What Do The Critics Say?

"With its fascinating combination of forbidden love and a seductive vampire theme, 'Twilight" may be the beginning of a very successful film franchise." Betty Jo Tucker REEL TALK MOVIE REVIEWS "Twilight is packed with wry, understated humor, and Hardwicke gets lively, authentic performances from her young cast." Chris Hewitt ST PAUL PIONEER EXPRESS "It's easy to understand the intensely estrogenic, tween and teen-centric fascination with "Twilight," Stephenie Meyer's first in a series of four best-selling novels about the romance between a high school girl and a vampire. Twilight works as both love story and vampire story, thanks mainly to the performances of its principals." Michael O'Sullivan WASHINGTON POST "Unlike the "Harry Potter" series the "Twilight" series appears to be in capable hands right off the bat." Laura Clifford REELING REVIEWS "Stewart is a fine, talented actress, and she ups the ante considerably here; her strong performance makes of Twilight a far better film than it would have been with a lesser actress in the part." Kim Voynar MOVIE CITY NEWS "Thanks to Pattinson's furrowed eyebrows, crooked smiles and carefully crafted hairstyles, he delivers just the Edward we've been waiting for." Nina Garin SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

"It's easy to understand how Twilight has become a phenomenon. Superb treatment of Stephenie Meyer's best seller and two compelling lead performances make this Romeo and Juliet vampire saga into an utterly bewitching film." Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE "I succumbed to the palpable chemistry between the leads, and remembered my own girlish fantasies with something of a head-spinning rush." Ruth Hessey ABC RADIO NATIONAL "Hardwicke understands her teen protagonists, and rather than speak down to them (and, by extension, to the film's youthful viewers), she allows their angst-filled behavior to register as the most important thing in the world." Matt Brunson CREATIVE LOAFING "Twilight, the first movie adapted from Stephenie Meyer’s series of best-selling teen novels, is going to be a big hit with young girls, and deservedly so: the picture delivers." David Denby NEW YORKER "Wondrous are the ways of vampires in Twilight, a tale of undead adoration where sharp teeth and cold hands are no impediment to romance." Peter Howell TORONTO STAR "Hardwicke, with an emphasis on extreme close-ups, captures that swoony intensity, and Pattinson and Stewart have an undeniable intense chemistry. For fans, that'll be enough." Glenn Whipp LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS

About The Author

A cultural phenomenon with a dedicated global fan base has eagerly awaited this first screen adaptation. Stephenie Meyer's four-book series has spent a combined total of 91 weeks at No. 1 on The New York Times best seller list. The books have sold seventeen million copies worldwide and translation rights have been licensed in 37 countries and over six hundred thousand copies have been sold in Australia. Three hundred and fifty fan sites are devoted to the series. "Twilight" was chosen as The New York Times Editor's Choice, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, Amazon's "Best Book of the Decade: So Far", Teen People's Hot List Pick, The American Library Association's Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults and Top Ten Books for Reluctant Readers. Meyer was born in Connecticut in 1973 but moved to Phoenix, Arizona at the age of four. She was one of six children. She met her husband Christian (everyone calls him Pancho) in high school, but they did not marry until after she graduated from Brigham Young University. Meyer was awarded a National Merit Scholarship, and used it to pay her way to Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah. Meyer is the mother of three boys: Gabe, Seth and Eli. Her agent is Jodi Reamer. A dream about Bella and Edward inspired her to write the story that became "Twilight". The book was published in 2005, sold over five million copies, and suddenly Meyer was being compared to J.K. Rowling and other superstar authors. Meyer followed "Twilight" with the sequels "New Moon" (2006), "Eclipse" (2007), and "Breaking Dawn" (2008). She also published her first adult novel, the sci-fi romance "Host", in 2008.

