Summit Entertainment has acquired the rights from Stephenie Meyer to film and distribute Breaking Dawn, the fourth novel in her series. Breaking Dawn is in the early pre-production stages. There will likely be quite a bit of tweaking to the novel due to the explicit sex and birth scenes to avoid an R rating.

Sources say that Breaking Dawn will be filmed and released in a new trilogy – “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I”, “Part II” and “Part III”. This has not been confirmed officially by Summit, however author Stephenie Meyer has stated “it would have to be made into multiple movies because it’s hard to imagine it fitting into ninety minutes”.

David Slade is directing Eclipse, but it is unknown if he will also direct any of the Breaking Dawn films. “Breaking Dawn: Part I” should start shooting in early 2010, with a release scheduled for 2011.
Story:

Breaking Dawn is split into three separate parts. The first part details Bella’s marriage and honeymoon with Edward, which they spend on a private island off the coast of Brazil which Carlisle gave to Esme as a present. Edward grants Bella’s wish and has sex with her. Days later, Bella realizes that she is pregnant and that her condition is progressing at an unnaturally accelerated rate.The second part of the novel is written from Jacob’s point-of-view, and lasts throughout Bella’s pregnancy and childbirth.

The Quileute werewolf pack, not knowing what danger the unborn child may pose, make plans to destroy it, even though they must kill Bella to do so. Jacob vehemently protests this decision and leaves, forming his own pack with Leah and Seth Clearwater. Bella soon gives birth, but the baby breaks many of her bones and she loses massive amounts of blood. In order to save her life, Edward changes her into a vampire.

The third section of Breaking Dawn shifts back to Bella’s perspective, finding her changed into a vampire and enjoying her new life and abilities.However, the vampire Irina misidentifies Renesmee as an “immortal child”, a child who has been turned into a vampire. Because “immortal children” are uncontrollable, creating them has been outlawed by the Volturi. After Irina presents her allegation to the Volturi, they plan to destroy Renesmee and the Cullens. In an attempt to save her, the Cullens gather vampires from around the world to stand as witnesses and prove to the Volturi that Renesmee is not an immortal child.

Upon confronting the gathered Cullen allies and witnesses, the Volturi discover that they have been misinformed and immediately execute Irina for her mistake. However, they remain undecided on whether Renesmee should be viewed as a threat to vampires’ secret existence. At that time, Alice and Jasper, who had left prior to the confrontation, return with Nahuel, a 150-year-old vampire-human crossbreed like Renesmee. He demonstrates that the crossbreeds pose no threat, and the Volturi leave. Bella, Edward and Renesmee return to their home in peace.