Having read the books, visited the set, and devoured everything the internet already contained regarding The Twilight Saga: New Moon, you’d think there’d be little left for a Twilight fan to learn. Thankfully, you’d be wrong. As we found while tracking New Moon‘s cast and director through last weekend’s Comic-Con appearances, the New Moon publicity machine is chugging as smoothly as Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner’s bare chests — two things which made our list of the Top Ten New Moon Facts Revealed at Comic-Con. (Catch up on our Comic-Con coverage here.) Read on for this week’s installment of New Moon Monday and check back each week for news, interviews, and more to keep your Twilight obsession blazing.
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1. Summit Entertainment knows its audience, evidenced by the two scenes they brought to Comic-Con. Whether you’re Team Edward or Team Jacob, there was a shirtless scene for you. Who wanted to see the birthday party scene or the cliff diving scene, when they could get their first peek at Jacob Black hopping valiantly off a bike to strip naked to tend to an almost-drooling Bella? Or watch as Bella raced across Volterra in vain as Edward opened his shirt, stepping into the sunlight? It was such an amazing sight, Bella started running in slow motion. (Click above for more celeb pics from Comic-Con; full scene descriptions here!)
2. Director Chris Weitz will use a lot of dialogue straight from the book. This was one of the biggest points of contention with the first Twilight, into which screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg had written quotes directly from Meyer’s text — with varying results. (“And so the lion fell in love with the lamb,” to which non-fans groaned inwardly.) In both scenes shown at Comic-Con, the majority of dialogue was taken from the pages of New Moon and filmed quite closely to what we imagined. (Agree/disagree? Tell us below.)
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3. Taylor Lautner is the press-friendly celebrity star that New Moon needed. Compared to his co-stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, Lautner has just the right youthful vigor and enthusiasm (read: he’s not jaded yet) to turn Twilight press events into, well, downright energetic press events. Deposited between Stewart and Pattinson in Thursday’s early morning press conference, Lautner picked up the slack whenever his co-stars trailed off; the kid’s been well prepared. I mean, have you seen that Sharkboy-era dancing video?
4. Kristen Stewart knows that Bella is a head case in New Moon. Critics who thought Bella was unhealthily dependent on Edward in the first Twilight film, or even that his behavior was borderline stalker-ish, will likely seize on her obvious psychological issues in the sequel. When those criticisms come, Stewart’s fully prepared. “This is a severely emotional movie,” she told journalists. “That’s the one big difference. This movie is not about discovery or falling in love, which is sort of just an intense emotion, but this is low and there high points for her, too. She’s a manic depressive, basically.”
5. A year later, Kristen Stewart’s life is just as crazy and her answers just as wry as they were during Twilight. The build-up to the first Twilight film transformed its stars’ lives into a constant media circus, with fans even stampeding a mall just to see Pattinson. Asked if life was any different with the sequel on the horizon, Lautner said now he was “really, really busy” and Pattinson noted that he walks down the street hoping not to be noticed. Stewart deadpanned that her only life change was the stylistic kind: “I cut my hair off.”
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6. The New Moon kids like it when their characters suffer. Asked which scene in New Moon was their favorite, each star picked one in which their characters broke up with each other.
“I walk her up to her door and say goodbye to her and I’m going off to fight in the woods and she’s worried,” Lautner answered. “She’s scared for me. I thought that it was kind of cute, but I also like the breakup scene.”
“That’s my favorite scene in the movie,” Stewart said, her face lighting up. “We call it a breakup scene because he basically tells her that they can’t be friends anymore and he’s transforming. If you ever, ever treated me like that you would kill me.”
And Pattinson’s favorite scene? “I think my breakup scene was my favorite scene,” he said. “I mean, hopefully it’ll come off as having quite a few more levels than the relationship in Twilight. It was interesting. It was like a five page long dialogue scene. That didn’t happen at all in the first one and it’s quite an interesting little moment. It completely bypasses all the supernatural elements of the story as well, which I found quite interesting.”
7. Kristen Stewart can’t wait to have Rob Pattinson’s baby! (Just kidding.) When asked what scene she’s most looking forward to filming over the course of Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, Stewart let out a spoiler of sorts. “I can’t wait to get pregnant!” Stewart joked, referring to her character’s storyline. Pattinson’s response: “I can’t wait to perform the Cesarian.” Taylor’s most anticipated scene? The one where he gets to strip naked and cuddle with Bella in a sleeping bag, naturally.
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8. If you post a New Moon reaction video to YouTube, Chris Weitz is probably watching it right now. During the panel discussion, Weitz revealed that he and the editing crew have watched many of your screaming, breathless fan reaction videos. He’s even thinking of making a reaction video to the reaction videos!
9. Twilight fanaticism was as strong as ever this year. While nothing could top the ear-piercing and unexpected sounds of thousands of girls at the Twilight panel last year — where fan boy culture’s hold on the Con was hijacked by a vampire romance, of all things — 2009 sure came close. And Twilighters were better prepared for the challenge of getting a coveted seat in Hall H for Thursday’s panel; a few fans camped out a full two days ahead, and by Wednesday morning, Twihards were Twittering from the line.
10. The anti-Twilight backlash finally has a name! You know your favorite fantasy property has really made it when entire Comic-Con costumes are created just to complain about it (i.e. the mostly-male Con attendees sporting “Twilight Ruined Comic-Con” signs).
That’s it for New Moon Monday! Check back every week for something new from RT’s resident Twilight expert in Jen’s Twilight Corner. (Have a suggested topic? Leave a comment below.)
