Surprising movie casting news for fans of the Twilight Saga films to pass along today … for some unknown reason, it has been decided by the powers that be at Summit Entertainment that Rachelle Lefevre be FIRED and Bryce Dallas Howard be hired in her place to play the role of the evil vampire Victoria in the third Twilight movie The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The surprise casting news comes completely out of the blue, but straight from the horse’s mouth. Rachelle is dunzo as Victoria, Bryce takes over the role when filming of Eclipse begins next month:

Bryce Dallas Howard is joining the “Twilight” franchise. The “Terminator Salvation” star will replace Rachelle Lefevre in the role of Victoria, according to Summit Entertainment, which produces the vampire film series based on the books by Stephenie Meyer. “We are incredibly happy that Bryce has agreed to come into the franchise,” Erik Feig, Summit’s President of Worldwide Production and Acquisitions, said in a statement to Access Hollywood. “Rachelle brought ‘Victoria’ to great screen life and Bryce will bring a new dimension to the character. The franchise is lucky to have such a talented actress as Bryce coming in to fill the role.”

Summit said Rachelle would not be continuing on as Victoria, an evil vampire out for revenge over the death of her lover, due to scheduling conflicts. Bryce, the daughter of director Ron Howard, will take over the role beginning in “Eclipse,” the third installment in the “Twilight” series. “Eclipse” begins filming in Vancouver this coming August, Summit confirmed. The film will be released in theaters on June 30, 2010.

Whoa!! This is totally out of the blue … and without any real explanation. To me, it seems as if one of two things happened here … either Summit jumped at the chance of hiring a big name actress to add to the movie franchise (presumably to get more people interested in the Twilight phenomenon — as if that is even possible) or Rachelle did something to really piss off her bosses and she was summarily fired from the role. Mebbe both things happened (cuz I really DO NOT BELIEVE that Rachelle is not available for the role due to “scheduling conflicts” — that’s a bullshizz story if I ever heard one) … but my gut tells me that the studio decided to sign on a more well-known actress who prolly expressed interest and felt no qualms about axing the “no name” actress who originated the role. To be honest, I thought Rachelle Lefevre did an amazing job as Victoria in Twilight and it sucks that she would be treated so terribly by the studio. Still, this is Hollywood and these things happen all the time. I wonder if we should expect any other cast changes as well. What do y’all think about this … good news or bad?

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