Twilight | |
---|---|
Directed by | Catherine Hardwicke |
Screenplay by | Melissa Rosenberg |
Based on | Twilight by Stephenie Meyer |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Elliot Davis |
Edited by | Nancy Richardson |
Music by | Carter Burwell |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Summit Entertainment [1] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 121 minutes [2] |
Country | United States [3] |
Language | English |
Budget | $37 million [4] |
Box office | $408.4 million [5] |
Twilight is a 2008 American romantic fantasy film directed by Catherine Hardwicke from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. It is the first installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, a teenage girl, and Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, a vampire. It focuses on the development of Bella and Edward's relationship and the subsequent efforts of Edward and his family to keep Bella safe from another coven of vampires.
The project was in development for approximately three years at Paramount Pictures' MTV Films, during which time a film adaptation that differed significantly from the novel was written. Summit Entertainment acquired the rights to the novel after the project's stagnant development. Melissa Rosenberg wrote a new adaptation of the novel shortly before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike and sought to be faithful to the novel's storyline. Principal photography began in March 2008 and took 44 days, [6] being completed on May 2; [7] the film was shot in the states of Oregon [8] and Washington. [9]
Twilight premiered in Los Angeles on November 17, 2008, [10] and was theatrically released in the United States on November 21, by Summit Entertainment. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film grossed over $407 million worldwide. [5] It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on March 21, 2009, and became the most purchased DVD of the year. [11] The soundtrack was released on November 4, 2008. [12]
The film was followed by four sequels: New Moon (2009), Eclipse (2010), Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011), and Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012)
Seventeen-year-old Bella Swan leaves Phoenix, Arizona and moves to Forks, a small town located on Washington state's Olympic Peninsula, to live with her father, Charlie, the town's police chief. Her mother, Renée, is remarried to Phil, a minor league baseball player.
Bella becomes re-acquainted with Jacob Black, a Native American teen who lives with his father, Billy, on the Quileute Indian Reservation near Forks. At school, she finds the mysterious and aloof Cullen siblings particularly intriguing. She is seated next to Edward Cullen in biology class, but he seems repulsed by her.
When Bella is nearly struck by a van in the school parking lot, Edward instantaneously covers a distance of over thirty feet to put himself between her and the van, stopping it with only his hand. He refuses to explain his actions to her, warning her against befriending him. Jacob tells Bella about a long-standing animosity between the Cullens and the Quileutes; the Cullens are not allowed on the reservation.
When Edward saves Bella again, this time from a gang, after research she concludes that he is a vampire. He eventually confirms this, explaining that he found her scent irresistible back in biology class and that the Cullens only consume animal blood.
The pair fall in love and he introduces her to his vampire family. Carlisle Cullen, the patriarch, is a doctor at the Forks Hospital. Esme is his wife, and Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie are their informally-adopted children. The family's reaction to Bella is mixed, as some of the Cullens are concerned that the family's secret could be exposed.
Edward and Bella's relationship is jeopardized when three nomadic vampires—James, Victoria, and Laurent—arrive, responsible for a series of deaths being investigated as animal attacks. James, a tracker vampire, is excited by Bella's scent and becomes obsessed with hunting her for sport. The Cullens protect Bella, but James tracks her to Phoenix, where she is hiding with Jasper and Alice, and lures her into a trap at her old ballet studio.
James attacks Bella and infects her with vampire venom. The Cullens arrive and kill James, decapitating and burning him, as Edward removes the venom from Bella's wrist, preventing her from becoming a vampire.
In the aftermath, Edward accompanies an injured Bella to prom, where he refuses her request to transform her into a vampire. They are unaware that James' mate, Victoria, is watching them, plotting revenge for her lover's death.
