[phileysmiley]

by Larry Richman February 11, 2008 12:22 PM

In all my years following the film industry I've seen very few with the advance buzz of this one. Twilight has been so highly anticipated that its IMDb message board already has about 50,000 posts and it's still being cast!

The film about a high school girl (Bella Swan) who falls in love with a teenage vampire (Edward Cullen), based on the first of a series of popular novels by Stephanie Meyer, is scheduled to begin filming this month with a projected release date of December 12. Summit Entertainment is distributing.

Casting announcements have trickled out slowly, with each one intensely scrutinized by the fans at a number of sites around the web.

Names released prior to today are:

Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen Anna Kendrick as Jessica Stanley Justin Chon as Eric Yorkie Cam Gigandet as James

Today I learned that Michael Welch has been cast in the role of Mike, one of the first friends that Bella makes when she arrives at her new school. The information was published in the print edition of The Hollywood Reporter. His name should be familiar to readers of this blog. Michael starred in several of my favorite films of 2006 and 2007: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, An American Crime, and Lost Dream.

I attended the World Premiere of All the Boys Love Mandy Lane at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, after which I chose it as one of my Top Picks, as well as at the 2007 SXSW Film Festival. After a change of distributors and several release dates, the film is due to be released in 1000+ theaters on May 9. Senator International is distributing.

An American Crime had its World Premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The film, starring Oscar nominee Ellen Page (Juno), was one of my Top Picks from that festival. Writer/director Tommy O'Haver says that a deal is imminent with a projected May release.

Lost Dream is still in the post-production process but I was privileged to attend a screening of an early cut last summer.

An American Son just premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Day of the Dead is awaiting release, as is Remember the Daze. He's just completed filming on The Thacker Case.

Michael has both an official site at michaelwelchonline.com/ as well as an official MySpace at myspace.com/officialmichaelwelch.

[tMF_Jan]

Congrats to Michael Welch for being casted in 'Twilight'. By all appearances, this movie is going to be very popular, it having such a huge fanbase. It's hard keeping up with the ever growing cast lately, LOL.

Looking forward to keeping up with any news on Michael Welch and the rest of the cast, as things progress with Twlight on your site.

[phileysmiley]

It has truly been an amazing couple of weeks since we first announced this. It was nice to see other sites pick up on it. A few gave us credit, most did not, but that's fine. The only thing that bugged me was when MTV "announced" it on Friday, four days after we did, and said it was "exclusive." Many other sites then picked up on it and credited them, which I won't name. It was fun being able to break the news, though, and watching the fan reaction. Journalists live for that.