An American werewolf in Washington State

By Steven Zeitchik

With all the talk about what will happen behind the camera of Twilight sequel New Moon, another biggie almost went forgotten -- the question of who plays the role of Jacob, a small part in the first movie but a much bigger one in the second (he's basically the Edward of this pic, falling in love with Kristen Stewart's Bella, though you can be sure the actual Edward will have his role expanded from the source material too - can't get enough screentime for that Pattinson kid).

Newcomer Tyler Lautner played Jacob in the original, but apparently the actor needs to be a lot older and bulkier for this role, as EW's Nicole Sperling explains in a stellar piece, because he's, well, changed into a werewolf (though we have to ask -- didn't Summit know this when they signed him up in the first place? It's not like the details of "New Moon" were a surprise.)

So there'd been debate about whether to replace Lautner with someone bigger (physically, not in cachet...we think) and older. But millions of teenage girls can rest easy as director Chris Weitz confirms Lautner will be coming back along with Stewart, Robert Pattinson and the rest of the heartthrob crew. (Actually, a fair number of fans were resistant to Lautner coming back. They will continue the debate, we're sure.)

We would have suggested Jason Bateman, who of course also came on as a replacement werewolf in a sequel back in the 80's. But he may take the older thing a little too far.

There's a bit of a reversal in all this, because fans were originally worried that Pattinson was too bulky (who spends their time thinking about the chest sizes of vampires and werewolves anyway?) when he was first cast as Edward. But that seemed to work out okay, and  Summit is no doubt hoping that this does too as it steamrolls ahead with a production for which even casting news is as big an event as,well, a werewolf sighting.