In early 2004, Greg Mooradian of Maverick Films brought an unpublished manuscript of Twilight to David Gale, then executive vice president of Paramount Pictures' MTV Films division, to propose a film adaptation. Gale, in turn, brought it to Paramount's then co-president of production, Karen Rosenfelt, who lobbied to option the rights to the novel. MTV Films eventually acquired the rights in April of the same year and later hired Mark Lord to write a script. [26] The screenplay that was subsequently developed was substantially different from its source material, being more action-oriented. According to Lord, he originally pitched his adaptation as a vampiric take on the play Romeo and Juliet , but MTV Films "wanted to just put in some more action to advance it more and give something more for the male audience. They thought they were going to lose the male audience with too much of a romance." MTV Films was pleased with the script he delivered, which included, among many changes, the character of Bella Swan being a long-distance runner, cursing, using shotguns against vampires who killed her father, being turned into a vampire, and riding "jet skis being chased by the FBI". [27] When talking about MTV Films' original script, author Stephenie Meyer said, "They could have filmed it and not called it Twilight because it had nothing to do with the book, and that's kind of frightening." [28]
Following a change of management at Paramount Pictures, the studio's new president of production Brad Weston told Gale that he believed audiences were not interested in films about vampires and werewolves, after being involved with box-office bomb Cursed at Dimension Films, and development stalled. [27] [29] [4] [30] In January 2006, Paramount put Twilight into turnaround. Rosenfelt, who had left Paramount and came aboard Twilight as a producer, was determined to make the film happen, and attempted to forge a co-production deal between Paramount and Fox 2000 Pictures, where she had a producing deal, but Fox 2000 did not agree with Paramount's terms. Rosenfelt later tried to generate interest at Fox Atomic, but Fox Atomic passed. In October 2006, Rosenfelt met with Erik Feig, then president of production of Summit Entertainment, and mentioned to him that of all the projects she wished she could make, she thought Twilight had the biggest potential. After their meeting, Feig obtained a copy of the novel, read it, and passed it on to colleagues at Summit, who perceived it as an opportunity to launch a franchise. When Paramount Pictures let the rights to Twilight expire in April 2007, Summit acquired them, agreeing with Meyer that their film adaptation would be more faithful to the novel than MTV Films' version. [30] [26] [31] [32] [16] [33]
Before even having the rights to Twilight, Feig, a fan of director Catherine Hardwicke, talked with Hardwicke on the 2007 Sundance Film Festival about working with Summit Entertainment and sent her five scripts of films the studio was developing, including Mark Lord's draft of Twilight for MTV Films. Hardwicke did not like any of the scripts, but ended up curious about Twilight. She bought a copy of the novel and realized the script she had read had very little to do with the source material, which she soon began envisioning as a film. [27] Following Summit's acquisition of the rights, Hardwicke was set to direct the film and Melissa Rosenberg was hired to write the script in mid-2007. [34]
Rosenberg developed an outline by the end of August and collaborated with Hardwicke on writing the screenplay during the following month. Rosenberg said Hardwicke "was a great sounding board and had all sorts of brilliant ideas. [...] I'd finish off scenes and send them to her, and get back her notes." [35] Due to the impending Writers Guild of America strike, Rosenberg worked full-time to finish the screenplay before October 31. [35] In adapting the novel, she "had to condense a great deal." Some characters from the novel were not featured in the screenplay, whereas some characters were combined into others. [36] "[O]ur intent all along was to stay true to the book", Rosenberg explained, "and it has to do less with adapting it word for word and more with making sure the characters' arcs and emotional journeys are the same." [37] Hardwicke suggested the use of voice over to convey Bella's internal dialogue [35] – since the novel is told from her point of view – and she sketched some of the storyboards during pre-production. [38]
