Bill Condon to Direct THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN? (Where’s James Whale When You Need Him?)

Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson Eclipse

Bill Condon (right) may be the Chosen One to direct the last installment(s) of the The Twilight Saga franchise, Breaking Dawn, which will bring back Robert Pattinson’s Edward, Kristen Stewart’s Bella, and Taylor Lautner’s Jacob. Plus an assortment of unusual characters and equally unusual relationships.

Catherine Hardwicke helmed the first movie, Twilight; Chris Weitz directed the second, New Moon; and David Slade was the man behind the camera of the third, Eclipse, which opens June 30. Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who has been criticized by numerous fans of Stephenie Meyer’s novels, has penned each film adaptation.

Bill Condon is one of the Oscar-pedigreed filmmakers approached by Summit Entertainment to tackle The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, perhaps the darkest of the Twilight Saga novels. To date, it’s still unclear if Breaking Dawn will be split into two movies — perhaps shot in 3D, perhaps not.

Other filmmakers under consideration at one point or another were Sofia Coppola, Gus Van Sant, and Stephen Daldry, who has recently been announced as the director of the screen adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Bill Condon won an Academy Award for his (adapted) screenplay for the 1998 psychological drama/fictionalized James Whale biopic Gods and Monsters, which also earned Oscar nominations for Ian McKellen (in the role of the 1930s filmmaker) and Lynn Redgrave (as Whale’s maid). Though dramatically uneven, Gods and Monsters had a number of memorable sequences, chiefly thanks to McKellen’s and Redgrave’s performances.

Condon’s Kinsey (2004), a biopic about sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, was equally uneven from a dramatic standpoint. Admittedly, it’s nearly impossible to make an effective movie about sex when you can’t actually show much of it, while some of the film’s "audience friendly" concessions diluted the power of Kinsey’s no-holds-barred real-life story. Yet, Kinsey featured several good performances, including those of Liam Neeson in the title role, Academy Award nominee Laura Linney as his wife, and especially Lynn Redgrave in a very touching cameo.

Dreamgirls earned Jennifer Hudson a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in early 2007, but the much-anticipated musical ended up disappointing both at the box office and the Oscars. A shoo-in for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, Dreamgirls was shut out in all three categories — though it did get no less than three nominations for Best Song. But that was little consolation.

Also, early in his career Condon directed the cheapo horror flicks Sister, Sister (1987) and Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995), and a handful of made-for-TV thrillers.

So, would Bill Condon be a good choice as director of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn? Well, he could indeed be the right guy in case he has absorbed and retained some of James Whale’s vibes after having written and directed Gods and Monsters.

Among Whale’s classics are Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, and The Invisible Man. None of these is an out-and-out horror film; in fact, they’re all quirky character studies dealing with complex themes such as sexuality, madness, revenge, megalomania, powerlust, social ostracism, the nature of life and death, and what makes a living being "human."

Considering the plot elements found in Breaking Dawn — even if they must be bowdlerized and dumbed down so the film can get a PG-13 rating — Whale himself would have been ideal for the project. Too bad he’s been dead for more than five decades.

Photo: Twilight Saga: Eclipse (Summit Entertainment)