Twilight Saga Stars On TV
Tune in tonight to catch Taylor Lautner on David Letterman, Dakota Fanning on Jimmy Kimmel, and Peter Facinelli and Elizabeth Reaser on Lopez Tonight. Check your local listings for times and channels.
Collider Interview with Billy Burke
from Collider.com:
Billy Burke is a compelling and critically acclaimed actor whose credits span both television and feature film. In the phenomenally successful Twilight films, he plays Charlie Swan, the Forks Chief of Police, who is also the father of Bella (Kristen Stewart), a young woman torn between her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), and her werewolf best friend, Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner).
The latest installment, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, sees Bella and Charlie sharing some highly memorable, touching and funny father-daughter moments, which the actor said he really enjoyed filming. In this exclusive interview with Collider, Billy Burke talked about working with the talented Kristen Stewart, how he could never choose between Team Edward and Team Jacob, his thoughts on the baby in Breaking Dawn and how he’s looking forward to working with Bill Condon.
Since you hadn’t been familiar with what the Twilight saga was when you auditioned, was there a point that you read the books to get the background on your character, or did you just go with what was in the script?
Billy: It’s pretty wildly known by now, with all the interviews that I’ve done, that I’ve never cracked one of the books. I am not a big reader, to begin with. When I read the script, I realized how oblivious Charlie was to everything else that was going on around him. Everything that I really need to know is in the scripts. Everything else is information that I don’t want to bog myself down with. That way, the movies are fresh to me. When I see them for the first time, I’m getting entertained and I’m getting a surprise. I didn’t see Eclipse until everyone else did, at the premiere.
One of the things that stands out about these films is the very real relationship between Bella and her father. Do you have a favorite scene between the two of you?
Billy: I remember working on the kitchen scene, where Charlie inadvertently tries to talk to her about sex and protection. That was actually quite fun. We had a good time with that.
Do you think that Charlie is more Team Jacob than Team Edward, when it comes to Bella, or do you think his feelings toward Edward are gradually changing, over the course of the films?
Billy: First of all, Charlie would never play that game. He would never play the team game, nor would I. I have no interest in that. But, he’s obviously got a bent towards Jacob. Jacob is the son of his best friend and he looks at him as a good kid who’s a clean, strong influence. He still doesn’t know that much about Edward, but obviously there’s something weird about him. Charlie would always bend towards Jacob.
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Anna Kendrick Tweets About New Harry Potter Trailer
In Anna Kendrick’s most recent tweet, she jokes about buying a ticket to see “Eclipse” just for the new Harry Potter trailer.
“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” Sets New Box Office Records
In addition to setting a new record with $30 million in box office receipts on it’s opening night, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” broke another record with a $68.5 million take on its first day, breaking the opening record of $62 million set by “Transformers 2”. The film also beat “The Dark Knight” record of $67.2 million for the biggest summer opening.
Entertainment Weekly Interview with Melissa Rosenberg
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg talks about the difference in writing the “Eclipse” script from the other two, working with Stephenie Meyer, and working with David Slade.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did writing Eclipse compare to the last two books?
MELISSA ROSENBERG: For me, Eclipse was my favorite book of the first three, for sure. The triangle comes to a head and that creates some really tense conflict, which is always good when you’re trying to write scenes. This is the third act of the story because Breaking Dawn goes off into completely new territory. That, and the huge battle we build to throughout the movie, was compelling. What was funny was Eclipse ended up being the hardest to write. That big battle happens in the third act, so it was all about pulling some of the conflict and danger forward to lace throughout the story. It became quite the challenge. But in the end, it was quite fun because I got to fill out some of the mythology, such as the character of Riley, the newborn army, Victoria, and everything that was going on that you can’t do in the book because it’s from Bella’s point-of-view.
Was there conferencing with Stephenie for those scenes?
Oh yeah.
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MTV Interview with Bryce Dallas Howard
In a recent interview with MTV, Bryce Dallas Howard talks about the pressure of playing Victoria in “Eclipse” and compares the “passionate” Twilight fans to the Spider-Man fans.
“People, myself included, have stayed up at night reading the [‘Twilight’] books over and over and over again, and watching the films over and over and over again, and really loving it so, so intensely. Whereas ‘Spider-Man,’ people are sentimental about it, they love it and are into it and that kind of stuff,” she said about the different types of fans. “[‘Twilight’] is passionate.”
The Rise and Fall of the “Twilight” Empire
from tor.com:
Last night was the release of Eclipse, the third movie in the Twilight franchise. Theaters were packed; Team Edward/Jacob loyalties ran high; anticipatory squeals filled the air.
The movie that unfolded wasn’t worth any of it.
This has gone beyond cinematic “worth” in the context of inscrutable teen tastes, or a shift in the zeitgeist, or any of the other trends that set their intended audience alight while mystifying everyone outside their demographic. This is about a two-hour movie that has to pull its bookend voiceover into the film to explain plot points it never shows, as the camera pans over a lengthy establishing shot of a forest.
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I love the interview with Billy Burke and his assessment of Charlie’s affinity for Jacob over Edward. He does an amazing job of playing Charlie in the movies and I’m looking forward to his new show on TNT with Angie Harmon.
Anna Kendrick’s tweet was just too funny not to share. It’s nice to know that there are stars who get just as psyched over that stuff as we do!
What did you think of Melissa Rosenberg’s interview? If you’ve already seen “Eclipse”, would you agree that having Stephenie more involved in the scriptwriting process this time made for a better film? Her absence is so obvious in the first film IMHO.
What do you think of the tor.com review of “Eclipse”? It’s a given that there will be haters out there who will have nothing nice to say whatsoever. I will agree with them on a few points – there is a disconnect in cohesiveness when you compare “Eclipse” to “Twilight” and it has always bothered me that Jasper did not speak with his Texas drawl until after the first film. I have always said that Catherine Hardwicke and Melissa Rosenberg overlooked a great deal of plot and character development within the first film and I think that has had an impact on the second and third films. However, Summit knows that their target audience is fans of the book and they are obviously catering to us and hoping to draw in additional fans and potential readers of the books. I honestly don’t think that they are all that worried about the bad reviews when they are shattering box office records left and right.
What do you think of today’s Twilight news? Join us in the forum to share your thoughts.
