This weekend was full of well-toned abs and emo mumbling when the cast of The Twilight Saga: New Moon gathered in Los Angeles to pimp the vampiric juggernaut's latest installment. The elaborate press conference featured stars Kristin Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, along with a slew of newcomers including Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen, all spilling the beans on New Moon, next summer's Eclipse and the future of the series.
While there weren't any big surprises (C'mon Kristin, no Adventureland 2: Rise of Adventureland?), the group was eager to discuss the differences between New Moon and the original Twilight. The big change came from director Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass) (replacing Catherine Hardwicke), who Stewart and Pattinson agreed brought a unique perspective to the film.
Find out about the changes, highlights from the event and news on the final adaptation Breaking Dawn after the jump!
- According to Stewart, Weitz was encouraging and compassionate, and made the switch easy on the cast. "Chris did a very different thing that I've never had a director do. He put together...it's like a syllabus almost of what we were supposed to achieve and how he was going to make it easier for everyone, sort of an introduction to how he likes to work." Even big time Hollywood stars prefer CliffsNotes.
- Although Chris Weitz didn't want to offend readers of the book, Stewart mentions that, "...because of the nature of the story it goes in a completely different direction. We undermine them first. We establish a very ideological kind of love (in Twilight) and basically tell our main character, our main protagonist, that she was wrong (in New Moon)."
- Pattinson explained that his break-up scene with Stewart's Bella was made easier by the fan anticipation. He felt, "the emotional weight."
- Taylor Lautner worked out five days a week and consumed 3200 calories a day to get in shape for the role. Side note: I will not be eating Wendy's today out of shame.
- Lautner believes that in a fight between his character Jacob and Sharkboy (you know, from The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D), Jacob wins.
- Stewart on David Slade's approach to the third film Eclipse: "So working with David [Slade] was like, 'Okay, lets see what you've got, ' because he came up with a lot of stuff that I would've never thought of and he's quite good at the whole technical aspect of movie making which is so completely over my head. So I got to feel safe that he had that handled and me and Rob and Taylor just sort of did our thing."
- Lautner says he won't be speaking Spanish in New Moon, but he does deliver some Quileutes (confirmed: Quileutes will make women swoon).
- Michael Sheen perfected the voice of his character Aro by studying the Blue Meanie from Yellow Submarine.
- Pattinson discussed his upcoming slate, including Breaking Dawn, which may shoot early this fall. He's also hoping to do a western with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz called Unbound Captives where he plays a boy who was kidnapped by the Comanche.
New Moon hits theaters November 20th, while Eclipse is already scheduled for June 30th, 2010.
Are you looking forward to the upcoming Twight Saga movies? Do you even know what the Volturi are? Sound off in the comments and check out pictures of Kristin Stewart over at the Actress Archives!
Thanks to Collider and Latino Review for their in-depth coverage of the event!