The filmmakers behind Twilight worked to create a film that was as faithful to the novel as they thought possible when converting the story to another medium. Producer Greg Mooradian said, "It's very important to distinguish that we're making a separate piece of art that obviously is going to remain very, very faithful to the book. [...] But at the same time, we have a separate responsibility to make the best movie you can make." [39] To ensure a faithful adaptation, Meyer was kept very involved in the production process, having been invited to visit the set during filming and even asked to give notes on the script and on a rough cut of the film. [40] Of this process, she said, "It was a really pleasant exchange [between me and the filmmakers] from the beginning, which I think is not very typical. They were really interested in my ideas", [41] and "[...] they kept me in the loop and with the script, they let me see it and said, 'What are your thoughts?' [...] They let me have input on it and I think they took 90 percent of what I said and just incorporated it right into the script." [40] Meyer fought for one line in particular, one of the most well-known from the book about "the lion and the lamb", to be kept verbatim in the film: "I actually think the way Melissa [Rosenberg] wrote it sounded better for the movie [...] but the problem is that line is actually tattooed on peoples' bodies. [...] But I said, 'You know, if you take that one and change it, that's a potential backlash situation.'" [40] Meyer was even invited to create a written list of things that could not be changed for the film, such as giving the vampires fangs or killing characters who do not die in the book, that the studio agreed to follow in the contract. [40] [41] The consensus among critics is that the filmmakers succeeded in making a film that is very faithful to its source material, [42] [43] with one reviewer stating that, with a few exceptions, "Twilight the movie is unerringly faithful to the source without being hamstrung by it." [44]
However, as is most often the case with film adaptations, differences do exist between the film and source material. Certain scenes from the book were cut from the film, such as a biology room scene where Bella's class does blood typing. Hardwicke explains, "Well [the book is] almost 500 pages—you do have to do the sweetened condensed milk version of that. [...] We already have two scenes in biology: the first time they're in there and then the second time when they connect. For a film, when you condense, you don't want to keep going back to the same setting over and over. So that's not in there." [45] The settings of certain conversations in the book were also changed to make the scenes more "visually dynamic" on-screen, such as Bella's revelation that she knows Edward is a vampire—this happens in a meadow in the film instead of in Edward's car as in the novel. [45] A biology field trip scene is added to the film to condense the moments of Bella's frustration at trying to explain how Edward saved her from being crushed by a van. [39] The villainous vampires are introduced earlier in the film than in the novel. Rosenberg said "You don't really see James and the other villains until the last quarter of the book, which really won't work for a movie. You need that ominous tension right off the bat. We needed to see them and that impending danger from the start. And so I had to create a back story for them, what they were up to, to flesh them out a bit as characters." [35] Rosenberg also combined some of the human high school students, with Lauren Mallory and Jessica Stanley in the novel becoming the character of Jessica in the film, and a "compilation of a couple of different human characters" becoming Eric Yorkie. [36] About these variances from the book, Mooradian stated, "I think we did a really judicious job of distilling [the book]. Our greatest critic, Stephenie Meyer, loves the screenplay, and that tells me that we made all the right choices in terms of what to keep and what to lose. Invariably, you're going to lose bits and pieces that certain members of the audience are going to desperately want to see, but there's just a reality that we're not making 'Twilight: The Book' the movie." [39]
When they told me Rob was probably the one, I looked him up and thought, "Yeah, he can do a version of Edward. He’s definitely got that vampire thing going on." And then, when I was on set and I got to watch him go from being Rob to shifting into being Edward, and he actually looked like the Edward in my head, it was a really bizarre experience. [...] He really had it nailed.
Several actresses, including Lily Collins [46] and Jennifer Lawrence, [47] screen tested for the role of Bella Swan, while Frances Bean Cobain turned down the opportunity to audition for the role. [48] Hardwicke desired to test Kristen Stewart, who she had seen in Into the Wild and became her first choice for the part. Stewart eventually agreed to met Hardwicke while working on the film Adventureland , and Hardwicke visited her in Philadelphia with actor Jackson Rathbone, who was in contention to portray Edward Cullen, for an informal screen test that "captivated" the director. [27] [4] After casting Stewart as Bella, Hardwicke had trouble finding an actor otherworldly enough to play Edward Cullen. Rathbone, Shiloh Fernandez, Ben Barnes, and Robert Pattinson were the final four up for the role. [49] Hardwicke did not initially choose Pattinson for Edward Cullen, with him arriving at her house in Venice, Los Angeles for a test, according to Hardwicke, "kind of wild-looking" with "scraggly, black dyed hair, and a stain on his shirt", while also having, according to Pattinson, a "hairless, chubby body" from "drinking beer all day" for a few months. [50] After an audition on her bed, however, where Pattinson kissed Stewart for the screen test and fell out of the bed, he was