New stills from 'Twilight Saga: Eclipse' as new Stephenie Meyer book announced

It's a big day for Twihards.  It's been announced that a new "Twilight" novella will be released on June 5th.  The Huffington Post reports that Little, Brown Books for Young Readers will release "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner" on June 5.  The novella is told from the viewpoint of Bree, a newborn vampire featured in "Eclipse." That's one of the books in Meyer's best-selling teen-vampire saga.

Meyer said in a statement Tuesday, reported by The Huffington Post, that the novella had originally been planned for "The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide." The material soon becaume too long to fit into the guide, and it was determined it would be better to publish it as a stand-alone.

The publisher says one dollar for each book sold in the U.S. from the first printing of 1.5 million copies will be donated to the American Red Cross International Response Fund. It supports disaster relief efforts such as those in Haiti and Chile.

And today Summit Entertainment, which produces and distributes the enormously successful movie adaptations of Meyer's "Twilight" movies, has released three new stills from the upcoming feature "Twilight Saga:  Eclipse," which opens on June 30th.  The photos are published here for the first time.

According to the official synopsis released by Summit:

In ECLIPSE, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob -- knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.  

"Eclipse" is directed by David A. Slade, director of the movies "Hard Candy" and "30 Days of Night," which is also vampire-themed.  The movie stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone and Dakota Fanning, all of whom reprise their roles from the hit movies "Twilight" and "Twilight Saga:  New Moon."

Last weekend, "Twilight Saga: New Moon" was officially released on DVD.  It sold just over 4 million DVD units in its first weekend of release,  surpassing the first weekend sales of "Twilight," in 2009 which sold 3.8 million DVD units, and went on to be the top selling DVD title of the year with 9.2 million units sold.  Thousands of "Twilight" fans across the nation participated in the “NEW MOON at Midnight” event and some were treated to surprise appearances by members of the cast as well as the film’s director Chris Weitz.

The final novel in Meyer's saga, "Breaking Dawn," is expected commence production as a movie sometime this fall.  It still isn't actually known whether Summit will release the film as one movie or two, as Warner Brothers is doing with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."  That film is being converted to 3D.  Analysts are also speculating that "Breaking Dawn" will be filmed in 3D, but again, no announcement has been made.

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