It’s official: The third Twilight film has a director. In a press release issued this afternoon Summit Entertainment announced that they’ve hired David Slade to direct The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, making him the third director in three films for the series.

Slade is probably best known as the director of Hard Candy, a disturbing movie featuring a pre-Juno Ellen Page as the victim of a pedophile, who turns the tables on him. He’s also no stranger to the vampire genre. His last movie was the gruesome and bloody 2007 vampire flick 30 Days of Night. One thing all of Slade’s movies seem to have in common is that they’re absolutely nothing like Twilight.

Whatever you think of his films, this is a director known primarily for tackling edgy material without pulling any punches. Hard Candy is unimaginably disturbing and 30 Days of Night is, when it comes to vampire films, everything that Twilight is not. It’s a horror film in every sense of the word, terrifying and brutal and pretty light on all the lovey dovey romance. David Slade’s vampires have had fangs, and big ones.

Here’s an excerpt from the Summit press release, explaining why they chose Slade:

“David Slade has been hired to direct THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE from a screenplay written by Melissa Rosenberg. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, the third film in the studio’s TWILIGHT film franchise based on the Stephenie Meyer’s blockbuster book series, will be released theatrically in North America on Wednesday, June 30, 2010. The announcement was made by Erik Feig, Summit’s President of Production.

Meyer stated, “I am thrilled that David Slade will be directing ECLIPSE. He's a visionary filmmaker who has so much to offer this franchise. From the beginning, we've been blessed with wonderful directorial talent for the Twilight Saga, and I'm so happy that ECLIPSE will be carrying on with that tradition.” Feig said, “Stephenie Meyer's ECLIPSE is a muscular, rich, vivid book and we at Summit looked long and hard for a director who could do it justice. We believe we have found that talent in David Slade, a director who has been able to create complex, visually arresting worlds. We cannot wait to see the ECLIPSE he brings to life and brings to the fans eagerly awaiting its arrival in summer of 2010.”