Gods & Monsters and Chicago writer to round off the saga after Twilight: Eclipse...

It's been officially announced that Chicago screenwriter Bill Condon is to direct the concluding installment of the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn.

Summit Entertainment's president of production and acquisitions says in the release: "Bringing Stephenie Meyer's BREAKING DAWN to the screen requires a graceful and intelligent hand and we believe Bill Condon is exactly the right steward, having shown equal and abundant talents of immense creativity and subtle sensitivity."

One can't deny it. Condon has straddled both the female-centred market - with his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Chicago (2002), and the crepuscular world of the gothic with his Oscar-winning screenplay for Gods And Monsters (1998), a semi-biopic of Frankenstein director James Whale starring Ian McKellan and Brendan Fraser, which Condon also directed.

Like that wasn't enough, Condon even directed an entry in the Candyman horror franchise, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995).

The big question now is whether, in the assumption of such a first-class writing talent as Condon, Melissa Rosenberg will continue the job of adapting Stephanie Meyer's Twilight novels right to the end, or whether the director might have more than a mild hand in the script.

Good as Condon has proved himself to be - and there isn't much doubt that he'll turn in a creditable job on Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, it's really the kind of paycheck-on-rails commission that M. Knight Shyamalan seems to have taken on with The Last Airbender, in a climate where there's little or no development money around for medium or minor films that veer away from the teen market.

In the release, authoress Meyer herself adds: "I'm so thrilled that Bill wants to work with us. I think he's going to be a great fit, and I'm excited to see what he does with the material."

AICN

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