'Eclipse': Behind The New And Improved Wolves

11 Jul 2010

If you’ve seen The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, odds are you left raving about the wolves — particularly the scene in which Jacob, in wolf form, saddles up to Bella during the training sequence. It’s one of the moments Phil Tippett — a two-time Oscar winner for Jurassic Park and Return of the Jedi whose visual effects house, Tippett Studio, handled the wolves for both Eclipse and New Moon — is most proud of. “That was an unusual thing for us in that most of the time, we are doing these ‘god awful animals start tearing each other apart,’” Tippett told us recently, phoning from England where he’d just celebrated Ray Harryhausen’s 90th birthday. “So it was great to have a quiet moment. A tender scene that telegraphs a budding and suppressed relationship was tricky. In fact, the entire training sequence was difficult in that the wolves do nothing. A bunch of wolves standing around watching vampires train and trying to portend some kind of anxiety was tricky. It’s tricky for any actor when you have to carry a certain part of the scene where you do nothing, because you have to figure out a way of filling up the nothing with something.”

It was important to Eclipse director David Slade that Taylor Lautner actually film that scene with Kristen Stewart so she was able to establish eye contact with him instead of with a golf ball that could’ve been used as an eyeline and painted out later. The wardrobe department dressed Lautner in a neutral grey leotard and hoodie — primarily so his skin tone wouldn’t bounce back onto Stewart and create lighting issues when Wolf Jacob was added, Tippett says. We, however, like to believe someone was already thinking about the DVD extras. That will be great, won’t it?

The tender moment was made more challenging by the fact that Slade had a different vision of the wolves than New Moon director Chris Weitz. For starters, Weitz wanted the wolves to have their actor’s eyes. “He kind of wanted the performance to feel like the wolf behavior was being filtered through a human brain,” Tippett says. Slade wanted the wolves to have wolf eyes to de-anthropomorphize them. “David wanted the performances to be more feral, twitchy, and agitated. He wanted to see wolves that were more photographically representational, which had to do with things like getting more hair follicles, making the paws smaller.”

The believability of the wolves was equally crucial in the climactic fight sequence with the newborn vampire army. “We had to come up with a rationale for what happens when a 1,300-pound wolf that’s running 35 miles an hour crashes into a newborn vampire [played by an actor that weighs 165 lbs], how we justify that,” Tippett says. “David allowed us the transgression of saying, ‘Well, let’s just say that the newborns, since they’re not made of human material but some kind of a more marble-like material, have an actual mass of something like 500 pounds, so they have a lower center of gravity.’ And that allowed us to begin thinking about how to make all of that palpable, without thinking that they’re existing in two different physical universes.” Watch a clip of how that action gets put together below.

Which wolves did you prefer: New Moon‘s or Eclipse‘s?

Video: Kristen & Rob win Best Kiss at MTV Movie Awards

07 Jun 2010

2010 MTV Movie Award Nominations Revealed & Voting Begins

12 May 2010

MTV has revealed their nominee list for the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, and of course 'New Moon' is under many of the categories! You can vote now until June 5th, but you will have to log in to be able to vote. The MTV Movie Awards air on Sunday, June 6th at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Below are the categories 'New Moon' or the actors and actresses are nominated for:

Best Movie - The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Best Female Performance - Kristen Stewart – The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Best Male Performance - Robert Pattinson & Taylor Lautner – The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Best Breakout Star - Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Best Kiss -
Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson – The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning – The Runaways
Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner – Valentine’s Day
Global Superstar - Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, & Taylor Lautner

Video: 'New Moon' Behind-The-Scenes

24 Mar 2010

Here are some behind-the-scenes videos from the 'New Moon' DVD:

'New Moon' Star Nikki Reed Amazed By Crowd At DVD Release

23 Mar 2010

'They just love the movies, and it's great to be a part of it,' 'Twilight Saga' actress said at a DVD-release party in California.

SANTA CLARITA, California — While there were midnight parties for the "New Moon" DVD and Blu-ray release taking place across the country Friday night, only those living in the Los Angeles area were treated to the company of both the director and a main star. Director Chris Weitz and actress Nikki Reed traveled to the Wal-Mart in Santa Clarita to celebrate the release.

"I like to go to Wal-Mart to hold press conferences just at odd moments, so this is not my first time," Weitz joked when he spoke with MTV News at the event. "But usually people don't show up with cameras. I'm just talking to an imaginary microphone."

