EW:’New Moon’ Exclusive: Chris Weitz Reveals 10 Secrets in the Film!

1. Hidden wolves
”Look for an upside-down engraving of a wolf in the shot of the bowl in which Carlisle burns his first-aid equipment; on Jacob’s T-shirt when he meets Bella in the school parking lot for the first time; and a wolf trinket on the dream-catcher that he gives her.”

2. Vampire elevator music
”When Edward, Bella, and Alice get into the elevator on their way to see the Volturi, the music playing in the elevator is from Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (a.k.a. The Bat).”

3. Emotional baggage?
”When Bella is looking for the meadow where she and Edward are seen lying down together, she carries a golden compass clipped to her backpack — part of my baggage!”

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Chris Weitz’s New Moon Photo Book

From his own personal photo book, director Chris Weitz presents a very special inside look for fans into one of the key scenes from THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON. The images below were taken during Chris’ first scouting trip to Italy, before Montepulciano was selected for the shoot. Enjoy! Montepulciano Set We will be using the town of Montepulciano to serve as Volterra. We scouted about ten Italian hilltowns, and Montepulciano offered the best combination of beauty, age, change in height (you can see rolling fields below from the alleys running up to the main square, etc.) and symmetry that satisfied my obsessive qualities. Why not finish off this roundup with a little Italian scenery: This is the clock tower of the main square of Montepulciano. Directly underneath is where Edward intends to reveal himself to the crowd (I prefer that to an alley way – that would be too blah and ordinary). The cafe on the very right of the shot was THE hangout for Twi-fans who went to Montepulciano — people would sit up there and order coffees for the whole day to get a close look at filming! This is what Bella sees as she finishes her run upwards and arrives at the square: In other words, she sort of ascends through a series of alley ways and streets to the square itself. Here is a shot from the top of the clock tower itself, showing the square from above which, like the throng of visitors to the festival, also happens to be red – To the upper right, you can see the corner that Bella turns as per the previous photo; and past that, green hills below…

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Chris Weitz on the ‘The Pattinson Effect’

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Charges Dropped In ‘New Moon’ Piracy Case

The consensus was clear, here, when the story broke that even Chris Weitz, director ofThe Twilight Saga: New Moon, spoke out against the validity and necessity of charges against a young woman for piracy of the film – where the details of that alleged incident involved the woman supposedly taping the events of a birthday party without intention of pirating and selling the movie. Popular opinion cornered with Weitz, and the agreement was that the woman did not deserve to face the penalty of up to three years associated with this “crime.”

According to the Sun Times, Cook County prosecutors agreed and the Chicago woman was released with all but two days of her life (spent in jail as a result of the arrest) and the memory card for her video camera (confiscated and to be withheld by the police) in hand.

Yet, not everything is intact. “She’s traumatized,” and “[t]his is the worst event of her life and she wants to put it behind her,” said the woman’s attorney to the Sun Times.

Although piracy is a serious issue (and with the law, there’s an invisible line that is had to discern in some instances), for most this was a rather no-doubt situation. Too bad she’ll have the sting of an arrest on her criminal record and an attorney’s bill to pay as a consequence of what most people would probably call a “simple mistake.”

UPDATE: Here is film studio Summit Entertainment’s official statement on the matter:

In regards to the situation with Samantha Tumpach, we applaud Muvico for upholding the zero tolerance policy on piracy when the incident occurred at their theater in Rosemont, IL.  The pirating of films is a very serious issue and we all need to remain vigilant to protect the art of film and the myriad of businesses that the film industry supports.  We believe that the attention that this incident has drawn, has served as a reminder to us all that any form of film piracy, or perceived piracy, will be treated with the utmost seriousness.

Summit is pleased that all charges against Ms. Tumpach have been dropped and appreciate the efforts of the police and the prosecutors in this outcome.

