and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is scheduled to release early next summer on June 30, 2009. Expect Breaking Dawn not long after.

Sources: Radar Online, The Geek Files

Robert Pattinson Confirms Twilight’s ‘Breaking Dawn’

Ross Miller — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:03:14 +0000

As if Twilight fans needed another reason to get excited about the hit vampire movie franchise, Robert Pattinson, who is the series heartthrob both off and on-screen, is here to fuel the excitement. At Cannes on Tuesday, Pattinson confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that a fourth movie will happen, based on the fourth book in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

Pattinson said he’s committed to star in the fourth (and presumably last) installment of the series, but he is unsure as to when studio Summit Entertainment are going to start production on Breaking Dawn. The Studio is currently busy with the second and third Twilight movies, as well as Pattinson’s schedule being jam-packed (playing a vampire sure has opened up a lot of doors for the young star).

[SPOILER!!!!]

Breaking Dawn would see Edward Cullen and Bella Swan dealing with their marriage and subsequent pregnancy.

[END SPOILER]

I don’t think it’s a surprise that there are plans to make Breaking Dawn – if New Moon and the third Twilight sequel, Eclipse, are both as successful as the first movie was (which I see them being), you can guarantee Breaking Dawn will get made.

For you Pattinson fans out there who want to know as much as you can about what he’s up to, he is getting ready to finish shooting New Moon on Friday in Italy, which is shooting simultaneously with Eclipse. Once New Moon’s shooting wraps up, he then plans to take the weekend off before he heads for a planned 8-week shoot of a movie called Remember Me. As Twilight fans will know, New Moon sees Edward as, “a voice in Bella’s head,” says Pattinson.

He continued with – “You’re playing a figment in Bella’s imagination so I was trying to do it in a 2-D way. I hope it doesn’t translate onscreen as being boring.” After his two month shoot, Pattinson will then head back to Vancouver to finish shooting Eclipse, hopefully before October.

Since they are shooting New Moon and Eclipse at the same time, it’s clear that the studio has every bit of faith in the franchise. I have said it before, but Twilight could have gone either way at the box office – flop or success – and for some reason it just clicked with general movie going audiences, and was a huge hit. My guess is you’ll hear about Breaking Dawn going into production when Eclipse wraps up (maybe even before that), and it will get released in the fall of 2011.

So are you glad Breaking Dawn is being made into a movie? Did you like the Twilight movie, and are you looking forward to the three sequels?

New Moon is scheduled to be released on November 20th in the US, and November 27th in the UK this year. Eclipse is set for a June 30th, 2010 release.

Source: THR