No ‘Twilight’ re-make in the works Says Lionsgate

There have recently been rumors making their rounds on the online world that Lionsgate planned to do a Twilight remake, however Summit Entertainment contacted Deadline to clear up these rumors. See below.  

 From Deadline :

Summit Entertainment just phoned me to publicly deny an Internet report that its parent company Lionsgate already is drawing up plans to remake the Twilight Saga by the 5th anniversary of the insanely successful movie and book series which began November 21, 2008. Summit Co-Chairman and now Lionsgate domestic movie czar Rob Friedman tells me: ”We are not remaking Twilight. We will happily support Stephanie Meyer if she decides to proceed in any way. But this will be the last one unless that should change.” What this statement means is simply that the studio will do whatever Twilight Sagaauthor Stephenie Meyer wants. She has said in some interviews that she wouldn’t mind seeing a reboot — so an evantual remake isn’t out of the realm of possibility. But as of now none is on the drawing board. Summit has released four Twilight adaptations, with the fifth and final for now film Breaking Dawn Part 2 arriving in theaters on November 16th.

Lionsgate: We’ll Make Sixth Twilight Movie If Stephenie Meyer Writes New Book

Come on Stephenie, get your fingers to the keyboard and write up a sixth Twilight book… please? Lionsgate would eagerly make it into a movie, as they stated. Read on:

From GossipCop:

There are more indications that The Twilight Saga could continue after Breaking Dawn Part 2, the fifth and (assumed to be) final film in the hit vampire series.

On Friday, Lionsgate executive Rob Friedman said that the studio would develop an additional movie should Twilight author Stephenie Meyer decide to write a fifth book.

“If she wishes to do it, we’ll be there to support her,” THR quotes Friedman as saying during a call with analysts.

As Gossip Cop reported last month, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer also hinted at the studio’s desire for a sixth film following the purchase of Summit Entertainment, the franchise’s home.

The trailer for Breaking Dawn Part 2 will debut with The Hunger Games’ theatrical release in March.

Lionsgate Bought Summit for $412.5 M

Lionsgate has officially  purchased Summit for $412.5 million, the companies announced on Friday.

The two independent studios have been circling each other for months. The deal is being structured as a leveraged buyout, in the form of cash and stock.

“We are uniting two powerful entertainment brands, bringing together two world-class feature film franchises to establish a commanding position in the young adult market, strengthening our global distribution infrastructure and creating a scalable platform that will result in significant and accretive financial benefits to Lionsgate shareholders,” Lionsgate Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer and Vice Chairman Michael Burns said in a statement.

Summit brings with it debt, but that will be paid off with profits from the final two “Twilight” movies, allowing Lionsgate to keep that sum off its own books.

The debt that Summit took on last spring, has been refinanced into a new $500 million loan, which will be paid off by 2016. Lionsgate said it anticipates retiring the debt before that date.

The deal places a question mark over the future of production chief Joe Drake. It also means one less buyer in an already reduced indie landscape — and layoffs at the two companies.

Lionsgate will get a modest library of titles that also includes “The Hurt Locker” and “R.E.D.,” which it can add to its paid TV network Epix. Perhaps more important, Lionsgate will gain Summit’s expertise in international distribution — an area where it is lacking.

However, insiders at both studios feel that Summit’s experience in transforming the vampire “Twilight” series into a global box office phenomenon can help Lionsgate pull off a similar feat with “The Hunger Games.” This could help turn the studio, a launching pad for mid-budget genre films, into a lekking ground for young adult film franchises.

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Lionsgate Possibly Making $700 Million Deal To Buy ‘Twilight’ Studio Summit Entertainment

According to Bloomberg, Lionsgate (the studio behind the upcoming “The Hunger Games” film) is close to making a deal to purchase Summit Entertainment (the company behind the Twilight Saga films) for $700 million.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (LGF) is near an agreement to buy “Twilight” producer Summit Entertainment LLC for about $700 million including assumed debt, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

An accord may be announced as soon as next week, said two people, who sought anonymity because negotiations aren’t complete. The talks may not end with an agreement, they said.

Lions Gate, the studio behind “Saw” and the Tyler Perry comedies, will pay more than $400 million for Summit’s equity and assume less than $300 million in debt, one of the people said. Summit, based in Santa Monica, California has been negotiating exclusively with Lions Gate for the past week, the people said. The studio also held talks with Tom Barrack’s Colony Capital LLC, which owns the the Miramax film library.

A deal would gives Lions Gate, maker of the “Saw” horror films and the “Mad Men” TV show, the final installment in the “Twilight” vampire movies and library rights to the first four films, which generated $2.45 billion in global ticket sales. Lions Gate would also add Summit’s Oscar-winning war drama “The Hurt Locker” to its library of 13,000 films and TV shows.

Lions Gate and Summit last month resumed talks that broke down in the past over price and control issues.

The combined company will be run by Lions Gate Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer and Vice Chairman Michael Burns, with Summit CEO Rob Friedman running the film unit, one of the people said. Patrick Wachsberger, Summit’s co-chairman with Friedman, would take over international distribution.

“Twilight” fits Lions Gate’s goal of breaking into the lucrative young-adult market. The studio will release the first of four planned films based on Suzanne Collins’s “The Hunger Games” trilogy in March. Lions Gate also owns rights to the “Chaos Walking” young-adult books by Patrick Ness.

The acquisition would produces a pay day for the owners of closely held Summit, who formed the studio in 2007 with funding from Merrill Lynch & Co. Last year, the company raised $750 million to finance movie making and pay a dividend to owners including Rizvi Traverse Management LLC. Friedman and Wachsberger also own part of Summit.

Lions Gate, run from Santa Monica, California, fell 0.5 percent to $8.41 yesterday in New York. The company has about $550 million in short- and long-term debt, according to data (LGF)compiled by Bloomberg.

Closely held Summit raised $550 million in March with a 5.5-year loan to finance a dividend and film production.

Some of Summit’s cash will be used to pay down its debt and some cash will move with the company to Lions Gate, according to the website Deadline Hollywood, which reported the terms earlier.

Via