Breaking Dawn may have hit a bit of a stumbling block and I am surprised this hasn’t come up before this. I knew it would happen – just wondering why its taking this long to happen. Two supporting cast members (Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz) are holding out for a bigger paycheque, now that their four film contract has expired and they want to do a fifth splitting Breaking Dawn into two parts.
The creepy vampire series has become a phenomenon making its stars overnight sensations so we’re not surprised to hear that a few of them (Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene) are asking for a pay raise. According to THR, filming on the final installment Breaking Dawn has recently hit the skids and it’s all their fault.
The trade is reporting that Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner are in the final stages of negotiating their contracts, while secondary stars Billy Burke and Peter Facinelli are already on board. It’s those younger Cullens who are throwing a monkey wrench into the operation. Even though Summit is offering the actors 10 times what they made in the first film the vamps think their suggested amount is insulting considering how financially successful the franchise has become.
I predicted this would happen if they attempted to break the last film into two parts.
The money grab attempt to pointlessly dividing up the fourth movie (that is just a long epilogue anyways) is going to be counterbalanced by the stars asking for more money.
They were all locked in with deals and numbers in place for FOUR FILMS. Any attempt to go outside of this magical number leaves the door open for renegotiations.
And frankly, while Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner would have the most to gain by putting down their collective feet, recasting of minor characters (yes these Cullen syblings are relatively minor) would be jarring to the fanbase, but not impossible. They replaced Victoria already – and while that seems more likely to work out – recasting these popular supporting cast is more risky. But ANYONE can be recast.
Also keep in mind that these supporting cast members likely didnt get paid a whole lot for their roles in the film to begin with so asking for 10 times the amount isn’t unreasonable when negotiating their continued involvement in this insanely popular franchise.
Are they holding things up? Yep. Deals have to be on the page and they mostly have the studio by the balls.
Is this easily avoided? Yes. Make one film. Breaking Dawn doesn’t have enough content to be two films. Its a money grab, and they are spending that money on the renegotiated contracts for Steward, Pattinson and Lautner as well as others.
They dug this hole, now they can pay their way out of it.
