Only one week before the first trailer for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is set to debut in theaters in front of Robert Pattinson's Remember Me comes this bit of controversy from within the post-production offices. Apparently Summit Entertainment has replaced the original Eclipse editor, Art Jones, with Nancy Robinson, who edited the first Twilight film. So why the switch?
Well, the studio isn't blaming Jones at all; what they're saying is that the film needed a "stronger edit" and, according to Summit, Robinson understands the "emotion of the characters and is an ace at balancing action with the other elements of the film." Previously, Jones had worked with Eclipse director David Slade on both Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night, and if you want my opinion I bet both guys were looking to deliver a much darker and riskier film than Summit was prepared to deal with.
But that's the risk you take when you hire a different director for each of your films. While you may want them to all to share a similar vibe, it's hard to achieve that when you bring on filmmakers who have their own sense of style, especially ones like Slade who come from a more horror-ish background. If Twilight were more popular with the fanboys, I could see a petition to get Jones' original cut in theaters flying around the internet faster than Edward Cullen can climb a tree. However, something tells me Twi-hards won't be too afraid of this news, and if anything they should feel comfortable knowing Summit is on their side and wants to deliver the film they feel their fans expect.
What do you think of the editor change? Does it mean bad things for the final product, or do you have faith that Summit knows what kind of film you want to see in theaters this June 30th?
