Twilight: Breaking Dawn Breaking Into Two?

With the third installment to the vampire series Eclipse due out in June, word about the fourth and final book in the series Breaking Dawn has been very sparse.  A rumor here, a rumor there.  Well Variety had word from sources close to Summit that they're still thinking about how to approach the final in the series.  The issue falls down to if they should condense the 756page novel into a single film or break it into two parts.  The two parts would be shot back to back and not in a single shoot before two seperate edits.

The one confirmed part is that Melissa Rosenberg (who has penned all the screenplays) will also write the final script.However, problems arise after that:

"...multiple sources said the company wants to go the two-film route, which means reopening negotiations and securing approval from the author. It also means making new deals with a principal cast that is only locked up for four films. If "Breaking Dawn" becomes two pictures, all of the key cast members will get fat raises, and the three principals -- Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner -- could land paydays in the eight-figure range..."

Summit is apparently also keen on bringing back Chris Weitz (New Moon) and have him finish up the series.  Weitz however is trying to move ahead with a small film called The Gardner at Summit.  Summit however hasn't fully agreed to it, so it's possible they might offer to fully finance it if Weitz puts it off to do Dawn.

Interesting news to say the least.  While I haven't read the books (just the Wikipedia entries) I have to wonder how much of the 756pages could be cut out?  The longer the book (like the movie) has to earn that length and if there's a lot of repetative material and other 'fat', my opinion would be to get rid of it.

I would go for a single 3hour or 3.5hour movie instead of two parts.  As a Lord of the Rings fan, I didn't care how long Return of the King was, I was gonna see it period.  I bet most Twilight fans would feel the same way.  Especially if they get a very satisfying ending.  As proven with the last two Matrix and Pirates films, it's a bit akward to just leave a story hanging for several months or a year before picking it back up.  It's not TV where you just wait a week. 

But, that's just my weigh in; cut out the fat of the book, save some money on paying the actors, save on the budget (as New Moon cost about $50million, if they go two pictures, $100million-or just north of that-budget for the pair I don't think would be outta the question), and just made a big ol' finale.  We'll keep y'all updated as word comes in.  Twilight: New Moon is currently in theaters and Twilight: Eclipse will hit theaters June 30, 2010