Save Taylor Lautner.

[Ananas]

SAVE TAYLOR LAUTNER_

 

'NO TAYLOR, NO FANS'

After Catherine Hardwicke's dismissal, it's now TAYLOR LAUTNER's turn. Gossips are popping everywhere: he may not be Jacob in New Moon!

But we don't want another actor. We want Taylor. So it's time to show to Summit how strong is the Twilight Community, and how vividly the fans can react when Meyer's work is not respected.

 

I'm from a French forum about Twilight, and our website, helped by a Spanish one, is launching a project in order to save our Taylor:

 

 

The Meadow (French website)

Taylor Is Jacob (Spanish website)

 

We've created a petition, that you can sign HERE.

We already have more than 1800 signatures! It's free, so go sign it!

 

Also, we've created a Facebook group, HERE

Almost 800 members, so join us!

 

Then, the important point of the project. We propose to send letters to the Summit, in order to show how angry and outraged we are.

Taylor has already proved how talented he was to play Jacob's part, and how this character fitted well to him. He is reproached not to be tall and old enough, but is that really a problem? Taylor is still growing. And even if it's not enough, special effects do exist! With the success of Twilight, Summit has earned so much money; so they can easily give an important budget to special effects in New Moon.

So, with the filming beginning in March 2009, to have the movie released in November 2009, Summit obviously wants to fill its pockets as fast as possible, as much as possible, and no concern for the fans and the saga.

 

So, if you want Taylor as Jacob, and Stephenie's work not to be ruined by an actor changing, please send your letter to:

 

 

Summit Entertainment, LLC

1630 Stewart Street, Suite 120

Santa Monica, California 90404

USA

 

Please write your letter on this form:

 

 

You can download the form HERE.

 

 

For those who are not very inspired but want to be involved too, your can send this letter, written by our Spanish partners:

 

 

Just fill the blanks, and send it to the address indicated.

Sending several letters is even better, so you can send both the 'official' and yours, if you want.

 

 

Eventually, you can send e-mails to the Summit at the address: reception@summit-ent.com.

And do it several times, each day if you can. An e-mail doesn't take you very long to send!

 

 

Do it if you trust Taylor! The more numerous we are, the more we've a chance to be listened.

And for us who go to the convention, imagine: if he is dismissed, will he come to the convention? Will we see him?

 

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

Anaïs (The Meadow).

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2008 by Ananas

[xVickyCullenx]

I've signed the petition!

[Ananas]

Thanks a lot! ^^

[Laurenx]

I've signed the petition

[Amira]

Thanx for the infos&links.

All this crap about his height... It's a poor excuse to hide the REAL reasons. Come on! Laurent, Alice, Rosalie, James... They all look quite different from the novel. Would you change any of them now??? Nope. A physical detail doesn't affect the coherence with the storyline and the spirit of the book. So why are they trying to get rid of him? Same reason they fired Cath. Time&money. Cath wanted a slower pace and a higher budget to make a good film. She was denied. Taylor is underage. He can't work more than 5 hours a day. Being one of the main characters, he would slow down the shooting schedule. Slower pace=a later release date=geez, do we have to wait so long for more money? This choices do NOT have anything to do with art, quality or adherence to the book. Let's use our brain! And exercise the only power we have: that one of deciding whether it's worth keeping on spending on such a production. They only understand the language of money. Let's speak it. What happens if we decide not to (ri)watch the movie on a certain fixed date? Could we make the difference? Could we make them listen to us? Just an idea...

[Ananas]

Thanks! =)

 

Yeah, all that is insane... > <

I don't what could be really efficient, your idea is good but so difficult to achieve...

I think that sending them many, many, many mails, is a good idea, because it will become quickly unbearable for them...

[Amira]

I know... Burying them under trillions of mail/email is of course more feasible. I'm just afraid they'll wait and let the storm pass. I've been working in the showbiz for years and I know how producer's brains work. They think we'll eventually get used to the new actor. As people did in the case of Robert. I hope they are wrong. In this case we KNOW our kid. We know he can play. We know his soul is deeply in touch with the character's (solar, generous, easygoing...). Nevertheless time tends to blur people's resolution. While money... If you manage to mess with somebody's pocket

[kegan5]

According to IMDB which is usually 99.9% accurate as it's updated by production staff, or someone closely related to the films.

 

Taylor is listed as a cast member: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259571/

 

Isn't this one of the biggest rules in life, to wait until a final word is given by someone official rather than jumping on the "gossip" bandwagon ?

 

Anyway, I would go by IMDB personally.

[christinalou]

ive signed the petition too! i love taylor he has to stay!

[Evie_Nitram]

Just to warn you, I don't think you're allowed to advertise other sites on this forum. It might be a good idea to remove the links to the other websites and just create a link to the petition (if that's even allowed!)

 

I think Summit would be making a mistake with switching actors now.

[Lost Soul]

I think that all of this petition and sending letters stuff is potentially a good idea.

