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More proof that even the “reliable” sites aren’t always reliable: The LA Times is now saying that yesterday’s news about Juan Antonio Bayona directing Eclipse (uncovered by Deadline Hollywood and then “confirmed” by the industry bible, Variety) is not true. I love it when giant media outlets start calling each other out. I’m ready for Rupert Murdoch to run in and smack Vince McMahon with a steel chair.

According to Erik Feig (president of Summit Entertainment), the news is not correct. Here’s what he had to say:

“We’ve met with three or four talented filmmakers and we’ll be meeting with three or four more other candidates before we make any decision. No one has been offered the job.“

I guess that means they’ve actually met with “four or five” filmmakers in general because I’m pretty sure they talked to Drew Barrymore–and there’s no way you can count her in with the other “talented directors”.

The funny thing about this is that it could wind up happening anyway. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire–and Bayona may very well be in the running for the gig at this stage (notice how Feig didn’t say “Juan Antonio Bayona? I’ve never even spoken to the guy”). I’d really rather he not do it (I want to see what he does with Hater), but he’d definitely be an interesting choice.

I don’t have many rules here at the site, but one of the few I do have is that I don’t post about Twilight unless someone is totally bagging on it (like the story from awhile back where Stephen King said Stephanie Meyer wasn’t a very good writer). Every rule is made to be broken, though, and this is one of those occasions.

There’s been much speculation about who might direct a third film in the teen-angst vampire drama series. Drew Barrymore was a name getting tossed around last week–and she’d have probably fit in pretty well with this type of film. However, that’s old news now–and the fresh (and confirmed by Variety) skinny is that Juan Antonio Bayona will now direct Eclipse. For horror fans, this is both intriguing and terrifying news.

Bayona, who’s a Guillermo Del Toro protege, is best known for making the creepy 2007 film, The Orphanage. He’s also attached to direct Hater, a very cool sounding film based on a book by David Moody. With Eclipse scheduled to hit theaters in June of 2010, it seems like Hater might be going on the backburner–which bums me out.

I’m not sure why Bayona would really want to make Eclipse (aside from the obvious reason that they’re probably paying him well and more people will see it on opening weekend than saw The Orphanage in its full theatrical run) and his involvement isn’t enough to get me in a theater, but if there’s a director who could actually make one of these bullshit films interesting, this is the guy.

You know if a story about Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series turns up on this site, it’s only so I can make fun of it.

USA Weekend got none other than Stephen King himself to weigh in on Meyer and her books. To say that King doesn’t really seem to be a fan becomes brutally apparent after his comments.

“Both [J.K.] Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people… The real difference is that Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”

And there you have it–yet another voice added to the chorus. I wonder how Meyer feels after reading that? She probably doesn’t care–she’s still got more money than any of us. Aspiring writers take note–you can suck and still become a New York Times bestselling author.

This is how slow the horror news is this weekend…I’m forced to report that Twilight’s opening has been strong enough that Summit Entertainment has already given the go-ahead for the second book in the series, New Moon, to make the jump to the big screen.

Twilight raked in 35 million bucks on Friday alone, meaning that it’s all but inevitable that we’ll be seeing all four books turned into films over the course of the next few years. Yay…or something.