KEY POINTS:
Teen angst is alive and well, or at least undead, as indicated by the US$70 million opening weekend in the states of the much-hyped Twilight.
This is the first big screen adaptation from the best-selling vampire novels by Stephenie Meyer. Not bad for a low budget indie movie deemed by many as "just a 14-year-old chick flick," "Harry Potter for girls" and an an antidote to the squeaky clean High School Musicals.
Director Catherine Hardwick, who, judging by her track record knows a
thing or two about teen spirit (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown, The Nativity Story) injects some dark, edgy appeal, into what would otherwise be a cheesy adolescent love story. And although the special effects are not exactly state-of-the-art, it should be noted that the
movie was made for a low budget of US$37 million.
Brit Robert Pattinson (who played the ill-fated Cedric in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) is the latest pin-up boy du jour to
adorn the bedroom walls of young teens all over the world. He seems bemused by all the fuss.
Says Pattinson of his role as Edward Cullen, the charismatic 08-year-old
vampire, "When I first got the role, I thought it would be this really cool, independent, low budget movie with a director whose previous movies I loved. But then there was all this buzz on the internet about how unhappy fans of the book were with me being cast. They said I wasn't a good fit to play Edward.
"So, I was pretty terrified about what I'd signed on to do." (It seems there's something about vampires that send fans into a furore over casting decisions - in 1994 there was much ado about nothing when Tom
Cruise scored the role of the vampire Lestat in Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire - and went on to be a hit, regardless).
Twilight's anti-hero, the vampire Edward, is one of the "good" ones. As the story goes, he's a member of the legendary Cullen family, a
group of immortal blood drinkers. He avoids the killing of humans by
drinking the blood of animals - the vampiric version of a vegetarian lifestyle.
It's understandable that pre-sexually active, adolescent girls are
attracted to the idea of this otherworldly story full of sexual frustration, and, ultimate abstinence. Schoolgirls can also feel the
safety in watching an androgynous man-boy with feminine, unthreatening
features.
Says Pattinson, "I hadn't read the books before I started filming and didn't realise the obsession people had. I still don't really understand it," he says, running his hands through his signature chaotic hairstyle.
"But now that I've read some reviews about my performance, I'm relieved. But people were pretty mean initially," he laughs.
Says director Hardwicke: "Honestly, I wasn't worried. I knew that
the fans would love Rob when they saw him. He's very unique and very
special and intense and interesting. I told him not to read the internet."
The casting process was extremely labour-intensive. Says Hardwick "We looked everywhere. Let me tell you, there are some great looking guys but they looked ordinary, boy-next-door types. Edward needed to be from another world. He had to be extraordinary," she says.
Casting the heroine, Bella Swan, was just as vital. The novels are written through her eyes in a way that the reader can relate to on a very intimate level, almost a voyeuristic experience, akin to reading
someone's diary. Kristen Stewart is perfectly cast as the angsty, intense young girl who falls for Edward's charms. She has an essence
about her - a "not fitting in with the rest of the world" quality to which most teen girls can relate.
Pattinson concurs. After reading the novels, he thought there was a lot
more to them than just another blood-sucking mythology. "I didn't see it as a vampire story at all. And it's not just a love story, either. It's about outsiders. What makes it interesting is Bella. She can't connect to her world. She shouldn't be where she is, and also, Edward should also be somewhere else. That's the parallel between them."
Like Stewart's onscreen character, the 18-year-old born and raised Californian is not your usual burgeoning Hollywood movie star. Intelligent and endowed with a no-fuss, no-nonsense demeanour, Stewart took to the role of Bella as though it were written for her.
She first came to attention alongside Jodie Foster in Panic Room, and has since appeared in many movies including: Into the Wild, In the Land of Women, and Cold Creek Manor.
Says Hardwicke, "When I saw Kristen in Into the Wild, and I saw this teenage girl sitting in her trailer, I could just feel her heart pounding and this palpable tension and yearning and desire, I really liked her immediately."
In person, Stewart is the antithesis of what we've come to regard as the
typical "young Hollywood starlet", the likes of Lindsay Lohan. She says, "I couldn't think of anything less fun than going out to clubs every night and running around without my underwear on. That is definitely not me.
"I can't entertain that thought about being famous. I've always been
considered a quaint younger actor who's good, but won't pull any money
into the theatres. I can't buy into the fame thing. I don't get recognised and I don't really expect that will change. I'm very low-profile," she says.
Time will tell. Despite what she may think, like Pattinson, their days of anonymity are already becoming a distant past.
Stewart pauses often and for what seems endless moments before answering
questions and comes across as a very serious young woman. Her litany of
intense roles has become her calling card.
"I'm not interested in doing romantic comedies. It would be much more work for me to do a role that was empty because then you become the writer as well, and that's not what I signed on to do. It's not like I want to only work on emotionally gruelling parts, but even when you don't think it will be, it turns out that way anyway. Like for Twilight, I didn't think it was going to be difficult but it turned out to be more complicated than I first thought."
The movie was shot primarily in Vancouver, and the story is set against
the backdrop of contemporary high school in a small town, Forks,
Washington. Says Hardwicke, "I'd been hiking in Vancouver and I really
love rich strange green moss and big old oak trees and I thought these pale, beautiful vampires were striking against this setting. We've all seen vampires in urban cities - in Paris and London - but we've never
seen them in nature."
With its commercial success, it's of course no surprise that the next two sequels are already in the works, New Moon, and Eclipse, (the second and third novels respectively). With a heftier budget, the lead actors have hit paydirt - reportedly earning US$12 million each, a big leap from their $2 million salaries on Twilight. Let's hope some of that money goes into the special effects next time.
What: Twilight - the first movie from the best-selling vampire novels by Stephenie Meyer
When & where: Previews from today and opens Boxing Day
