President of Production for Summit Entertainment, Erik Feig has officially announced that director David Slade will take over the helm for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse — the third movie in the series, which is set for a June 30, 2010 release date. This sets the director’s chair up for the trilogy with The Golden Compass director Chris Weitz currently handling the sequel, New Moon.

Though the first movie did really well, the way it was handled by then director Catherine Hardwicke was not exactly the way that the studio wanted it, so they began their search for new blood. And as you can tell, they’ve gotten their hands on some decent talent.

David Slade first jumped on the scene with Hard Candy — his acclaimed, yet dark and sometimes hard-to-watch movie about a pedophile and the young girl trying to shine a light on his despicable ways. The movie starred Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page. He’s probably more known for his second film, though, which was 30 Days of Night. No word on if the vampire experience landed him this gig, but I’m sure it helped!

Author of the Twilight series, Stephanie Meyers, had this to say about Slade:

Here’s the film’s official synopsis. I wouldn’t read if you haven’t read the books and are going strictly cinema, considering this is the synopsis of the third flick.

I know one thing — if David Slade brings his 30 Days of Night vampires to the Twilight world, he’d have himself a slew of new fans…and probably some unhappy existing fans.