 

However, as the OP stated, we don't actually know whether Taylor will be replaced or not. A rumour is just that, a rumour. I don't know where it started, but I do know that we live in a day and age where rumours get passed from website to website, and into the printed and televised press, and suddenly become a fact. I do think there's no harm in letting Summit know how you feel - but only when there is further confirmation. Otherwise, it may be a wasted effort.

 

But, like I said, I think it's good that you all are standing up for what you believe in. (I repeat that just so it doesn't seem like I'm being negative at all). :)

[Amira]

Unfortunately it is NOT just a rumour. Go the the Summit Entertainment official page:

http://www.summit-ent.com/news.php

If you scroll down the official press release you'll read:

In NEW MOON, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black.

No actor mention for Jacob's role. What does that tell you?

MTV, EW etc. have articles about the possibility of Lautner not coming back to play Black. We have to do something before getting an official announcement. At that point any action would be useless. Probably it already is...

[Ananas]

As Amira said, even if it's just a rumor, we must react now, because when it's official it'll be too late...

 

The official press release doesn't seem to predict anything good... OMG, Taylor... ='(

 

Send your mails, maybe it's the last think to do... > <

We've all sent this one, if you want to do the same:

 

To Summit,

 

 

As many of Twilight fans heard that you were about to fire Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black, I wanted to let you know that fans are going to act vividly, and that we already organized actions. Prepare yourself to receive tons of letters and mails. I’m going to send you this email everyday for you to see how we love Taylor and won’t let this happen.

 

 

 

Petition (lot of new signs everyday) :

 

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Lautner...moon/index.html

 

 

 

Facebook group :

 

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39293658443

 

 

 

No Taylor, No fans.

 

 

To reception@summit-ent.com.

 

=> I've removed the links.

Edited December 14, 2008 by Ananas

[TommyT]

Unfortunately it is NOT just a rumour. Go the the Summit Entertainment official page:

http://www.summit-ent.com/news.php

If you scroll down the official press release you'll read:

In NEW MOON, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black.

No actor mention for Jacob's role. What does that tell you?

One of several things:

* the role has not yet been cast (which could indeed mean that young Lautner is out, for whatever reasons, whether it be filming requirements, excessive contract demands or a clash with important folk on the film, amongst other possible reasons, or just that he has provisionally been cast for the part but they haven't agreed all the details yet); or

* sloppy proofreading didn't pick up that his name was missing (entirely possible - an earlier Summit press release about marketing and publicity executive Nancy Kirkpatrick joining as the studio's President of Worldwide Marketing actually refers top her on the index as Nancy Kirpatrick; if they can mis-spell the name of the company's president of worldwide marketing, they can certainly ignore the name of an actor in one of their films); or

* stylistic reasons. As far back as the Aug 15 change of release date they were referring to Twilight as "starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart" with no mention of any other actors. It could well be that they're building the franchise around these two actors in particular and using them as the focus of their marketing. Theoretically it does make actors in other roles more expendable, but it doesn't mean that they're definitely out. Or

* probably other reasons that I can't be bothered to think of

 

The absence of Lautner's name from the latest press release could support the theory that he is off the movie. However, it could also support a number of other theories as well. At best it's circumstantial, and it could be nothing other than coincidental.

[kayleighmarie]

From news I've read Taylor has indeed been axed unfortunately. I think personally it was a very mean and horrible decision for them to make HOWEVER, perhaps the director/Casting director had a reason? I dont know. Its a little strange for them to cast a role to have to recast it but Jacob does look older in the last two books, I do think they could make taylor look older though so they dont exactly have reason enough to do it, but could they make him look that old? I understand the professionalism of their choice in the sense that they have to try to stay true to the appearances of the characters in the books as set by the author but I dont condone their choice. I think as he recieved the oppertunity in the first movie he should indeed be given the choice/chance to reprise in the others.

[kegan5]

I still don't see anywhere online where it says he's been dropped, I've seen rumour after rumour, but no official word from anyone.

 

Even his imdb profile, as well as the New Moon ImDB page have him listed as a cast member. Perhaps they will use him, Jacob grows rapidly throughout the books from now onwards so perhaps they will use him for the first part and then cross over to a larger built actor ?

 

Or perhaps they've asked him to build himself up, although I don't see how they could really...make him go from what he is now to a big muscly dude lol!

 

Anyway, as much as I liked taylor in Twilight... at the end of the day the people doing the casting have a job to do and if Taylor isn't well built enough by the time that stage of the story line continues, then it would be a bad job done by them.

 

There is always the option of some kind of suite perhaps, but I can see reasons why they couldn't keep Taylor on for the remaining parts of the saga.

 

Ah well as long as Taylor is happy with the decision that's all that matters really.

[timpe]

Time&money. Cath wanted a slower pace and a higher budget to make a good film. She was denied. Taylor is underage. He can't work more than 5 hours a day. Being one of the main characters, he would slow down the shooting schedule. Slower pace=a later release date=geez, do we have to wait so long for more money? This choices do NOT have anything to do with art, quality or adherence to the book.

