The third book in the series finds an army of "newborn" vampires committing murders across Washington and the Cullens must joins forces with their old werewolf foes to battle the threat.

The film version will be directed by Hard Candy's David Slade, who caused some controversy with earlier comments about preferring a shot to the head to having to read one of the books.

Now, however, he's excited.

“It is darker, and there is a lot more action than the previous two,” he admits.  “The third book is from Bella’s point of view, but the film will be more objective.

 “We are going to focus on the origin stories of several characters, like Jacob, and show how Bella will decide between Edward and Jacob.”