Archives for 2010
MTV: Stephenie Meyer on Midnight Sun
Eclipse Enters US Supreme Court Discussions
For those of you who aren’t from the US. Our Senate is currently conducting a hearing to question a potential new member of the US Supreme Court. The discussion has gone from the serious to the ridiculous as the two parties which are in power in the US government grill this potential candidate.
We are usually politics free around here, but this didn’t comment on public policy so much as provide an amusing sidebar. For the sake of the moderators’ sanities can we request no political party bashing in the comments.
TY to various people who wrote in.
Pel’s Spoilerific Eclipse Review
Ok, let me start by saying that Eclipse is my favorite book in the series. So if anything, I think I was more inclined to be picky about this one. I’ve now seen the movie twice: once in IMAX about three weeks ago in LA with a bunch of movie critics and last night in NYC at midnight with fans. Stop reading here if you don’t want spoilers [Read more…]
Box Office Mojo: Eclipse, 30 Million Record Setting Midnight Tally
According to BoxOffice Mojo:
“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse ripped into the record books with its midnight launch, grossing over $30 million at more than 4,000 theaters. That surpassed The Twilight Saga: New Moon‘s previous benchmark of $26.3 million. Included in Eclipse‘s sum was a new IMAX midnight milestone of over $1 million at 192 venues, topping Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen‘s $959,000.
The vampre(sic) romance sequel had already cast the widest opening net ever, biting into a whopping 4,416 locations (more theaters are expected to be added on Friday). Iron Man 2 previously held that title with 4,380 locations, while Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince holds the record for highest location count ever at 4,455. Eclipse‘s count includes 193 IMAX venues, which is just shy of Shrek Forever After‘s 194 record.”
The thing to keep in mind is that this figure only counts sales in the USA made through 3:00am this morning. It does not count the sales that are picked up during the day today through 11:59pm this evening. Once those figures come in tomorrow afternoon to reflect the first day’s complete total that number should be $150,000,000. This will solidly put Eclipse opening in the top ten movies of the year.
The big question is going to be if Eclipse can get to the 300,000,000 million mark. New Moon was just shy at circa 296,000,000. No matter what it is going to continues to smash records for what is a predominately female driven enterprise.
Movieline: David Slade, “I Don’t Know Why Anyone Would Hire Me”
Well, regardless of David knowing why he was chosen or not. The end result seems to be being given a thumbs up by fans far more so than the previous two films.
“How do you approach something like the proposal scene, which could so easily be the cheesiest thing ever? Do you try to underplay it?
I really tried to keep the actors in the moment and not be premeditated about things. We had a policy of not changing lines unless specific issues came up, in which case we’d discuss it well in advance. I also had a one-on-one actor rehearsal policy, where I would meet every actor individually to discuss scenes and talk about their characters so that by the time we got to the full rehearsal with all the actors, we had just the content of the scene [to concentrate on]. We’d answered all the questions, so we could deal with the meat and potatoes of getting the scene right. I think the actors appreciated that time we spent with them. When it came down to it, one of my goals was to make things realistic and believable without leaning on the fantastical elements at all, but trying actually to be antithetical to that. I wanted the fantastic elements to be as believable as possible.
I know Kristen Stewart knocks herself out to be believable in her performances.
One of the things she said to me early on was, “If I don’t believe in it, I can’t do it. I’m a terrible liar, and if I don’t believe the words I say, then I can’t go through with saying them.” Sometimes it was tricky, massaging some of the line readings, but it was always in the process of getting it down. Kristen can be an exceptionally naturalistic actress in that way, but that’s really what I was looking for. We knew that this was the most mature of the books in how the story was told. It’s the conclusion of the love triangle, and a lot of the the themes in the first two books conclude in this book. We knew it would be a more adult and cinematic film, and we wanted to treat the drama as drama. There’s comedy, but the comedy is intentional.”
Eclipse By The Numbers: Noon Totals and Where It’s All Headed
Our good friend Larry411 has a great article on the Eclipse box office numbers going in to the midnight opening. In about an hour (noon eastern) we’ll have some solid numbers on what Eclipse did at the midnight and early morning showings today(and we will edit this article to reflect the change). The theater in NYC where Pel was had 12:15, 12:30, and 1:00am showings…nine…count em…nine screens and they were all filled. The other thing happening here is that we will have solid numbers not just estimates on the first three days because the movie opened well in advance of the weekend when estimates only are traditionally given.
Now on to Larry’s analysis:
“The Twilight Saga was the biggest opening of all time at 4416 venues. So it’s no surprise that early reports say theaters were mobbed not just in America but overseas as well.