selected. [27] [51] [4] Hardwicke said, "Kristen was like, 'It's got to be Rob!' She felt connected to him from the first moment. That electricity, or love at first sight, or whatever it is." Hardwicke gave him the part, as long as he got in shape and made a promise. "'You've got to realize that Kristen is 17 years old'", Hardwicke told him. "'She's underage. You've got to focus, dude, or you're going to be arrested.' I made him swear on a stack of Bibles." [51] Pattinson was unfamiliar with the book series prior to his screen test but read the books later on. [52] Meyer even allowed him to view a manuscript of the unfinished Midnight Sun , which chronicles the events in Twilight from Edward's point of view. [53] Fan reaction to Pattinson's casting as Edward was initially negative; Rachelle Lefèvre remarked that "[e]very woman had their own Edward [that] they had to let go of before they could open up to [him], which they did." [52] Meyer was "excited" and "ecstatic" in response to the casting of the two main characters. [54] She had expressed interest in having Emily Browning and Henry Cavill cast as Bella and Edward, respectively, prior to pre-production. [55]
Peter Facinelli was chosen to play Carlisle Cullen, though he was not the first choice by Summit, revealing, "Hardwicke liked me, but there was another actor that the studio was pushing for." [15] For unknown reasons, that actor was not able to play the part and Facinelli was selected in his place. [15] Elizabeth Reaser was hired as Esme Cullen, despite only knowing in the audition that the film was based on a novel. [56] Jackson Rathbone, who was in the final mix for Edward, was cast as Jasper Hale. The choice of Ashley Greene to portray Alice Cullen was the subject of fan criticism due to Greene being 7 inches (18 cm) taller than her character as described in the novel. Meyer had also stated that Rachael Leigh Cook resembled her vision of Alice. [57] Nikki Reed was cast as Rosalie Hale. Reed had previously worked with Hardwicke on Thirteen , which they wrote together, and Lords of Dogtown . Reed commented, "I don't want to say it's a coincidence, because we do work well together, and we have a great history. I think we make good work, but it's more than the people that hire [Hardwicke] to direct a film of theirs [have] most likely seen her other work." [58] After an open casting call, Taylor Lautner was cast as Jacob Black. [59] Kellan Lutz was in Africa shooting the HBO miniseries Generation Kill when the auditions for the character of Emmett Cullen were conducted. The role had already been cast by the time that pre-production ended in December 2007, but the actor who had been selected "fell through"; Lutz subsequently auditioned and was flown to Oregon, where Hardwicke personally chose him. [60] Rachelle Lefèvre was interested in pursuing a role in the film because Hardwicke was attached to the project as director; there was also "the potential to explore a character, hopefully, over three films"; and she wanted to portray a vampire. [61] She "thought that vampires were basically the best metaphor for human anxiety and questions about being alive." [61] Christian Serratos initially auditioned for Jessica Stanley, but she "fell totally in love with Angela" after reading the novels and successfully took advantage of a later opportunity to audition for Angela Weber. [62] The role of Jessica Stanley went to Anna Kendrick, who got the part after two mix-and-match auditions with various actors. [63]
Principal photography took 44 days, [6] after more than a week of rehearsals, [64] and completed on May 2, 2008. [7] Similar to her directorial debut Thirteen, Hardwicke opted for an extensive use of hand-held cinematography to make the film "feel real". [15] [65] Meyer visited the production set three times and was consulted on different aspects of the story; [66] she also has a brief cameo in the film. [67] Cast members who portrayed vampires avoided sunlight to make their skin pale, though makeup was also applied for that effect, and wore contact lenses: "We did the golden color because the Cullens have those golden eyes. And then, when we're hungry, we have to pop the black ones in," Facinelli explained. [15] They also participated in rehearsals with a dance choreographer and observed the physicality of different panthera to make their bodily movements more elegant. [15] [57] [68]
Scenes were filmed primarily in Portland, Oregon, [8] including at the Cullen House, a striking glass-and-wood residence. [69] Stunt work was done mainly by the cast. [70] The fight sequence between Gigandet and Pattinson's characters in a ballet studio, which was filmed during the first week of production, involved a substantial amount of wire work because the vampires in the story have superhuman strength and speed. [68] Gigandet incorporated mixed martial arts fighting moves in this sequence, which involved chicken and honey as substitutes for flesh. [71] Bella, the protagonist, is unconscious during these events, and since the novel is told from her point of view, such action sequences are illustrative and unique to the film. [52] Pattinson noted that maintaining one's center of gravity is difficult when doing wire work "because you have to really fight against it as well as letting it do what it needs to do." [52] Lefèvre found the experience disorienting since the forward motion was out of her control. [52]
