In an announcement so well-timed that it’s hard to view it as anything other than an attempt to ride the coattails of Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter Max series reveal, Lionsgate has reportedly started making plans to give Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series an television adaptation all its own.
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According to sources for The Hollywood Reporter, the series will be penned by scriptwriter Sinead Daly (The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) and see direct involvement from Meyers herself.
Said sources also claimed that Daly is “working with Lionsgate TV to determine what the specific take on Twilight will be and if it will be a remake of Meyer’s books or a different offshoot.”
Further, the series is said to not yet have a network or platform, as Lionsgate is supposedly planning on developing the project before formally accepting network bids.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the timing of Lionsgate’s Twilight TV adaptation announcement comes in the midst of rumors that the studio has been holding talks with a number of interested parties to “potentially spin off its studio business and premium cable network Starz by the end of September 2023.”
Prior to the release of 2012’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, Lionsgate chief executive Jon Feltheimer hinted to that the studio could continue the series beyond the final instalment, telling the LA Times, “It’s hard for me to imagine a movie that does $700 million-plus doesn’t have ongoing value.”
“It’s an amazing franchise that they have done a great job of maintaining with absolutely no deterioration,” he acknowledged. “So the simple answer is boy I hope so.’’
In response to whether that included the possibility of bringing the Twilight series to television, Feltheimer reiterated, “‘I would certainly hope so.”
Then, during the company’s 2017 Q1 earnings call, Feltheimer implied that Lionsgate would only go forward with “fresh installments or spinoffs in the blockbuster series if they get the sign off from Twilight author Stephenie Meyer.”
“There are a lot more stories to be told.” Feltheimer said to analysts. “And we’re ready to tell them when our creators are ready to tell those stories.”
As of this writing, there is no established timeline for when Lionsgate will shop around the Twilight series to potential buyers nor have reps for the studio commented on Twilight’s developments.