According to various media outlets, Bryce Dallas Howard, a ruby discovered amidst the rubble that was M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and Lady In The Water, is set to join the cast of yet another blockbuster franchise of dubious quality. After her small roles in Sam Raimi’s Hollywood prank of a film Spider-Man 3 and the more recent Terminator: Salvation, Howard has been confirmed as the female villain in Eclipse, the third film in the Twilight series. Howard is not the only big-ish name newly attached to the Twilight bandwagon. Respected British actor Michael Sheen (you know him as Tony Blair in The Queen) and young starlet Dakota Fanning will be seen in New Moon, the second film in the series.
For the third film, Howard will take over the role of the vicious vampire Victoria, previously played by Canadian actress Rachelle Lefevre, who is stepping down due to scheduling conflicts between with another film, Barney’s Version. Both begin shooting in August. On paper this might seem like a poor decision for Lefevre, given the popularity of the series and how Victoria takes center stage as the villain in Eclipse. In actuality, Lefevre is moving on to ostensibly more respectable fare with Barney’s Version, which will feature Dustin Hoffman and Paul Giamatti.