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Chris Weitz Says ‘New Moon’ Bootlegging Arrest Is ‘Terribly Unfair’

There are those fans who were really excited about “New Moon,” buying Robert Pattinson-emblazoned pillows and making elaborate scrapbooks for the stars, and then there are those fans who may have gone overboard in their excitement. Samantha Tumpach was busted in a Chicago movie theater for allegedly taping three minutes of the “Twilight” saga sequel inside a theater in late November and could face up to a three-year prison term for her actions; Tumpach has said she was essentially filming a home movie had no intention of distributing the footage.

Now Chris Weitz, the director of “New Moon,” has come to Tumpach’s defense, saying that the prospect of such a harsh sentence is unjust.

“Needless to say, the case seems to me terribly unfair and I would like to do what I can to address this,” Weitz wrote in an e-mail to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Weitz also said that he’s been in contact with Summit Entertainment, the studio behind the franchise, about his concerns but admitted there’s little he can do since “the film is, after all, not my property.”

Tumpach, 22, spent two days in jail following her arrest on a felony charge intended to dissuade bootleggers from recording films in a theaters and selling illegal copies. Last week, Tumpach told the Sun-Times she was recording her sister’s surprise 29th birthday party celebrated with family members and shot three minutes of footage inside the theater. She said the recorded footage contained ads, previews and snippets of the film and that she had no intention of distributing the footage.

‘There is, needless to say, a difference between trying to protect the copyright of a film and making an unfair example of someone who clearly seems not to have any intentions towards video piracy,” Weitz said.

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New Moon Makes Half a Billion Dollars

Worldwide Estimated Gross to Date: $570.1 million!

Breakdown

International cumulative is now up to $314.5 million!

North American cumulative is now up to $ $255.6 million!

In its third week in theaters, “New Moon” came in second place in box office receipts.

Domestically, “New Moon” earned $5.2 million on Friday (12/4) and $6.5 million on Saturday (12/5).

The international estimated weekend gross is $40.7 million.

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Full New Moon London Press Conference

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‘New Moon’: Five Things You Might Have Missed

By now, you’ve seen “New Moon” — and many of you have probably seen it three, four or five times. But as all the new scenes and moments settle into your subconscious, you have questions. And, as always, we’re here to help.

Below are five spoiler-heavy facts we’ve uncovered and can now finally unveil to the “Twilight” nation. Read on for info about Bella’s grandma, Edward’s car and that already-famous final line of the film.

Edward’s Chameleon-Esque Car
If his lousy parking job distracted you, perhaps you didn’t notice that when Edward pulled into Forks High, his famed Volvo was no longer gray, as it was in the novels and the first movie. Hey, Chris Weitz, what gives? “I’ve taken a real spanking for this, a lot of heat,” the director explained. “I’ll tell you exactly why: Volvo wanted to give us a new, different car so I didn’t want to paint it exactly the same silver color, because then [Twilighters] would be saying, ‘Why are they trying to say that it’s the same car; it’s obviously not.’ So, I thought, ‘Well, I’ll choose a new color!’ And I thought I would choose slate black, not a reflective black, because it actually absorbs light and it would reflect the mood and melancholy and depression [of his character]. I know I got it wrong, I apologize for that. But that is my reasoning.”

A Newly Visible Victoria
In Stephenie Meyer’s “New Moon” novel, the vengeful nomad Victoria is more of a long-distance threat than a regularly glimpsed monster. So, why is it that the movie has her lurking in the woods, swimming in the water and even killing a character? “Well, movies are such a visual medium,” explained screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who also created a scene with Victoria driving that was ultimately cut after being filmed. “To just be talking about Victoria, or to be hearing about her, isn’t visceral enough. You have to actually see her and see the threat that she is; I wanted to keep her alive throughout, so that you knew that the danger to Bella was alive. I also had so much fun writing for her — there are a couple of action moments in the middle of the movie that are really fun, and I really wanted to have her in there. It also keeps the pacing of the movie, to see her and to have those conflicts.”

