20th April 2023, Mumbai: According to insiders, the best-selling novel series The Twilight Saga is being adapted for television by Lionsgate Television.
The script for Twilight will be written by Sinead Daly, whose previous work includes Tell Me Lies, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Raised by Wolves, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and The Get Down. According to sources, Daly is collaborating with Lionsgate TV to decide on the specifics of the Twilight adaptation, including whether it will be a straight adaptation of Meyer’s books or a distinct spinoff.
According to insiders, the studio that owns the rights to the brand aims to take the initiative in project development before putting the package up for sale. As a result, the Twilight TV series is still in its infancy and does not yet have a network or platform. The release date for the Twilight series to potential customers is still unknown.
According to sources, the television adaptation is likely to include author Meyer. The television adaptation will be executive produced by Wyck Godfrey and Erik Feig, a former co-president of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group who acquired the rights to the Twilight novel series during his time at Summit Entertainment after Paramount Pictures passed away. All five of the films that Feig’s Summit distributed were made under the Godfrey’s Temple Hill brand. More than $3.4 billion has been made globally by the movie franchise that made stars out of Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson, and Kristen Stewart. No comment has been given by The Lionsgate Television spokespersons regarding the news.
A significant part of Lionsgate’s repertoire is Twilight. Five years after the conclusion of Meyer’s movie adaptation with Breaking Dawn: Part 2, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer stated during an earnings call to Wall Street that “there are a lot more stories to be told, and we’re ready to tell them when our creators are ready to tell those stories,” referring to both the Twilight and The Hunger Games franchises.
The announcement of a Twilight TV series comes as Lionsgate has been in talks with a number of interested parties about possibly spinning off its studio division and premium cable network Starz by the end of September 2023. The third quarter saw a revenue increase of 25% to approximately $900 million for the Lionsgate studio business, which comprises divisions for the production of films and television shows.
The release of the Twilight books coincides with HBO Max’s recent confirmation that a Harry Potter television adaptation was in the early stages of development. Plans call for a ten-year run of J.K. Rowling’s acclaimed book series, with the contentious author attached as an executive producer. With Warner Bros. Discovery also preparing to produce new episodes of the feature films based on the J.R.R. Tolkien writings, and Amazon having last year released a new version of The Lord of the Rings, there is still a huge demand for genre programming.