Now that the biz of selecting a new director for the Twilight movie sequel has been settled, the next step is to go about the biz of casting New Moon. With a new director comes the feasibility that character roles may be recast and actors who were hired to play a role in one movie may be axed from playing that same role in the next movie. Specifically, the role of Jacob Black — who undergoes a lot of change from Twilight to New Moon and plays a very significant role in the sequel — is, apparently, up for grabs as new chatter suggests that Taylor Lautner (the actor who portrayed the young Jacob in Twilight) may be replaced by a different actor. Enter Michael Copon, a beefy-looking actor best known from the film Scorpion King 2, who is said to be up for the role of Jacob Black which would thereby leave Lautner out in the cold. Additionally, Ben Barnes (who played Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia sequel) is said to be interested in playing a member of the powerful vampire “family” the Volturi. It sounds like production on New Moon is already getting into full swing and these decisions are likely to be made very soon:
Following last week’s dismissal and replacement of Catherine Hardwicke, this weekend began with a press release from Summit Entertainment officially appointing “New Moon” director Chris Weitz to the job. Suspicious in its omission of Taylor Lautner, the release seemed to all but confirm Twilighter whispers that Hardwicke won’t be the last “Twilight” talent replaced before the sequel. So where does the series go from here? MTV News can confirm that 26-year-old “Scorpion King 2″ actor Michael Copon [pronounced "COPE-on"] is one of several actors Weitz is considering to play the new, larger Jacob Black. A representative for Copon told us that they’re making a full effort to land the high-profile gig. And in a bit of 21st-century self-publicity, the actor has even recently updated his Facebook status with messages like: “Michael Copon [is] in a Twilight Zone!” and “Michael Copon is the older Jacob Black!” Copon’s representative confirmed to MTV News that the Facebook page is run by the actor himself and that those are indeed his words. Approached for comment on Lautner’s omission from the “New Moon” press release, Summit confirmed that it was not a typographical error. “The casting decision in regards to the character Jacob Black has yet to be made,” a representative told MTV News.
But even once Copon (or whoever else) is officially announced as the new Jacob, Weitz still has many other key casting decisions to make and an extremely brief amount of time in which to make them. With barely 12 weeks until cameras are due to begin rolling, the “Golden Compass” filmmaker needs to find faces to portray several key characters — including the peace-keeping, Italian vampires known as the Volturi. With the buzz building for these roles, MTV News has confirmed that 27-year-old “Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” heartthrob Ben Barnes is throwing his hat into the ring. The actor is already quite popular with the “Twilight” fanbase and shares the same manager as both Copon and “Twilight” star Cam Gigandet. Barnes is believed to be campaigning for the role of Aro, a mind-reading vampire whose “New Moon” encounter with Edward and Bella helps shape their destiny together.
I mean, I get that sometimes characters have to be recast but something about giving Taylor Lautner the shaft and bringing in a new person kinda irks me. I really think that Taylor can do the job of playing Jacob in New Moon and I would love to see him be allowed to continue playing the part. That being said, I think his Michael Copon guy looks like he would make a pretty good older Jacob Black — in fact, he looks very much like an older and muscly version of Taylor Lautner himself. I would bet money that Ben Barnes will get the role of Aro and I’m sure we’ll be hearing very soon who else is up for playing other Volturi characters. New Moon is still about a year away from hitting theaters and the drama is already in full swing. What do y’all think … should Copon be cast as the new Jacob? Do y’all think that his Facebook announcement is pretty much proof that he already got the part?
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I think Taylor looks good for the part, and he is a good actor. I never really liked him but since all this recasting hype came up i feel a bit sorry for him. Michael’s face bugs me and the fact that he posted all that stupid crap on his facebook shows that he’s unprofessional and pretty much a full time douche. also, taylor has a much bigger fan base than Michael.
Pretty brave to have that on his facebook, or he could be talking about it on local news. BEn BArnes, that would make the film more money than it already has. YOU KNOW GIRLS ARe going to faint when Ben Barnes and Pattinson walk arounf promoting the future vamp movies
ahh,no?
this michael guy cannot take up jacob’s role!
TAYLOR LAUTNER!!!!! <333
Ashley…”Why not keep Taylor and let Michael Copon play Sam? Getting rid of Taylor is a poor decision.” I agree completely. Taylor is exactly how I imagined Jacob to be, and I love Jacob’s character! They need to keep someone who can actually pull off the role instead of just casting for looks. Plus, I think people forget that Jacob is supposed to be young. And really…yeah he goes through a lot of changes but they can do wonders with special effects…I mean, Gimli was the tallest of the Fellowship in real life!
first of all: aro is OLD. he’s described as having rheumy eyes and papery skin. psh. there is no way ben barnes can play him. the only volturi remotely close to ben barnes’ age is alec and he’s tiny &cherubic.
second: i love taylor lautner! if they can give ian mckellen an enhanced digital facelift then i don’t see any reason why they can’t age taylor with cgi or whatever.
@cassandra: i LOVE that gimli is tall. hahah. he’s a legend.
i always thought steven strait was a good idea too – but he’s not got that childlike quality that jacob has.
You can not compare the CGI of a movie like LOTR to this. That is almost laughable.. By the sounds of it they don’t have the TIME, or the money to put into this movie like was done on LOTR. End or discussion.