Grandma Is a Bloodsucker
As die-hard Twi-hards know, Chris Weitz’s grandmother was an actress in one of the first “Dracula” films and is still going strong at age 99; his mother acted for two decades and was nominated for an Oscar in 1960. Since the movie opens with Bella seeing her own grandmother, why didn’t Weitz offer one of his own family members the chance to act again? “How kind,” he said at the thought. “But I think it would have been difficult for me to say, ‘Mom, we would like you to play a woman who is so old that she horrifies Bella when she recognizes herself in the mirror’ — I think [my Mom] has put movies behind her for good. And now, she just raises me and my brother.”

How Did Taylor Do It?
If Taylor Lautner wanted to keep his job, he needed to get very muscular, very fast. Now that you’ve seen him with his shirt off you might be wondering: How can my boyfriend get that bod in less than a year? “Jacob transforms a lot in ‘New Moon,’ not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well. So, it was a matter of getting to the gym and eating the right foods,” he explained. “I was in the gym about five days a week, because it’s important to get your recovery time and not overwork yourself — I was trying to put on weight and If I was in the gym too much, I’d be burning the calories I was trying to take in. The other thing — the most important thing — was the eating side. Everybody thinks it was the actual getting in the gym — that was easy; I was motivated. Getting in the gym was easy for me, but the eating was pretty hard.”

The Final Line
As you now know, “New Moon” ends with a very special proposal. But since it was different in Stephenie Meyer’s novels, who decided to move it? “My thought was initially to save that for the next movie, because that movie’s all about the triangle and Edward’s proposal to Bella and her debate about whether to do it or not,” Rosenberg explained, giving the credit to Weitz. “Chris realized — and I think rightly so — that belonged here. And it was a great way to go out of the movie.”

 

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‘New Moon’ Director Chris Weitz Reveals DVD Details

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BEVERLY HILLS, California — After this weekend’s record-shattering opening,“New Moon” is now officially the biggest film of 2009. In a few months, it will inevitably become one of the biggest DVD releases of 2010.

So what can we expect from the “New Moon” DVD? Recently, we caught up with director Chris Weitz and got the scoop on the disc you’ll soon want sitting next to “Twilight” on your shelf.

“There will be a commentary track,” Weitz revealed, saying that he’ll soon head into the recording booth with his three big stars, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. “It’ll just be us riffing off each other in our intimate way,” he grinned. “We kind of like each other, so that should be fun.”

In addition, fans can look forward to picking up a copy of “Twilight in Forks,” the independently made documentary that teased fans with brief glimpses of its exploration into the real-life town that inspired Stephenie Meyer, only to be snatched up by Summit in September. An insider told MTV recently that the film will not be re-edited but will hit DVD alongside “New Moon” with all-new packaging and artwork.

Judging by the insatiable appetite of Twilighters, they’ll be filling DVD stores in the first quarter of 2010, eager to glimpse the deleted scenes Weitz plans to unveil for the first time.

“There will be probably about 20 minutes of deleted material,” he explained, promising some meaty footage. “It really is good stuff and a bonus for the fans.”

Among this bonus footage could be several moments MTV knows were shot but did not make the final “New Moon” cut, including:

» A scene with Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria driving to Forks in a car, snacking on a dead human. It was one of the final moments the actress filmed as the nomadic vampire.

» A scene with the human characters eating Burger King.

» Another scene with the humans, this time with Justin Chon and Michael Welch expressing jealousy over Edward’s car.

» More scenes with the Volturi in Italy.

» An extended cut of the scene where Mike Newton quotes Shakespeare to Bella in the Forks High parking lot; in it, he does a Marlon Brando impersonation.

» Scenes alluding to the ongoing breakup between Newton and Anna Kendrick’s Jessica.

“When I made the film, I wanted it to arrive at a certain kind of flow and cadence,” Weitz said of why he had to leave so many scenes on the cutting-room floor but hopes to restore many for the DVD. “[They would have affected] how the movie worked, and they didn’t completely fit. But there’ll be some groovy stuff in [the DVD].”

