‘Twilight’ Sequel Gets Oscar-Worthy Lift With Catalina Sandino Moreno

Last weekend, I found myself sitting in a dark room with a friend watching old episodes of True Blood until dawn when we started discussing how Stephanie Meyer essentially grifted bits of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series for her own Twilight saga. This repurposing of essential bits of the Stackhouse chronicles wasn't exactly helped with not-actors who had to first learn how to portray actors before they could portray actors playing vampires. It's all very complicated. But whatever gap in legitimacy this franchise lacks it can probably make up for with a bit of Oscar heft coming in its umpteenth installment, Eclipse.

And who better to bring that pomp than Catalina Sandino Moreno—who four years ago earned an Oscar nod for Best Actress for her work as a drug mule in Maria Full of Grace?

The back-story on Moreno’s character: Maria’s something of a vampire vicereine who eventually makes a past-time out of breaking hearts and killing babies. She is also responsible for turning Cullen family member Jasper Hale into a vampire and kind of indenturing him as her love slave. Then he one day decides to run away. Which has something to do with the whole killing babies plot development. She herself then eventually disappears, only to periodically re-emerge to have a chat or two with Edward Cullen, which itself could be spun into some SEO gold for a far-reaching rag as Oscar Nominee Flakes Out on Robert Pattinson.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There’s plenty of time for ill-conceived grabs at Twilight’s vocal fanbase. Moreno’s debut, in addition to Bryce Dallas Howard’s casting coup, can be seen next June when the film premieres.