There are a few things to watch for (click the links for daily numbers and extensive analysis). The Twilight Saga: New Moon opened on November 20, 2009 with $26.27 million from 3514 midnight screenings at 4024 locations.
The film took in $72.7M its first day, on its way to a $142.8M weekend, making it the #3 all-time and #1 non-summer opening weekend of all time. After the second weekend, its domestic total was $230.95M and worldwide was $473.95M. The film passed the $1/2 billion mark worldwide in its third weekend. After four weekends, New Moon sat at $267.32M domestic. And the film ended its fifth weekend with a total $274.6M domestic and $634.7M worldwide on its way to a current theatrical total of $296.6M domestic and $709.7M worldwide.”
Amanda Bell, the Twilight Examiner, also has a great article that concurs with Larry’s findings and expands more.
“All along – during the downtime between The Twilight Saga: New Moon‘s release and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse‘s – fans have been asking this question: will The Twilight Saga: Eclipse surpass the incredible numbers set forth by The Twilight Saga: New Moon?
No doubt, the biggest achievement of New Moon in the box office was to set the record for biggest opening day ever. So, the topic has definitely lingered as to whether the summer Eclipse showing will top that record.
Also, the staggering opening weekend numbers (3rd highest ever) for New Moon reached $140.7 million in the first three days. So, whether Eclipse will eclipse New Moon‘s opening weekend figures is prominent as well.
According to TheWrap.com, industry predictions give the nod to Eclipse in at least the second portion of the inquiry.”
Tonner Dolls: New Bella and Edward and More On the Way
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:
“He doesn’t sparkle in the sunlight – he’s plastic. He can’t hunt for prey – he’s immobile. And he’s only 17 inches tall – not exactly a towering Byronic presence.
Still, for some fans of Stephenie Meyer’s immensely popular Twilight series, the Edward Cullen doll by Tonner is the next best thing to the books’ vampiric hero.
The high-end dollmaker, known for its realistic figures based on popular movie characters, saw sales hit a record high with its first Edward doll, released in 2009.
But next month at San Diego’s Comic-Con, Tonner is set to introduce another Edward – and a new Bella Swan (Edward’s human girlfriend) and an Alice Cullen (Edward’s vampire sister). The company also sells a Jacob (Bella’s werewolf best friend) and several villains from the first Twilight book.
Chaske Spencer: Parade Magazine
“Being a part of a worldwide phenomenon.
“You never really get used to it. If you start getting used to it, you’re in trouble. I do the best I can.”
Laughing off the rumors and gossip.
“A lot of it is bull–. It’s really surprising that what you put on paper, people will believe. And 99% of that is false. I was really surprised about how much of that goes on. I was Joe Citizen before this came along. But when you start to deal with stuff like that, you just have to laugh at it. And on the set, there’s this huge bubble and nothing can really touch you. And you can kind of tune everything out. Then you leave the set and come out into the world and you’re apart of this huge franchise movie.”
Sticking up for co-stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.
“They have a lot of heat on them. They’re in a world of their own. We get in the tabloids, but not even close to what Rob and Kristen get. And from what I see, they handle it really well and I think people should cut them some slack because they’re very young and just trying to get through this.”
MTV: The Werewolves 5 Secrets Revealed
MTV has a behind the scenes look with Phil Tippett, Eclipse’s legendary FX man!
“The Wolves Have New Fur, Eyes and Behavior
Weitz requested wolves that had more of a rangy look to them, with matted fur and eyes that more closely resembled human eyes than wolf ones. By contrast, Slade wanted his wolves just a bit more, well, coifed.
“They weren’t supposed to look like poodles, but [Slade] wanted them a lot sleeker looking and with shinier, shimmering coats,” Tippett explained.
Slade was also adamant that the “Eclipse” wolves revert to the wolf eyes you might see in nature. But it wasn’t just the wolf pack’s physical attributes that got a makeover for the third installment. Tippett and his team were also directed to adjust the wolves’ overall behavior.
“The ‘New Moon’ wolves, we played them as heroic sentries,” said Tippett. “When the wolves met the humans, we attempted to make it appear as though the wolves had a center of conscience that was definitely human. And David really wanted to play it that the wolves were far more primordial and much more wolflike. The wolves became less sentries sent from God and a lot more twitchy, uncertain, fairer animals.”
Perhaps the biggest similarity between both films’ wolves, however, is that neither set actually has genitals — a compromise necessary to secure a PG-13 rating. “We just deal with it by putting extra fur down there,” he laughed.”
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