Instead of shooting at Forks High School itself, scenes taking place at the school were filmed at Kalama High School [72] and Leodis V. McDaniel High School. [73] Other scenes were filmed in St. Helens, [74] and Hardwicke conducted some reshooting in Pasadena, California, in August. [6] [75] Twilight was originally scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on December 12, 2008, but its release date was changed to November 21 after Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was rescheduled for an opening in July 2009. [76] Two teaser trailers, as well as some additional scenes, were released for the film, as well as a final trailer, which was released on October 9. [77] [78] A 15-minute excerpt of Twilight was presented during the International Rome Film Festival in Italy. [79] The film received a rating of PG-13 from the Motion Picture Association of America for "some violence and a scene of sensuality". [80]
The score for Twilight was composed by Carter Burwell, [81] [82] with the rest of the soundtrack chosen by music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas. [83] Meyer was consulted on the soundtrack, which includes music by Muse and Linkin Park, bands she listened to while writing the novels. [84] [85] The original soundtrack was released on November 4, 2008, by Chop Shop Records in conjunction with Atlantic Records. [12] It debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200. [86]
Twilight grossed over $7 million in ticket sales from midnight showings alone on November 21, 2008. [87] The film is fifth overall on Fandango's list of top advance ticket sales, outranked only by its sequel the following year, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). [87] It grossed $35.7 million on its opening day. [88] For its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, Twilight accumulated $69.6 million from 3,419 theaters at an average of $20,368 per theater. [89] The film grossed $192,769,854 in the United States and Canada, and $214,417,861 in international territories for a total of $407,187,715. [5] Its opening weekend gross was the highest ever of a female-directed film, surpassing that of Deep Impact (1998). [90]
Based on 223 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 49% and a weighted average score of 5.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Having lost much of its bite transitioning to the big screen, Twilight will please its devoted fans, but do little for the uninitiated." [91] On Metacritic, it has a weighted mean score of 56 based on 38 reviews from film critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [92] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. [93]
New York Press critic Armond White called the film "a genuine pop classic", [94] and praised Hardwicke for turning "Meyer's book series into a Brontë-esque vision." [95] Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "I saw it at a sneak preview. Last time I saw a movie in that same theater, the audience welcomed it as an opportunity to catch up on gossip, texting, and laughing at private jokes. This time the audience was rapt with attention". [96] In his review for the Los Angeles Times , Kenneth Turan wrote, "Twilight is unabashedly a romance. All the story's inherent silliness aside, it is intent on conveying the magic of meeting that one special person you've been waiting for. Maybe it is possible to be 13 and female for a few hours after all". [97] USA Today gave the film two out of four stars and Claudia Puig wrote, "Meyer is said to have been involved in the production of Twilight, but her novel was substantially more absorbing than the unintentionally funny and quickly forgettable film". [98] Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating and Owen Gleiberman praised Hardwicke's direction: "She has reconjured Meyer's novel as a cloudburst mood piece filled with stormy skies, rippling hormones, and understated visual effects". [99]
The film was released on DVD in North America on March 21, 2009, through midnight release parties, and sold over 3 million units in its first day. [100] It was released on April 6, 2009, in the UK. [101] [102] Bonus features include about 10 to 12 extended or deleted scenes, montages and music videos, behind-the-scenes interviews, a "making-of" segment, and commentary featuring Hardwicke, Stewart, and Pattinson. [103] [104] The Blu-ray disc edition of the film was released on March 21, 2009, in select locations, but was made more widely available at further retailers on May 5, 2009. [105] As of July 2012, the film has sold 11,242,519 units, earning $201,190,019. [106]
The film and the next two installments of the Twilight Saga were rereleased as a triple feature with extended cuts on January 13, 2015.
Twilight was released on 4K Blu-ray on October 23, 2018. [107]
A film trivia video game developed by Screenlife Games and published by Konami for the Wii, Nintendo DS, PC and iPhone was released alongside the second film.