The Inside Story When Paramount rejected "Twilight", Robert G Friedman (who raised one billion dollars US to launch Summit Entertainment) heard about it. Erik Feig, Summit's production chief, did some research and noticed an intense following online even though the book had not yet reached stratospheric status. In a brilliant move, Summit pounced, seeing a potential franchise. Producer Greg Mooradian ("The Fan") of Maverick Films first read "Twilight" before the young adult novel gained worldwide acclaim-in fact, before it had even been published. "Part of my job as a producer is to scour the world for new material," says Mooradian. "I read a lot of manuscripts prior to their being published. When this one came across my desk, I just couldn't put it down. The premise of a girl falling in love with a vampire just hit me like a ton of bricks. And the book delivered on every level." What drew Mooradian to the story was not its exoticism, but rather its universality. "There have been thousands of vampire films made," he says. "What sets this apart is the love story. Vampirism in this story is simply a metaphor for teenage lust, for that feeling of 'I want you, but I can't have you.' I thought that was such a wonderful metaphor to express teenage longing. It's analogous to any young girl who has the opportunity to date the boy that her parents hope she'll go out with. But then there's that other boy who's mysterious and dark and brooding, and there's such a desire to unlock the secrets behind who and what he is, which in this case is a vampire. And that revelation happens at a point where she's already too far in to withdraw, no matter what the consequences are." "Twilight" was the first published work by author Stephenie Meyer, who has gone on to create three additional books in the series, with no sign of slowing down. "As a first-time author, I had no idea what normal is," she says. "I still don't. I had no expectations. I was first approached about the movie before the book had even come out. I didn't expect to hear anything about it until it was on the shelves, if then." Meyer describes herself as a mom first, then a writer, despite her chart-topping sales and prolific output. "For me, writing this book was so personal," she says. "I was surprised that people responded to it so well. It still amazes me to watch how people get into the characters and how important it is to them. I get e-mails from people who feel like my book has actually changed their lives." A Brigham Young University graduate with a degree in English literature, Meyer says the idea for Twilight came from a dream. "When I woke up, I wanted to know happened next. That first day I wrote ten pages. When I finished it, no one was more shocked than me that I had actually finished a book." As Meyer continued to add volumes to her narrative, Mooradian approached Summit Entertainment with the idea of developing the saga into a series of films. Twilight's novel concept and compelling characters made it an apt candidate. "The idea of a supernatural fantasy as background for a great tragic love story is a great combination," says producer Wyck Godfrey. "Add to that a best-selling book series, and fans already connected to the characters, and we have a really good foundation to open it up to a new audience that may have never heard of Twilight. I think that once they see it, they're going to respond in the same way as the people who have discovered the books." As soon as she read the book, executive producer Karen Rosenfelt ("The Devil Wears Prada" & "Alvin and the Chipmunks") says she was immediately intrigued by the "Romeo and Juliet" aspect of the storyline as well as its sustained sexual tension. "I think we all think we're Bella," says former Paramount Pictures production president Rosenfelt. "As a character she's very accessible and identifiable. We all feel outside of the in-group and want to feel we're marching to the beat of our own drummer." Meyer was excited about the possibility of seeing her work translated to film, but only as long as the filmmakers remained true to the books. "All of us have seen books ruined as movies, and I had a lot of things that I wanted to protect. My stipulations were pretty basic: You can't kill anyone who doesn't die in the book. The Cullens have to all exist by their right names and in their right characters. Things like that. I wanted the groundwork to be there." The filmmakers were sensitive to her concerns and committed to remaining as faithful to the book as possible. "The book is a bible for so many young girls, we needed to tell the story as written, as much as possible," says Mooradian. "Stephenie loved the script. But at the same time she had some very specific ideas, and we implemented nearly all of them, much to the benefit of the film." The producers tapped Catherine Hardwicke (production designer on "Laurel Canyon", "Vanilla Sky" and "Three Kings" to direct the film). Mooradian explained that "the core readership is young females, and we wanted to get somebody who understood that perspective. Catherine has really embraced that age group. She connects well with teenagers, and given her filmography, it was a natural fit." "Catherine demonstrated with "Thirteen", "Lords of Dogtown" and "The Nativity Story" (all very different films), is that she can create a world that feels organic and not manufactured. That was