Cast member Kristen Stewart poses at the premiere of "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2"
Cast member Kristen Stewart poses at the premiere of "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" in Los Angeles, California November 12, 2012. The movie opens in the U.S. on November 16. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

The "Twilight" film series, which apparently had its final instalment in 2012 with "Breaking Dawn - Part 2," is likely to make a comeback through Facebook.

Lions Gate, along with Stephenie Meyer, announced on Tuesday, Sept 30 that the production company was going to revive the movie series through a series of short films. Meyer, the creator of the vampire romance series, also declared that the studio would select five budding female directors to direct short films on "Twilight" characters. Lions Gate, as well as its production partners, is going to fund the movie, which will be exclusively released on Facebook in 2015, The New York Times reported.

Lions Gate's Vice Chairman Michael Burns said that Facebook would be a "great way" for the introduction of the "Twilight" world to a brand new audience. At the same time, the short films will re-energise those who are already "Twilight" fans, he said. NYT said that this might be an indication that Hollywood was going for a dramatic change in terms of its promotional strategies. It said that the marketing teams earlier had to think of newer ways of reactivating "cold fan base" as studios were not even willing to disclose much about its plans. However, now even the "savviest" ones are using social media to promote itself with every tiny detail so that the fans are constantly updated. This also shows that social media is not only for promoting movie trailers, NYT said.

According to Burns, the latest strategy may only be the beginning. He called it just a "template" as people might be wondering about the next plans of the studio. However, he refused to say if Lions Gate was coming with a sixth instalment of the "Twilight" series. Lions Gate, on the other hand, has a history of partnering with Facebook. It made a teaser for "Divergent" in December 2013 that was the first video commercial for the service. Facebook has also had informal discussions with entertainment executives since it bought Oculus VR, the Virtual Reality headsets, in July for $2 billion.

This is another example of Hollywood production companies opting for unconventional strategies for distribution. The Weinstein Company announced on Monday that it would release the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" sequel simultaneously on Netflix and IMAX theatres.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au