Eclipse Filming: Moving Full Steam Ahead

It’s always interesting when franchise movies change directors. Everyone has something new to bring to the project. So far from what we can tell as the casual observer, David Slade seems to be plowing ahead with efficiency while maintaining a sense of humor.

In the last couple of days, sets in very different locations have gone up in the afternoon, have had shooting done at night, and by mid morning all traces are gone. Quite impressive. At the same time, after undergoing what is obviously a long night of shooting, David had tweeted to fans about a joke picture he took with the prop guys.

Mandy, talks about seeing this uber organization first hand, where a scene under a bridge involving Bryce Dallas Howard and Xavier Samuel was done in a heartbeat, while still having attention to detail.

“I was not at all surprised to see NOTHING left…

I know lot’s of people don’t have sets in their own backyard but shooting a scene takes tons of time, money, people and equipment…

I am so impressed so far with how “on the ball” David Slade is.

I remember when I met him outside Blue Water Cafe for the Cast Party at the end of New Moon. He stopped to chat with me and to clear the air about the things he had previously said about Twilight Saga…. he was cordial and really quite sweet… and short… but anyways…. so far this director has been in and out of multiple sets using perfect locations and just hammering it out quick and easy…

So yes, when I saw nothing at under the bridge today I was not shocked… David Slade and his crew are good – really good!”

Check out Mandy’s full report here including pictures of Bryce and Xavier that are a bit spoilerish. So, if you don’t want to see what could be termed a Victoria’s point of view scene, don’t click this link, however this link is safe.

Mandy also mentions some of the craziness that is happening on the local Vancouver air waves and in the print media.

“Last night, we stumbled upon this set while re-visiting a previous set used for New Moon. We were excited to see another live set but did not stay long as they quickly blocked the view with several screens and large trucks…I had been texted a few seconds earlier by a friend saying “some dumb broad called the radio and claimed they would tell everyone where the set was after the break”…I have actually had massive arguements with people about publicizing set locations when you can’t control who hears… meaning crazy people hear and show up and act – well… crazy!)”

Twilight Yearbook: Stephenie Meyer and More

What The Forks has found a series of photos that features Twilight names in their yearbook photos.

Teens of the late 1990’s-early 2000’s: Kellan Lutz has a bit of the 90210 (the original series) hair going on, while Ashley Greene seems to have mastered the flat iron.

Teens of the late 1980’s-early 1990’s: Stephenie Meyer has remarkably tame hair given the period. Those 1980’s bangs are there though.

Check it out on What the Forks. LINK FIXED

Boo Boo Stewart: Up to the Physical Challenge

As the son of a martial arts pro, and as an award winning martial arts pro himself, Boo Boo shows that he is up to the physical demands of Eclipse. That’s pretty impressive for someone who isn’t old enough to get a drivers license. We’re thinking that pound for pound he can more than keep up with Alex Meraz and Chaske Spencer

Boo Boo Stewart: Access Hollywood Video

Boo Stewart: I’m Signed On For Three Movies

Access Hollywood managed to get Boo Boo Stewart on their Dish of Salt program and got the following info:

“I heard there’s going to be three more movies,” he told Access Hollywood’s Laura “Dish of Salt” Saltman in a new interview. “‘Eclipse,’ ‘Breaking Dawn,’ and there should be one more.”

The star’s rep also noted the additional films when Boo Boo’s casting was announced to Access.

“Boo Boo Stewart will play the character Seth Clearwater in the next three installments of the wildly popular ‘Twilight’ film franchise based on the best-selling novels by Stephenie Meyer,” the rep said in a statement.”

This would seem to back what many people including Stephenie Meyer herself have said about Breaking Dawn. The book is long enough to warrant the storylines being broken into two movies rather than one.  There is also new-found precedent for this in Hollywood with the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, being split into two movies.

So what do you think about Breaking Dawn being split into two movies? Where do you think the first movie should stop and the next one pick up?

More Vamps Descend on Vancouver!

It looks like true to the novel Eclipse, Jane and Demetri will be on hand to witness the aftermath of the battle with the newborn army.

Dakota Fanning was spotted shopping in Vancouver and Charlie Bewley, who plays Demetri, tweeted at approximately 3:00AM Vancouver time: “MORNING!! Doing a thruey to reset bodyclock for first night on Eclipse – going to be awesome FYeyes… Fire up x”

Twifans visited the set location of Wednesday’s/Thursday’s night/morning shoot, and from behind the established public barrier managed to snap a photo of Jack Hutson as Royce King II. Fabulous spotting on their end! I don’t know that many people would have realized straight off that it was Jack.

Speaking of Wednesday’s/Thursday’s night/morning shoot it must have been interesting, because the Vancouver Sun and Perez Hilton broadcast the location of the shoot on their respective blogs and websites—which later turned out to be dead wrong. We are wondering if that was a bit of brilliant studio manipulation, or just plain old getting a bad tip.