Seriously, I cannot picture this Michael Copon as anything but a cheerleader once I saw the stills from that horrid Bring it On sequel he was in. It says on IMDB that he is half-philipino. Can we seriously not find any actual Native American actors to play Jacob if they do recast him. I know people are talking about CGI and Special FX for Taylor to stay on but Summit seems to be trying to do everything on the cheap so I doubt they’ll spend the millions to keep Taylor. Obviously Michael did the facebook thing just to get buzz. Unfortunately, not many people seem to like him that much due to the fact that he generally sucks at acting and is just a pretty face to cast in useless sequels to previous hits (i.e. power rangers, bring it on, scorpion king 2). I’d hate for his track record to suffocate the twilight franchise before it actually becomes one. I wonder what role Kristen Stewart will have in the casting seeing how she seemed to have a pretty signifcant role in Rob being cast. She’s made multiple comments in interviews that all these guys came in trying to play Edward as a model/pretty face and Rob didn’t and that is why she liked him. That’s what Michael Copon seems to be to me; a model pretty face who doesn’t really care about the character. It would really suck if they cast some guy without Kristen’s input and they lacked chemistry and it ruined the movie. They need to either keep Taylor who has chemistry with Kristen and seems to get along pretty well with or cast someone who is a deep actor who will actually analyze the part and not play it as a pretty boy with washboard abs. It should be interesting to see what Chris and Summit does. They could really screw themselves over on this.
WHAT!!
NO!!
THEY CANT DO THIS!!!
Taylor Lautner makes the best jacob ever.. even when hes not in the movie i just look at him and think “JACOB BLACK”
i hate this new director guy!!
they better not replace him!!
don’t they realise that by the time they’ve actually made New Moon, Taylor is gonna look a lot older anyway…coz you know, puberty…
and if they cast the other dude, and end up making all the movies (all i can picture him as is Felix from OTH and it scares me!!!) then he will be a 30 year old playing a 17 year old…
they could’ve at least gotten Steven Strait…then I might be able to accept it!!!
replacing taylor lautner is going to ruin the whole movie, i’m not lying. height does not matter, and taylor’s already pretty buff to me. so summit needs to learn how to work up their special effects. thank you and have a great day.
Nooooo, this is horrible, I hope this doesn’t happen! I don’t know if I would go see the second one.
I sort of feel sad for Taylor. The other dude is pretty hot though, I guess I didn’t really picture Jacob as hot. Not to mention his facebook comments seem a little..oh, I don’t know..cocky.
“OllyDolly Says:
December 16th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I don’t want an ex-power ranger playing Jaob. You’ve got to be kidding me!”
haha I agree!!!
As for the Ben Barnes thing…He should play Felix or Demitri or Alec for all I care..but come on!! Aro?? He was bitten when he was like 50!! One of the main reasons Bella is scared of him is because of his old crinkly paper thin skin and his old milky eyes. Lets keep with the story instead of trying to pull more fans in by casting another stud.
omg having ben in it would be awesome!!! I <3 him! but i agree with everyone else, Aro was old. Ben is way too hot to play that.
I don’t get it.. I’ve read about 85% of these comments and I just don’t understand why so many people are so mad. I’m blamming that on movie fans.. Not the book fans.. Because those of us that have read the books understand why this change needs to happen.. Unless this Taylor person can beef up and look like a man in his mid to late 20′s by the time they do Breaking Dawn, I’m happy to see him go. For the sake of the books..
I Like Taylor As Jacob And That Michael Kid Could Indeed Play A Good SAM But When I See Taylor I See Jacob He Can Do It I Have Faith He Can Pull It Off Doesnt Matter If He Can Buff Up Or Now They Can CGI All That Stuff …TEAM TAYLOR THE ONE AND ONLY JACOB BLACK Michael Is A Little To Cocky And Isnt Sunshiny To Me Not Like Taylor… And Ben Barnes As Aro Lovely I Could Deal With It And Aro Is Not OLD Really Just Described Older That Carlisle And He Is In His 20′s So Aro Has To 30 Something? Anyway He Is Decscribed With Black Hair And Thats About His Description Is So Ben Is Ok With Me
Sorry, stab me in the back if you like but here it is; Replace him. There is no way Taylor will get any taller or bulkier in three months! Yes, it is very very very very unfair to just give him the shaft, but (I’m sorry, but seriously) he’s to small to be the bulky Jake I “know” and like…
Once you read 4 novels picturing the same face, it’s hard to say, “oh well, he’s not bulky enough.”
Come on, I would take a less bulky Jacob to save the existence of how I have pictured the entire series and my good experience with it.
I agree that most of the problem with re-casting Jacob Black is between the movie fans. I’ve been reading these books since they first came out, and I think many of the book fans can agree that Jacob goes through a major growth spurt. Taylor was a good young Jacob, because Taylor is young. But in order to stay true to the books, the role needs to be recasted for someone in their twenties. It’s not un-common for a 20 something year old to play a teenager… just look at most of the cast of Mean Girls. The problem with Taylor isn’t that he won’t be “bulky” enough, but there’s no excercise in the world that he could do to make him grow taller and look 25 in a matter of months. Steven Strait has always been the perfect Jacob Black to me, Stephenie Meyer even said so herself. So if Summit needs to recast Jacob AND still wants to at least make a good amount of the fan base happy, they’d cast Strait.