really important in bringing "Twilight" to the screen," says Rosenfelt. "When I read the book, I was swept away with the whole obsession: that ecstasy," says Hardwicke. "Stephenie writes with such an authentic voice. "Twilight" had the potential to be so visual and cinematic and to capture that feeling: how it feels to be in love for the first time, and loving somebody so much that you'd literally be willing to turn into a vampire." Melissa Rosenberg came on-board with considerable experience writing for the film's primary audience of high school age girls. In addition to the television shows "Party of Five" and "The O.C.", Rosenberg wrote the screenplay for "Step Up", an enormously successful teen romance between a ballerina and a street dancer, also for Summit Entertainment. She is currently a writer for the provocative Showtime drama "Dexter," whose romantic hero is a serial killer. "Twilight is really the marriage of both my love of writing for teens and the sort of gothic-ness of horror," she says. "When they called me, all they had to say was teens and vampires and I was there. It is a gift to be given such rich source material. I had no intention of ever going anywhere other than the world of the book." Twilight's devoted following has spawned more than three hundred and fifty websites and cult-like dedication, making casting a delicate process. "If you go on the fan websites, every single person who read the book has already cast the film for you twenty times over," says Mooradian. "We did take a look at their ideas and we decided we were never going to please everybody, so what we had to do was go with our guts. The actors we cast are the actors we feel best embodied these characters. It took us forever to cast this movie, but once we found Bella and all the Cullens, I realized we finally had it." Mooradian recaled, "When I actually got to see them all together, performing in a scene, it took my breath away, and not because I didn't expect them to work. I did. But I lived with this book for several years. To actually see all the actors in front of me at one time blew me away." Only seventeen years old when Twilight filmed, Kristen Stewart has already appeared opposite Jodie Foster in "The Panic Room", Emile Hirsch in "Into the Wild", Dennis Quaid in "Cold Creek Manor" and John Corbett in the scary "The Messengers". Meyer was immediately impressed with the young star. "Kristen has an amazing number of movies already under her belt," she said. "She has a devastating vulnerability about her that's so perfect for Bella." Most young screen fans will also remember Stewart for "Catch That Kid" and "Zathura: A Space Adventure". Stewart revealed that before auditioning for "Twilight", she wasn't familiar with the series. "Then suddenly, everywhere I looked, there was something about "Twilight". I was, like, how did I miss this? Everybody I knew had read it." As for playing a literary icon for a generation, Stewart says, "I want everybody to be happy. Everybody's going to see things differently. So many girls are obsessed with the books and want to be Bella, which does make it difficult. I hope, really, really sincerely, that everybody likes it." Meyer says that casting Edward was the most difficult task, because, "He has to be everything. He has to be beautiful and dangerous and angst-ridden and intelligent. A lot of guys were pretty, but they weren't dangerous. Other guys were dangerous but not pretty enough. Rob Pattinson has both sides." Pattinson, who played Cedric Diggory in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ", says that Edward is caught unaware by his attraction to Bella. "From Edward's perspective, he has nothing, really. He's spent his entire life fixated on wanting to be human or die. And then Bella comes into his life and destroys any stability he's been able to create. He initially starts the relationship to test himself. But when he gets to know her realizes this girl has reawakened him to some kind of life." The Cullen clan-parents Carlisle and Esme, and adopted 'children' Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper, Alice and Edward; are unique in the vampire culture. Carlisle was a vampire hunter three hundred years ago. He was bitten and transformed while leading an attack. "Carlisle hated what he had become so much that he forced himself not to feed on humans," Peter Facinelli ("Riding in Cars with Boys") explained. "He found he could survive on animals: kind of like a human being living on tofu." Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Green, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone and Nikki Reed portray other members of the clan. Each of the actors is keenly aware of the responsibility that goes along with playing characters this well-loved. "I'm a reader," says Reaser ("Grey's Anatomy"), who plays Esme Cullen. "Sometimes I have ideas in my head and when they turn into a movie, it can be horrible. Or it can be amazing. So you hope that people will make the leap with you." On the other side of the vampire divide lurk three very different lost souls: James, Victoria and Laurent, the nomadic vampires who encroach on Cullen territory and threaten Bella's life. "I don't really think of them as bad vampires," says Meyer. "I think of them as your average vampire. They don't think anything of killing a human because that's how they live." Synopsis

