Bill Condon Calls Breaking Dawn “Twilight Grows Up”

In the second Bill Condon interview to hit the web today, the director talks to HitFix about how impressed he was with Kristen Stewart, the score and themes of the film, and the changes the characters all go through.  Condon compared Breaking Dawn to the other three films in the saga as the film where the characters grow up.

” Y’know, I keep calling this ‘Twilight grows up,’ but in a way it is. All of the characters take tremendous steps in this story and that’s part of what turned me on to the material, to collaborate with Kristen Stewart as she goes from being the Bella we know in the first three movies to being a bride, being someone who finally has sex, gets pregnant, gets sick, gives birth, dies, become a vampire, becomes a warrior?  Just think of that journey.  I guess for none of them it was just playing the same old thing.  Jacob becomes a man in this movie. He moves away from being the third leg in a triangle and breaks free of that and his background and his family and his pack and becomes his own person.  So, that was a journey all the actors were eager and open to collaborate on.”

Condon also gives us a hint as to the conforntation scene in Breaking Dawn Part 2.

“As anyone who has read the novel knows, we end up in a big set piece with maybe 27 or 30 vampires on one sided aided by a dozen or so wolves against 80 vampires on the other side in this big confrontation.  It’s mostly a discussion, but many dramatic beats within that.  And that was like staging a spectacle on a stage almost, because we shot that for a month and not even counting all the second unit stuff. The sense of spectacle and moving fluidly through that, I did feel like I was calling on my musical roots there.”

Read the whole story over at HitFix.

Hit Fix: Kristen Stewart on Welcome to the Rileys and Twilight

Esclipse Wins Key Awards at Scream 2010

Eclipse was up for several awards at the Scream Awards sponsored by Spike TV. The show taped last night and it airs on Tuesday at Spike TV. We’re going to keep our post spoiler free, for those of you wanting to watch the show. If you want to know exactly what Eclipse won, head on over to Hit Fix where they have a full rundown and more photos like the one above featuring Kristen Stewart , Nikki Reed, and Jackson Rathbone.

Hit Fix: Why Such a Gap Between Breaking Dawn 1 & 2 Explained

breaking_dawncoverAs usual Hit Fix provides some spot on analysis:

“After releasing both “Twilight” and “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” in November of 2008 and 2009, Summit made the seemingly smart move of moving “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” to a June 30, 2010 release date.  This was because of both fervent interest from the franchise’s fanbase and the expectation that opening in the summer would allow for a larger gross due to the fact many teenagers would be out of school and able to see the film numerous times during the work week.  Instead, “Eclipse” has grossed less than the previous chapter, “New Moon,” with only $288.1 million domestic and a total of $644.8 million worldwide so far.  “New Moon” ended up with $296 million domestic and $709 million worldwide and it’s hard to see “Eclipse” matching that total as its grosses have slowed considerably.  Considering “Eclipse” received universally better reviews than the previous two chapters and was the most action packed (i.e., male friendly) of the series this has to be something of a disappointment for Summit.  Granted, there is no need to shed any tears as the studio and series creator Stephenie Meyer are still swimming in profits as the picture only cost $65 million.”

See the full details on Hit Fix.

Hit Fix Talks To The Cullens

Hit Fix Interviews Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, and Kristen Stewart

New Moon Taking on 2012

Well, we’re sure that the last thing Sony Pictures anticipated was a New Moon blow out on their 2012 polls.  They ended up asking viewers in a poll what movies, books, music, etc they would save if the world was ending.  To say that Twilight was a dominating force in their polls would be an understatement.

Now, HitFix talks about how these two films are slated to be the big Thanksgiving money makers. Only according to HitFix, it’s going to be another blow out:

“Conventional wisdom has long assumed that November’s two biggest releases would be Sony Pictures’ “2012” and Summit Entertainment’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” In theory, both pictures seemingly should be successful as they have little audience cross over.  As the second installment in the “Twilight” series, “New Moon” should dominate with women and younger women especially.  “2012” is an old fashioned disaster movie that should be a four quadrant sell (i.e., movie for everyone) that drives older audiences, teens and regular moviegoers.  Based on the latest pre-release polling, however, one of the films is in much better shape to dominate the box office than the other.”

See the rest on HitFix

Anna Kendrick on Hit Fix: Her Future Plans

Greg from Hit Fix manged to catch up with Anna Kendrick in Toronto(pictured left Credit: AP Photo/Evan Agostini) and asked her a couple of questions about Up in the Air and her future in the Twilight Saga movies.

“A year ago I spoke with Dev Patel right after “Slumdog Millionaire” had debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.  The Brit’s first feature film, like many, Patel still couldn’t grasp the amazing road the eventual Best Picture-winning movie was going to take or the part he would play in it.  At the time,  having seen the journey of recent word-of-mouth contenders such as “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Juno,” I told him to savor as much of it as he could and enjoy the wild ride.  The same scenario is about to engulf up and coming actress Anna Kendrick…

: OK, the ‘Twilight’ questions you knew were coming.  Did you shoot ‘Air’ after ‘New Moon’

[Actually] I went to shoot ‘New Moon’ while I was still shooting ‘Up in the Air.’ I had to run back and forth.

Q: Was that hard?

It’s funny because the characters are so different and I was wrapped up in Natalie world, but Jessica, the character that I play in the series, is such a silly girl it was almost like a little escape to go and just play and just monologue about nothing.  Basically, I would go up to Vancouver and shoot a scene where something was [already] written, but [director] Chris Weitz would tell me to keep talking because we had to do all of it in one take as a ‘walk and talk’ and have it feel the space. So, he’d just tell me to say random stuff and it was like stretching in the middle of doing a marathon.”

See the rest of what Greg talked to Anna about here.

The Meet Jacob Black New Moon Trailer

Courtesy of Hit Fix

Hit Fix New Moon Set Report: Day 2

Hit Fix is continuing their coverage of their New Moon set visit.

“Showing acting isn’t always a glamorous life, our next take finds Pattinson  once again on the ground (where’s been on and off for at least two hours) writhing in pain as Alice looks up and says, “He’s O.K.” take after take.  Eventually, Edward’s pain is accurately captured and Pattinson is allowed to walk back to his trailer with his bare chest visible for all the ladies in my party to swoon over.

With Edward gone, the crew continues filming reaction shots. This time? A close up on Jane who stares ominously where Edward is supposed to be.  Notably, Fanning looks almost unrecognizable in her Volturi outfit.  She’s stunningly beautiful looking more and more like a ready to graduate senior in high school rather than the sophomore she really is.  Notably though, at least on the days we were on set, Jane says nothing.  And sadly, Fanning did not speak to us during our time there.”

Part 2 is here and in case you missed part one you can get that here.