Archives for 2009

The people at Cartoonize the World have done it again. This time Taylor Lautner, Jacob Black, has been cartoonized.

The latest spoof on the Twilight movie was entered in the LDS Film Festival and won an honorable mention as well as a fan favorite award.

Since Kristen Stewart had a movie at Sundance this year, and in all likelihood other Twilight stars will have films there next year we decided to do a Sundance report from a fan. Our very own Nena Cullen had the chance to attend Sundance this year. Here is her perspective on what it is like.

The Sundance Film Festival takes place in Park City Utah, sometime in January (coldest month in Utah) every year since 1985 under the Sundance Institute management, but somewhat unofficially since 1978. The festival is premier showcase for many independent films, some for festival competition along with non-competitive feature-length and short films.

So it sounds like if you live in Salt Lake City you should be able to go to the Sundance Festival as you please, but what most people (including locals) don’t know, is that in order to get screening tickets you have to register a few months in advance and hope that you win a slot to purchase tickets. Slots are randomly selected by a computer. This year I was a lucky winner and was able to buy up to 20 tickets early enough to choose from the most anticipated films.  

My Sundance experience started on Friday January 16^th, when I attended the world premiere of a Mexican film called "Rudo y Cursi". A story that depicts the relationship of two brothers that are trying to fulfill their dreams of fame and fortune while struggling with the challenges of everyday life. At the end of the film I was surprised to find out that the audience would be able to participate in a Q&A with none other than one of the lead actors, Gael Garcia Bernal (I have to add here, that I am a big fan of his and I’ve never expected to meet him at this event) along with the Director, Carlos Cuaron (Y tu mama tambien) and Producers, Alfoso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy).  This was one of a kind experiences, the theatre was sold out (about 1,300 seats) and the actors and producers were kind to answer every single question, as you can image there were many.

Spotting a celebrity is not as hard as it may seem but if you are looking for someone specifically, then there is a little more of a challenge. While out and about in Park City I saw a few people that I recognized, including: Emil Hirsh (Into the Wild), Nick Cannon (actor/rapper), Ewan McGregor (Mouline Rouge!) and a few others.

Park City’s main street is the busiest area of the festival because of the Egyptian theatre (one of the oldest theatres in Utah) and for all the pubs and restaurants located along the strip. General traffic is not allowed and everybody (with a few exceptions of course) rides the free shuttle service provided by the Sundance Institute. The environment is very festive(even while riding the bus) and it’s a great place for other kind of entertainment, there are several ski resorts with the best powder on earth ( I don’t claim this, but it’s state’s motto) and also a variety of shops along with a big Outlet mall just a few miles away from Downtown.

The Festival is very accessible, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance Utah. On Thursday night I attended a screening in Downtown Salt Lake for Adventureland, a highly anticipated film here at Sundance. Adventureland is the story of a College grad named James (Jesse Eisenberg) who spends his summer working at a theme park unexpectedly after his parents announce that they can’t help him out to continue his education at an Ivy League school. At Adventureland James meets Em (Kristen Stewart), a rebel daughter of a lawyer, who could be in her way to an ivy league school as well, but instead has chosen to do the opposite to her father’s expectations. This comedy takes place back in 1987 and while I compare the situation to this modern day and age, it seems like life was just as complicated then as it is for the youth today. I am expecting this film to receive an R rating for language and some nudity. However if you have the opportunity to see this film, I highly recommended. Stewart’s performance was superb. Very natural and at ease while interpreting the role of a troubled young woman.

Last night was the last night of my Sundance adventures. We had the chance to see the screening of a horror film called "Grace". When I first heard about it, I thought it was in the drama genre but after I heard that two people had fainted at the first screening last Saturday, I had to investigate a little more. The film is about a mother that decided to carry her baby to term after finding out the baby no longer has a heartbeat. When the baby is born, it seems like a miracle has brought the baby back to life, unfortunately not everything is quite right with baby Grace. The actors performance was beyond description, I cried, I laughed and jumped a few times, the sound engineers did a great job on this film.

At the end of the movie we had the chance to have a Q&A with Paul Solet, the writer/director of Grace. He told us that it all started as a short film and that for 3 years he had gone to every single film festival that he could afford to promote on his own and hope to find the support necessary to make his wish come true. His passion and drive was really what impacted me the most, he represented the soul of the festival. The entertainment is great fun but the hard work of all the different film makers is what makes the film festival so special.

Cam and Taylor made this years breakout stars list on The Daily Beast.

The Twilight DVD has a release date in Australia.

