ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: TWILIGHT COVER STORY
As we told you the other day, Robert Pattinson is on the cover of this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly. In the cover story of the issue, they discuss Twilight’s box office numbers, some specifics of New Moon, and much more.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
On Saturday morning, after celebrating news that the film had already taken in more than $35 million, Summit e-mailed a letter to Twilight fans, signed by stars Pattinson and Stewart, expressing gratitude and delight at moving forward with a sequel. But the studio still hasn’t confirmed whether the rest of the cast will be brought aboard for New Moon. Fans are particularly invested in whether Taylor Lautner, who is markedly shorter and more boyish-looking than Meyer’s description of his character, Jacob, will return to vie for Bella’s heart. ”We are definitely talking and thinking about it right now,” says Erik Feig, Summit’s president of production. ”Taylor’s fantastic as Jacob in Twilight. I think when we get closer to shooting, the director is going to look at everyone as if they are brand-new to the role.”And just who that director will be remains to be seen. As of press time, Hardwicke — who now holds the record for best opening-weekend box office for a female director — hadn’t signed on. But she spent much of the weekend sequestered in meetings with lawyers, agents, and studio executives. She felt hamstrung by her modest budget through much of the Twilight shoot. ”I had more elaborate stunt sequences designed and very crazy, cool stuff that I wanted to do,” she says. ”We had locations taken away. We had five days cut before we started to shoot. But, you know, I kind of got past that, I just had to let it go.”
After the grueling production, Hardwicke now wants to make sure the studio shows her the money to properly tackle New Moon’s tricky plotline — which includes location shooting in Rome and several characters who must realistically morph from teenage boys into werewolves. Summit’s Feig has nothing but praise for Hardwicke, but he maintains that the sequel doesn’t necessarily demand a bigger budget. ”I don’t think there was anything excessively lavish about Twilight, and yet the world was fully realized,” he says. ”We’ll do exactly the same thing with New Moon.” Still, the studio might want to throw more money at the universally trashed special effect that was supposed to make Pattinson sparkle magically in the sunlight but left him looking merely sweaty. ”People make realistic CGI dragons, so you wouldn’t think making people sparkle would be that hard,” says Meyer.
For now, only Pattinson and Stewart are sure to live on in Meyer’s fantasy world. The two young stars, neither of whom banked on this sudden explosion of fame when they signed on for the movie, are currently limping through the last lap of their American promotional tour. (After a brief Thanksgiving rest, they’ll gear up again to spread Twilight fever across Europe.) Stewart in particular seems ill-suited for the rigors of sound-bite TV, as she fidgeted and frowned her way through awkward appearances on Late Show With David Letterman and the Today show. ”I think she’s had a lot of trouble,” says Hardwicke. ”She knows it’s important, but it’s not her favorite part of the job.” Pattinson seems to have a better game face, drowsily mystified when teenage girls throw themselves onto his moving car or when Tyra Banks asks him to bite her neck on her talk show. He did have one flash of rebellion, however: ”I cannot wait to cut my hair,” he told EW in September. ”It’s so annoying! I was at a photo shoot the other day, and people were saying, ‘They say we can’t touch your hair. You have trademarked hair!’ No, I don’t.” And so, despite the studio’s request that his ragged mop not be touched, he cut off his hair in between press junkets.
To read the complete article, click here.
(Thanks to Esther from EW)
Wow, so many things to discuss! It’s interesting that they said they are “talking and thinking” about Taylor’s return in New Moon. I couldn’t imagine anyone else as Jacob, and it’d be particularly sad to have him be in Twilight, but not future movies.
What did you think of the cover story?
How do you feel about Taylor’s possible return: would you like him to, or would you prefer a replacement?
And what about Catherine: do you understand some of the difficulties that she encountered with the budget now that you’ve heard it directly from her? Does that change how you feel about her possibly directing the second film?