Reed answered a bit more sincerely, saying, "It's amazing. It's fun, you know? ... It always feels very undeserved, I guess, when you show up at a place like this and there's 400 people standing outside."

Even after spending three years on the "Twilight Saga" films, she said never gets used to the incredible reaction of the fans. Reed plays a member of the Cullen brood of vampires, Rosalie Hale, and is the "sister" to Robert Pattinson's Edward Cullen. Despite her high-ranking status in the list of fan-favorite actors from the series, Reed said she still never expects the type of turnout there was just for her Friday night.

"I always want to go out and go, 'You know that I'm not Rob. It's just me here. It's me and Chris,' " she said with a laugh. "[Yet the fans] still come around."

Reed did acknowledge that the fans are the driving force behind the series and are responsible for the "Twilight" films' vast success. "They just love the movies," she said, "and it's great to be a part of it."

Credit: MTV

'New Moon' DVD Sales On Track To Surpass 'Twilight'

23 Mar 2010

Summit Entertainment’s strategy to release its much-anticipated New Moon DVD on a Friday night — just as the studio did for the release of Twilight’s DVD — is paying off handsomely. The studio reports that the DVD of The Twilight Saga: New Moon sold 4 million units over the weekend. The take surpasses Twilight’s 2009 DVD release, which sold 3.8 million units its first weekend, and 9.2 million total, making it the top selling DVD title of the year.

Summit added to the fervor by spreading its cast around the country to make surprise stops at various retail outlets. Director Chris Weitz, Nikki Reed and Rosalie Hale showed up in Los Angeles while Peter Facinelli made a stop-off in New York and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg showed up in Seattle. As for Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson? Well, they were nowhere to be found. Between Pattinson and Stewart’s own promotional duties for their other projects (Remember Me and The Runaways) plus the intense media scrutiny they constantly live under, they probably felt it best to skip this event.

Video: 'Eclipse' WalMart Exclusive Scene from 'New Moon' DVD

20 Mar 2010

The 'New Moon' DVD version that is currently selling at WalMart contains and exclusive short scene that is in the upcoming 'Eclipse'. Check it out below!

'New Moon' Director Gets Away From Frenzy

18 Mar 2010

CNN just released an interview they conducted with 'New Moon' director Chris Weitz, where here discusses the upcoming DVD, the cast, directing the movie, and more:

CNN: How did a Cambridge-educated, nice, half-Jewish boy get involved with "New Moon" to start with?

Weitz: (laughs) Well, they asked. I think the first reason that I got involved was that I liked the actors very much. I think they're very good. Then I went to see the [first] movie in a little theater, and the response of the fans around me was amazing -- their degree of devotion, the delight they took in it. And you don't always get that as a director. You don't always know that there are going to be people watching and taking pleasure from what you're doing, so that's kind of a wonderful opportunity.

CNN: In the DVD commentary, you said you let the opening shot of the moon go on and on because you figured there would be 30 seconds of screaming when the titles came up. Was that true?

Weitz: The first time I saw it, there was quite a lot of screaming, just because of the buildup and anticipation were so great. People had been waiting so long to see it that it was good that they had a bit of time to calm down before you first saw Bella.

Video: Access’ Behind The Scenes Exclusive: Kristen Stewart Braves The Waves In ‘New Moon’

16 Mar 2010

In an Access behind-the-scenes exclusive, see how the filmmakers created the film’s cliff dive aftermath with Kristen Stewart. Does Kristen like doing her own stunt work or would she rather leave that to the professionals? Coming to DVD March 20th!

A Sneak Peek At The 'New Moon' DVD, Out Next Week!

12 Mar 2010

I know that the Twilighters among you are all excited for "Eclipse" now that the first trailer trailer has arrived, but there's still more than three months before the actual movie arrives in theaters. Let's take a moment to focus on something that's happening a little sooner: the release of "New Moon" on DVD and Blu-ray.

It hits shelves next week, on Friday night at midnight. It'll still be available on Saturday and beyond though, so no need to cancel plans if you have some other fun activity going on. To get you psyched, we prepared this little 10-second clip from the DVD's six-part behind-the-scenes documentary. And hey-- maybe it's just me, but doesn't that wolf cutout in the clip look an awful lot like an elephant?

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