In the end, it was at a barn type place frequently used by various movies, TV shows, and commercials shot in Vancouver.Mandy explains in it her write up. According to Mandy that while there were certainly fans around and police were present for traffic safety and crowd control, the crowd stayed behind the barrier and was cooperative.

And lastly David Slade and the crew seem to be getting on great! David at 6:00am Tweeted that a photo he posted earlier was a trick pulled off by him and the crew. “Sorry the fish is fake, thrown by props dept, don’t tell national geographic.”
The Salmon jump high in Vancouver. Lucky shot. on Twitpic

EDITED: Interesting info in the comments on it being Kevin Zegers. Definitely running contrary to all media reports available at the time of posting. We figured it could be Royce when he’s “on the run” we figured that he might look a bit disheveled by then.  We attributed the red-eye effect to…well…regular amatuer camera red eye effect, but excellent point on…well…duh, vampire!  We will check it out. Stay tuned!

Fansite Friday: Chaske Spencer & Gil Birmingham

We’re back with another Fansite Friday! This week we are covering Gil Birmingham, Billy Black, and Chaske Spencer, Sam Uley. They were both on set the day that we visited back in April.

You need a little backstory for these interviews. Gil was what you could call an unexpected interview. What was funny, was that originally when we saw Gil, we asked our rep, “Will Gil be coming over and can we interview him?” Gil had only just gotten in and we were told “no” because he had to get wired up for sound to shoot his scene. So we thought, OK that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Well, what we started to notice is that we caught Gil’s attention. He’d be talking to the crew, then looking at us. He’d talk to Graham Greene, then he’d look at us. This pattern went on for awhile. However, we then ended up interviewing producer Wyck Godfrey, and we sort of lost track of Gil. Not that we don’t like Gil, but Wyck said the magic words “Breaking Dawn” and he kind of had our rapt attention.

So we finish with Wyck, we turn around and “BANG” right in front of us is Gil Birmingham with the oddest expression on his face (If you ever see Matt from Twilight Source he does a great imitation of this moment). He says, “Who are you people?” We explained, we had a good laugh and then Gil gave us a few brief thoughts before he had to go back to work. (Audio file at the bottom of this entry.) [Read more…]

Stephenie Meyer Day in Forks

The annual Stephenie Meyer Day is fast approaching in Forks. Chris Cook, the editor of the Forks Forum wrote in to share some details.

“Dazzled by Twilight has opened their new store where Fern Gallery was, pretty amazing place for Forks. Scroll down at www.forksforum.com to see a photo of Annette and Rianalee inside the store. I’m working on a more complete story with one of the guys who built it.

The fans are still arriving in high numbers from all over the place. A “quiet” day today, only about 500 at the visitor center!”

Chris also wanted us to know about the town’s celbration plans which include tours of Forks HS and a concert by the Mitch Hanson Band and The Twilight Music Girls. Get all the Stephenie Meyer Day details here.

Also, if you are Forks bound, we highly recommend this booklet published by Chris detailing everything Twilight about Forks. It has all the details you want and at $9.89 it’s a steal!

Catherine Hardwicke: So Little Time, So Many Projects!

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Catherine Hardwicke may be the busiest director in Hollywood. Never mind “female director”, director—period!

THR states:

“The director is in negotiations to helm “The Girl with the Red Riding Hood,” the Warners reboot of classic fairy-tale “Little Red Riding Hood” that the studio is developing with Leonard DiCaprio’s Appian Way.

She’s also in early talks with Sony to take on its feature version of “21 Jump Street,” the undercover cop tale that, like “Twilight,” centers on high-schoolers with unusual abilities, though other directors are in the running on that project as well.

It’s unclear if Hardwicke could helm both pics — while both projects are at the development stage, they’re considered priorities for their respective studios, which could create a scheduling issue if both go next year. On top of that, Hardwicke is also on tap to helm the  modern-day adaptation of “Hamlet,” the Emile Hirsch vehicle at Overture that could bump up against the other pics.

Still, hers is a high-class problem — an abundance of projects at a time when studios are cutting back and gigs are harder to come by.”

Check out the full scoop on THR’s Risky Business Blog.

Jackson Rathbone: Looking For a Change of Pace

Jackson Rathbone talked to MTV about how playing Jasper means he’s very controlled a lot of the time. His Last Airbender experience was very differnt.

“Jasper is so composed and kind of holding it all back, so getting to play a character where I can just run into people was great! I got to do this fight scene where I get attacked by three different people at the same time; I’m running through a battle trying to find my little sister, worried about where she is, and this guy charges me with a sword! So, I make the split decision to just tackle him, take him straight to the ground, and then someone else comes behind me and tries to slash me in the back – so I pull that guy over me, and he hits his own guy.”

Given all the fight training that the cast cast been doing in Vancouver, it looks like Jackson is going to get the chance to mix it up with the newborn army. With any luck he won’t be too bruised by the time he has to film his scenes in the upcoming indie flick, The Girlfriend. Check out the full story on MTV.