Bella has always been a little bit different, never caring about fitting in with the trendy girls at her Phoenix high school. When her mother remarries, Bella moves to rainy little town of Forks, Washington, where he father lives. Here she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen, a boy unlike any she's ever met. Intelligent and witty, he sees straight into her soul. Soon, Bella and Edward are swept up in the passionate of an unorthodox romance. Edward can run faster than a mountain lion, he can stop a moving car with his bare hands, and he hasn't aged for ninety years. Like all vampires, he's immortal. But he doesn't have fangs, and he doesn't drink human blood; Edward and his family are unique among vampires in their lifestyle choice. But the closer the two get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal urge which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy.

The Verdict "Fans of the books should be very impressed by the bigscreen adaptation of the Stephenie Meyer novel. With a huge, almost cult-like following, the film is all but guaranteed box-office success where-ever it opens. Kirsten Stewart, who has impressed me since she appeared in "Panic Room" and then "Catch That Kid" is an ideal choice for the lead role of Bella as is Robert Pattinson who co-stars as Edward. Cinemagoers who misread "Twilight" as a 'standard' vampire film will be sorely disappointed: this is definately not a gorefest. The science classroom scenes when Bella and Robert first meet are filled with wry humour, the special FX are good, the settings ideal and the soundtrack is in sync with the various moods of the film. Director Catherine Hardwicke who did a fine job of directing "Twilight", won't be back for the next film "New Moon". Chris Weitz ("About A Boy" & "The Golden Compass") who will helm the second film notes: "This is not a task to be taken lightly, and I will put every effort into realizing a beautiful film to stand alongside a beautiful book." Dedicated fans will want to add the film tie-in edition of the book from Hachette Libre and the soundtrack from Warner Music to their Stephenie Meyer collection. I'm sure there will be some in the audience who will find "Twilight" a little too tame for their liking, but I'm also sure that those who are familiar with Meyer's work will be pleased as punch that the finished product remains true to the novel. Fans will adore it, the curious should explore it! Very recommended. 4 1/2 STARS." Crew Bytes "TWILIGHT" was .......
directed by Catherine Hardwicke ["Thirteen"]; screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg [TV'S "Party of Five", "The Agency" and "Dexter"]; set decoration by Gene Serdena ["Being John Malkovich", "Laurel Canyon", "Auto Focus" and "Infamous"]; costume design by Wendy Chuck ["All Men Are Liars", "Bad Santa" and "Sideways"]; from the novel by Stephenie Meyer ["Twilight" and "Breaking Dawn"]; edited by Nancy Richardson ["Stand and Deliver", "Selena" and "Why Do Fools Fall in Love"]; cinematography by Elliot Davis ["Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead", "I Am Sam" and "White Oleander"]; original music by Carter Burwell ["The Man Who Wasn't There", "Adaptation" and "Intolerable Cruelty"]. Who's Who

Kristen Stewart Robert Pattinson Billy Burke Ashley Greene Nikki Reed Jackson Rathbone Kellan Lutz Peter Facinelli Cam Gigandet Taylor Lautner Anna Kendrick Michael Welch Christian Serratos Gil Birmingham Elizabeth Reaser Edi Gathegi Rachelle Lefevre Sarah Clarke Ned Bellamy Gregory Boyce Justin Chon Matt Bushel José Zúñiga Solomon Trimble

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Bella Swan Edward Cullen Charlie Swan Alice Cullen Rosalie Hale Jasper Hale Emmet Cullen Dr Carlisle Cullen James Jacob Black Jessica Stanley Mike Newton Angela Weber Billy Black Esme Cullen Laurent Victoria Renee Dwyer Waylon Forge Tyler Crowley Eric Yorkie Phil Dwyer Mr Molina Sam Uley

Run Time 121 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - Summit Entertainment - All Rights Reserved ©2008 All Rights Reserved - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.