Since its release, Twilight has received numerous nominations and awards. In January 2009, Carter Burwell was nominated for Film Composer of the Year by the International Film Music Critics Association. [108] Robert Pattinson won Bravo TV's A-List Award for A-List Breakout. [109] At the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, Pattinson, who was nominated alongside Taylor Lautner, also won an award for Male Breakthrough Performance, "Decode" was nominated for Best Song from a Movie, Twilight won an award for Best Movie, Kristen Stewart won for Best Female performance, Stewart and Pattinson were awarded Best Kiss, and Pattinson and Cam Gigandet won an award for Best Fight. [110] [111] Christian Serratos won a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film: Supporting Young Actress. [112] For the 2009 Teen Choice Awards, held on August 9, the film and its actors received a combined total of 12 nominations, nine of which the film won. [113] At the 2009 Scream Awards, the film was nominated for nine awards, four of which it won. [114] The film won two ALMA Awards for makeup and hairstyling. [115] It also won the Public Choice Award at the World Soundtrack Awards, where Carter Burwell was also nominated for Composer of the Year. [116] Catherine Hardwicke received a Young Hollywood Award for her directing. [117] In addition, the film was nominated for Best Fantasy Film at the 35th Saturn Awards [118] and two Grammy Awards. [119]
In 2015, Lionsgate released an extended edition that was over 4 minutes longer. It edits into the movie scenes already released as "Deleted Scenes" on previous DVD releases. [120]
MTV reported in February 2008 that Summit Entertainment intended to create a series of at least three films based on Meyer's books. [13] The studio had optioned New Moon , the second book in the series, by October 2008, [121] and confirmed their plans to make a film based on it November 22, 2008. [122] [123] Because Catherine Hardwicke had wanted more preparation time than Summit's schedule for the production and release of the sequel would provide, [124] [125] Chris Weitz was selected to direct it in December 2008. [126] [127]
Twilight is a 2005 young adult vampire-romance novel by author Stephenie Meyer. It is the first book in the Twilight series, and introduces seventeen-year-old Isabella "Bella" Swan, who moves from Phoenix, Arizona, to Forks, Washington. She is endangered after falling in love with Edward Cullen, a 103-year-old vampire frozen in his 17-year-old body. Additional novels in the series are New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.
Stephenie Meyer is an American author and film producer. She is best known for writing the vampire romance book series Twilight, which has sold over 160 million copies, with translations into 49 different languages. She was the bestselling author of 2008 and 2009 in the United States, having sold over 29 million books in 2008 and 26.5 million in 2009.
Cam Gigandet is an American actor whose credits include a recurring role on The O.C. and appearances in feature films Twilight, Pandorum, Never Back Down, Burlesque, Easy A, Priest, and The Magnificent Seven. He also starred in the CBS legal drama series Reckless. From 2016 to 2018, Gigandet starred in the Audience Network drama series Ice.
New Moon is a 2006 romantic fantasy novel by author Stephenie Meyer. The second installment in the Twilight series, the novel continues the story of Bella Swan and her relationship with vampire Edward Cullen as she enters her senior year of high school. When Edward leaves Bella after his brother attacks her, she is left heartbroken and depressed for months until Jacob Black becomes her best friend. However, her life twists once more when Jacob's nature reveals itself and Edward's sister decides to visit.
Eclipse is the third novel in the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. It continues the story of Bella Swan and her vampire love, Edward Cullen. The novel explores Bella's compromise between her love for Edward and her friendship with shape-shifter Jacob Black, along with her dilemma of leaving her mortality behind in a terrorized atmosphere, a result of mysterious vampire attacks in Seattle.
Isabella "Bella" Marie Cullen is the protagonist character of the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer. She is initially an ordinary teenage girl, but during the series, Bella falls in love and marries a vampire Edward Cullen, with whom she has a human-vampire hybrid daughter, Renesmee Cullen. The Twilight series, consisting of the novels Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, is primarily narrated from Bella's point of view. In The Twilight Saga film series, Bella is portrayed by actress Kristen Stewart.
Edward Cullen is a character in the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer. He is featured in the novels Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, and their corresponding film adaptations, and the novel Midnight Sun—a re-telling of the events of Twilight from Edward's perspective. Edward is a telepathic vampire who, over the course of the series, falls in love with, marries, and fathers a child with Bella Swan, a human teenager who later chooses to become a vampire as well. In the films, Edward is played by actor Robert Pattinson.