 

That's it in a nutshell. Summit sees the saga as a cashcow and they want to get the money in fast - Taylor's age would definitely affect their schedule.

 

Even leaving to one side the fact that the boy is adorable, and has exactly the qualities that Jacob requires, Summit should consider something else before they can him - Taylor's obvious ease with the press and with fans. Kristen and Rob have made no secret of the fact that they find those aspects overwhelming, but Taylor takes them in his stride like a true pro - he loves the attention and handles it with real grace. He will be New Moon's biggest marketing asset if they keep him on.

Edited December 15, 2008 by timpe

[Amira]

Same rumours source (Nikki Finke's deadline Hollywood daily) that disclosed Cath's sacking and Weitz's hiring though...

Again, the height of the werewolves is JUST a detail (as it was Laurent's skin colour or Alice's height). It does NOT affect the heart of the story nor the chemistry between the actors. It does not affect the intensity of one's acting. The rumoured replacement of Taylor is not an artistic choice. It's a commercial one. They need things to be rushed (SAG strike on the way?) and Taylor's underage work restrictions are in the way.

As for Taylor, he'd walk on his hands to be in. He's chanting to be in. And his replacement would simply crush him.

As a mum I really feel for him. He's only 16! He was thrown in the business maelstrom, heavily exploited for promotional purposes, been screamed at by thousands of fangirls... And suddenly... Sorry, we have other plans.

He really believes in his role, he loves and is deeply attuned to his character. Can you imagine how painful all that can feel?

As you said, nothing is official yet. That's why we're fighting. It could be useless, we are aware. But at least he'll know thousands of people are with him.

[Amira]

Rumours, not officially confirmed, coincidental... Sure, sure

 

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1601332/story.jhtml

 

It's a standard media pattern. First a bunch of rumours to test the waters and let people get used to the news. Then production friendly articles. Eventually the official announcements.

They are free to do as they want with their baby. I'm free as well. I won't spend another single penny on this franchise. Cath and Taylor represented the vital, down to earth, creative and sunny side of this saga. It's over. Not interested in the next soulless blockbuster.

As for ET... What will be of Taylor attendance? My heart is heavy for him and for my little one who has spent the past two days crying...

[CompletelyCullenized]

NOOO!

This is awful

If Summit actually listened to the fans views on things, they would realise we want Taylor as our Jacob Black!!

Who cares about the height- really? Is it such a massive deal? God, I'm outraged if this gets confirmed

Edited December 16, 2008 by CompletelyCullenized

[Starbuck73]

As for ET... What will be of Taylor attendance? My heart is heavy for him and for my little one who has spent the past two days crying...

To be honest, all guests attendance is subject to change according to other commitments, I have seen one particular con guest cancel two years running.

 

If Taylor has to cancel his appearance for any reason, I am afraid there is nothing we can do about it, tears or no tears.

[Snow Drop 6:15]

The Wikipedia page for Taylor Lautner is listing him as being in New Moon.

 

Also, the fact that Catherine Hardwicke was not offered the director's helm for New Moon does not mean she was sacked. To be sacked a person must already have the job of directing New Moon, and she had only been announced for Twilight.

 

No film company will listen to such e-mails or mail and then change it's mind. Deadlines are there for a reason, and as has been proven by the Harry Potter films, they can be filmed with young acting talent and not be delayed.

 

With two major websites in IMDB and Wikipedia listing Taylor as Jacob Black, then I would have more faith in them than rumour spreaders.

[TommyT]

With two major websites in IMDB and Wikipedia listing Taylor as Jacob Black, then I would have more faith in them than rumour spreaders.

Whilst I'm not impressed by people leaping at rumours, I will also be scrupulously fair when weighing the evidence and say that the two websites you cite are hardly authoritative; many people on the SM boards can cite numerous instances of IMDB errors, for example. Yes, it's usually right, but it's far from perfect. And as for wikipedia, whilst it's an excellent place to start research, it's in no way a citable source. It really is "the toilet wall of the internet" (to quote Phill Jupitus) - anybody can write on it. There are numerous instances of people having been embarrassed by doing lazy "factfinding" on wikipedia, only to discover to their cost that what they found weren't facts. So wikipedia says that Taylor is Jacob Black in the next movie? Anybody could have written that. Literally, anyone.

Don't get me wrong, wikipedia is a wonderful resource. But I wouldn't take its word seriously on anything important or contentious, without checking with at least a couple of other more rigorous sources.

[Starbuck73]

Anyone can edit wikipedia to say whatever they want it to... hardly a credible source, as Tommy so rightly said.

[Snow Drop 6:15]

While I do agree with your comments, due to the lack of RELIABLE sources, my point was that people are jumping on the bandwagon of rumour spreading. It was a kind of "stop stressing until something concrete is announced". The same happened some time ago with Harry Potter when it was rumoured that the main 3 children (Radcliffe, Grint and Watson) would not be returning. But, as is evident, they did.