We’ve been getting a lot of repeat questions in our mailbag regarding New Moon, so we thought it might be a good idea to do a recap.

USA/Canada release date

1. November 20, 2009
2. This date as with any movie date is subject to change based on filming, marketing, any number of factors.

Chris Weitz

1. Is hired to direct New Moon
2. He is currently exploring various locations for filming in the USA and Canada
3. He has not been hired for any other movie. That is not to say he won’t be, but it’s just not in the focus right now.

Filming

1. They are not filming the upcoming movies concurrently a la Lord of The Rings style.
2. Filming is scheduled for late February/early March. Specifically where has not been announced though various Western Canadian locations and Portalnd, Oregon locations have been scouted.

Cast

1. Taylor Lautner will continue as Jacob (We’re mystified why we are still getting mail on this one.).
2. The role of Leah is not in the New Moon script as confirmed by screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. So all speculation on "Who is playing Leah?" is ridiculous given that she’s not even in the movie. Please, for the sake of our sanity, no more Leah emails. We swear, Melissa swears we are not making this up: No Leah in the New Moon movie.
3. Vanessa Hudgens did not at any time audition for any part in New Moon as confirmed by her management, and Summit.  Pel is starting to get this odd twitch every time she opens the email and sees the word "Vanessa" or "Disney" in the subject line.
4. America Ferrera did not audtion for Emily Young, but actress America Young did. It is unknown whether America Young has landed the role, or who else has auditioned at this time.
5. Dakota Fanning is in talks to play Jane.
6. There is a call out for Native Americans fitting certain descriptions to apply for New Moon. There is not a general call out for any other part. In other words, don’t call them, they’ll call you. 

The Books

2.  The Host (hardback fiction category)
1.     The Twilight Saga (children’s series category)
3.     The Twilight Illustrated Movie Companion (paperback advice)

2.   New Moon
3.   Breaking Dawn
4.   Eclipse
5.   Twilight
21. The Host

2.  Breaking Dawn
3.  Eclipse
5.  New Moon
6.  The Host
9.  Twilight

3. The Host ( does not rank YA books)

Twilight Movie Music

Billboard Ranking 
6. 200 album chart: 
2.  Rock album chart: 
3.  Top digital album chart

The Twilight Movie

BoxOffice Mojo

So many of you directed our attention over to Celebuzz that supposedly directly quotes actress America Ferrera, of Ugly Betty fame, as having auditioned for New Moon, spoken about Chris Wietz, blah, blah, blah…you get the idea.

Celebuzz supposedly cites this blog run by (according to the publicly available profile) a Hollywood entertainment lawyer. So wanting to credit the actual initiating source of the story to give credit where credit was due, we discovered a couple of things:

1. No place on that blog can we find any of the statements supposedly attributed to actress America Ferrera. In fact we can’t find them period, not even coming out of another actress’ mouth (you’ll see why this is relevant in a second)
2. There is talk of "America" having auditioned, but she isn’t directly quoted.
3. When you trace the tags on the bottom of the blog entry there is an "America" tag. Actually, to be specific it’s an "America Young" tag which brings you to every post this blogger has written about Native American actress America Young.
4. You can see a photo of the talented America Young on this entry. You can also check her out on the IMDB.

So…best wishes to America Young in her audition process. Here is a link to her official website.  We have never seen America Young perform, but based on her picture, in our opinion, she certainly looks like the character of Emily.

We’ve finished Bella’s bio and made it current with Breaking Dawn.  She will continue to be listed under Bella Swan even though her married last name has changed.  We figure that since she was Bella Swan for three books and two chapters that she can stay Bella Swan on the character list. 

We also have another chapter update for you tonight.  The wonderful Malaz stepped in and provided us with the summary of Chapter Five: Isle Esme as well as the discussion questions that can be found on the message board. 

Ty to Kim  These guys are well known for their spoofs on just about anything.

Chris Weitz took a recent trip to Kalama High School in Oregon to see if it might be used for New Moon. Kalama was used for several Twilight scenes such as the parking lot crash, the volleyball game, and their weight room was transformed into Bella’s hospital room.  You can see a bunch of Kalama and later Madison HS in the candid photos taken last year by one of the film’s films extras, Kiz.

According to this article, the Blu-ray version of the Twilight movie will intially be released only at Target and Best Buy. Other retailers will have it roughly two and a half months later.  The regular version hits all retailers in the US and Canada on march 21st.

The UK release of the Twilight DVD is slated for April 6th according to Amazon.UK