Jacob Black is a character in the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer. He is described as an attractive Native American of the Quileute tribe in La Push, near Forks, Washington. In the second book of the series, New Moon, he discovers that he is a therianthrope who can shapeshift into a wolf. For the majority of the series, Jacob competes with Edward Cullen for Bella Swan's love. In The Twilight Saga film series, Jacob is played by Taylor Lautner.
Midnight Sun is a 2020 companion novel to the 2005 book Twilight by author Stephenie Meyer. The work retells the events of Twilight from the perspective of Edward Cullen instead of that of the series' usual narrating character Bella Swan. Meyer stated that Twilight was to be the only book from the series that she planned to rewrite from Edward's perspective. To give them a better feel of Edward's character, Meyer allowed Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the film adaptation of Twilight, and Robert Pattinson, the actor playing Edward, to read some completed chapters of the novel while they shot the film. It was released on August 4, 2020.
Twilight is a series of four fantasy romance novels, two companion novels, and one novella written by American author Stephenie Meyer. Released annually from 2005 through 2008, the four novels chart the later teen years of Bella Swan, a girl who moves to Forks, Washington, from Phoenix, Arizona and falls in love with a 104-year-old vampire named Edward Cullen. The series is told primarily from Bella's point of view, with the epilogue of Eclipse and the second part of Breaking Dawn being told from the viewpoint of character Jacob Black, a werewolf. A novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, which tells the story of a newborn vampire who appeared in Eclipse, was published on 2010. The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, a definitive encyclopedic reference with nearly 100 full color illustrations, was released in bookstores in 2011. In 2015, Meyer published a new novel in honor of the 10th anniversary of the book series, Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, with the genders of the original protagonists switched. Midnight Sun, a retelling of the first book, Twilight, from Edward Cullen's point of view, was published in 2020.
Twilight: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the official soundtrack to Twilight, released on November 4, 2008.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon is a 2009 American romantic fantasy film directed by Chris Weitz from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2006 novel New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. The sequel to Twilight (2008), it is the second installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively.
Breaking Dawn is the 2008 fourth novel in The Twilight Saga by American author Stephenie Meyer. Divided into three parts, the first and third sections are written from Bella Swan's perspective, and the second is written from the perspective of Jacob Black. The novel directly follows the events of the previous novel, Eclipse, as Bella and Edward Cullen get married, leaving behind a heartbroken Jacob. When Bella faces unexpected and life-threatening situations, she willingly risks her human life and possible vampire immortality.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is a 2010 American romantic fantasy film directed by David Slade. It was written by Melissa Rosenberg and was adapted from Stephenie Meyer's 2007 novel Eclipse. The sequel to The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), it is the third installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively. Bryce Dallas Howard joins the cast as returning character Victoria, who was previously portrayed by Rachelle Lefevre in the first two films.
The Twilight Saga is a series of romance fantasy films based on the book series Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. The series has grossed over $3.36 billion worldwide. The first installment, Twilight, was released on November 21, 2008. The second installment, New Moon, followed on November 20, 2009. The third installment, Eclipse, was released on June 30, 2010. The fourth installment, Breaking Dawn – Part 1, was released on November 18, 2011, while the fifth and final installment, Breaking Dawn – Part 2, was released on November 16, 2012.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is a 2011 American romantic fantasy film directed by Bill Condon from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2008 novel Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. It is the sequel to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) and the fourth installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively.
Twilight: The Graphic Novel is a two-part comic book miniseries by Young Kim, an adaptation of the first thirteen chapters of the 2005 novel Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Volume 2 was released on October 11, 2011. In October 2012 Volume 1 and Volume 2 were put into one book for a collectors edition that included extras in the back of the book about 5 of the characters. On April 23, 2013, volume one of the New Moon: The Graphic Novel came out.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is a 2012 American romantic fantasy film directed by Bill Condon from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2008 novel Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. It is the sequel to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011) and the fifth and final installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively; Mackenzie Foy portrays Renesmee Cullen. The ensemble cast includes Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Ashley Greene, Michael Sheen, and Dakota Fanning.