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‘New Moon’ Screenwriter Reveals Four Tweaks That Made The Film Work

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BEVERLY HILLS, California — By now, we’re all on the same page. We’ve all seen“New Moon,” and we can finally discuss the spoiler-heavy details of what worked and what didn’t. That means we can unveil not only articles like this, but also our exclusive interview with screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg.

In this sit-down with the adapter of the entire “Twilight” series, Melissa pinpoints four key details that she tweaked, augmented or deleted entirely, transforming Stephenie Meyer’s novel into thebiggest film of 2009. From Harry Clearwater’s reimagined death to the lack of Laurent, read on for Rosenberg’s official take on the tweaks that made “New Moon” shine:

Hope Bella Got a Gift Receipt …
In one narrative device Melissa is particularly proud of, Jacob gives Bella a Quileute trinket meant to capture bad dreams — although, judging by all those late-night shots of Kristen Stewart in tears, it doesn’t work very well. “One of my favorite things is the dream-catcher that Jacob gives Bella,” the screenwriter said. “It’s the first time that we see Jacob, and I wanted to establish his and Bella’s relationship, his sort-of crush. [The gift establishes] her affection for him and Edward’s jealousy of him. So I had the idea that he brought her a little birthday gift and came up with the dream-catcher, which would be true to his culture but also to the theme of the movie; there’s a lot of dreams in this movie. That, I thought, played well.”

Getting the Cullen Kicked Out of Him …
In Meyer’s novel, the Volturi scenes are a moody medley of tension, fear and careful wordplay. In the movie, however, Felix lays the smack-down on Edward as he tries to protect Bella. Like many scenes, Rosenberg said she needed to up the visuals to take the place of lost narrative nuances. “In the book, at the very end, the final climatic scene is Edward and Bella and Alice going to the Volturi and the potential that they might not walk out of there,” she said. “It is very fraught with tension, but the tension is expressed through dialogue, and I wanted to heighten that. I wanted to have that conflict be external. So I pushed it into an all-out-battle, and Chris [Weitz] and the stunt people, along with [‘X-Men’ star] Daniel Cudmore who plays Felix, did this great action sequence at the end that’s just really fantastic.”

Cause of Death Unclear …
Although he’s a relatively minor character, the death of Quileute elder Harry Clearwater sets off a pivotal chain of events in the “Twilight” world. In Meyer’s “New Moon” novel, Charlie Swan’s friend dies of a heart attack. In the movie, the sight of vixen vampire Victoria kills him. So why the switch? “Well, in the book, Harry Clearwater’s heart attack is mentioned as something that happens offscreen, although it plays a crucial part of the structure of the books. It’s what gets Edward going to the Volturi, after he calls Charlie and then Jacob answers and says, ‘Charlie’s at a funeral,’ ” she explained. “That launches the entire third act of the movie. … That just gave me the idea ‘Stephenie doesn’t specify what causes the heart attack,’ so I decided that it could be caused by something startling him. It could be caused by fear. That was a way to keep Victoria alive. It was a way to keep Charlie and the danger of the hunt alive, and that’s where we get a really great action sequence with Victoria that blends together important parts of the movie and important parts of the book moving forward. So I particularly like that.”

The Love of Laurent
Sadly, fan fave Edi Gathegi doesn’t get much screen time in “New Moon” and dies quite quickly. Rosenberg told us that if she had one regret, it’s that she would’ve liked to delve deeper into the nomad’s motivations. “Yes, we had to pull out some of the backstory, because it really just came down to conversation. Laurent was in Alaska, trying to be a vegetarian briefly, and all of his relationship with the Denali clan,” she revealed. “A lot of the backstory for Laurent had to be pulled, because it just slowed everything down. I wish we could have gotten more of that in there.”

 

 

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