Movie bosses at Summit Entertainment are firing back at actress Rachelle Lefevre after she accused them of unfairly dismissing her from the Twilight sequel Eclipse – insisting the star showed “a lack of cooperative spirit” by signing up to an “overlapping” film project without telling them.

On Wednesday, Rachelle issued a statement claiming Summit Entertainment’s decision to hand her role to Bryce Dallas Howard was a shock to actress herself as well as fans of the series.

The red head played villainous vampire Victoria in the first film, and will reprise the role in the upcoming sequel New Moon, opening in November.

While Lefevre admits she had signed up to star in another movie, Barney’s Version, and the production slightly overlapped scheduled shooting on Eclipse, she say she never thought she “would lose the role over a 10 day overlap”.

Her comments have infuriated executives at Summit, who have released their own statement, clarifying why they dismissed Lefevre.

The statement reads,

“We at Summit Entertainment are disappointed by Rachelle Lefevre’s recent comments which attempt to make her career choices the fault of the studio. Her decision to discuss her version of the scheduling challenges publicly has forced the Studio to set the record straight and correct the facts.

“It was not until July 20th that Summit was first informed of Ms. Lefevre’s commitment to Barney’s Version, a commitment we have since been advised she accepted in early June. We feel that her choice to withhold her scheduling conflict information from us can be viewed as a lack of cooperative spirit which affected the entire production.”

“Ms. Lefevre took a role in the other film that places her in Europe during the required rehearsal time, and at least ten days of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’s principal photography. This period is essential for both rehearsal time with the cast, and for filming at key locations that are only available during the initial part of production.”