Coincidences. Usually they're just that: unexplainable chance connections. But when things happen so close together, I can't help but wonder if something more isn't at play. Take for example this strange set of events that unfolded not five minutes ago.
I was making my way through my RSS reader. It's always the same order: real life friends, online friends, technology, writers. I was reading news on Stephenie Meyer's website about her new novella titled "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner" (I won't bore you with the details but you can read them here if you're interested) when, two paragraphs into the story I hear Tom Allen, the host of CBC Radio 2's Shift, the station that is always playing at the office, bring up news of the new book. The same book I'm reading about. Coincidental timing indeed but nothing particularly weird. Until I scrolled down the page on Meyer's site to the cover of the new book. Check it out:
Well, if you're at all familiar with one of my side projects, Before the Dawn: A Twilight Podcast, you may recognize that hourglass concept. If not, here's our logo:
Admittedly there isn't anything particularly weird about these two things happening but something about the fact that they occurred so close together have me a bit on edge. What's next I wonder?
A new trailer for "New Moon" is scheduled to hit the public on Friday in front of "Bandslam" but the folks at Summit have released 14 seconds of the trailer in an effort to excite the fans (like we really needed any more fuel).
Not new footage, it's a shot bit that was screened at Comic Con, but it's something. Sadly, it will fail to elevate the excitement of a large chunk of the fanbase as it's a Jacob scene. What about Team Edward damn it!
As expected, the New Moon cast was in town for a few days for pre-production work (meaning preparation for filming). Though the crew wasn't on set, they weren't holed up in some hotel room either. They were spotted and pictures snapped everywhere from Robson and Granville Streets to hanging out outside their trailers.
At this point, it sounds like everyone's left for a bit but will be back. Will share more information as it becomes available.
I'd heard via the grapevine of a "New Moon" filming location but I didn't want to post it until I had confirmation and now I've been given the word.
"New Moon" will start shooting at Van Tech in March. At this point it's not clear what sort of filming in going on - I'm assuming it's only principal photography but it has been confirmed. Feelers are out to find the dates but at the moment, all I know is March. If you have a tip, be sure to leave a comment or drop me a line.
By this point, you already know that "Twilight" is coming to DVD on March 21st but along with the release of the Two Disc Special Edition there are also a number of Collector's Editions available through a number of retailers. As of this morning, I'm aware of two different editions.
Borders Exclusive Edition
The Borders Exclusive Edition includes the 2 Disc SE along with a bonus DVD which includes:
• Exclusive Twilight Cast Interviews with Kristen Stewart (Bella) and Robert Pattinson (Edward)
• Exclusive Twilight Cast Interviews with Cam Gigandet (James)
• Exclusive Twilight Cast Interviews with Edi Gathegi (Laurent) and Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria)
• Exclusive Red-Carpet Interviews from the Twilight Movie Premiere
• Exclusive Never-Before-Seen Red-Carpet Footage! Includes extra interview footage with Kellan Lutz (Emmett), Ashley Greene (Alice), rock band Paramore, and Nikki Reed (Rosalie)
• Exclusive Borders Book Club: Stephenie Meyer talks about the Twilight Saga
Exclusive Photocards
10 exclusive photocards are printed on a gorgeous pearlescent paper to give a dramatic sparkly effect—the perfect way to view your favorite vampires
That edition is available only through Borders at a cost of $29.99 which is only $5 dollars more than the list price for the Standard 2 Disc release.
Since I don't have a Blu-ray player and I don't care much for jewelry, I skipped out on the Amazon offer for the Border's offer instead. Plus, $70US is a little hefty for my wallet.
Hot Topic Release
Hot Topic is releasing the 2 Disc special edition at the same cost of most retailers ($24.99) but as an added bonus, you get:
Barnes & Noble is releasing the 2 Disc special edition for $26.39 but as an added bonus, you get:
• Customizable Twilight Skin for your cell phone, PDA or MP3 player (individual code redeemable at Skinit.com)
You can PLACE YOUR ORDER HERE. If you find any other Collector's Editions, please let me know. I'll provide updates as more become available.
NOTE:Apparently the Special Edition Blu-Ray disc will only be availabe on March 21st via Best Buy and Target (though neither site has the DVD listed for pre-sale) and then to all other retailers on May 5th. This seems like a bit of a moronic move but I'm sure they've got their reasons. Also note that they've added a new feature (to the Blu-Ray edition at least): "BD Live with "New Moon" teaser" - whatever that means.
It was announced in various places yesterday that the publishers are looking to cash in further on the "Twilight" fandom by releasing "Twilight: Director's Notebook". Put together by Catherine Hardwicke, it's essentially a mass produced reproduction of Hardwicke's notebook which she used throughout production on the film. According to Stephenie Meyer's website:
This intimate look on making the movie will include inside secrets on everything from casting to wardrobe along with personal notes from Catherine and behind-the-scenes photographs.
The book goes on sale on March 17th and is now available for pre-order from a number of online retailers.
I chose the Borders option since I had a coupon but the no brainer is Amazon and combined with a few other purchases (the "Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion" would make a handsome purchase) you may get over into the free shipping threshold.
In my daily trek through the interweb, I came across a great article by Bryan White who is the editor at the excellent Cinema Suicide. He wrote a great piece for Geek Force Five in which he examines this "new breed of vampire" looking specifically at the vampires currently at the fore-front of the entertainment world: the "Twilgiht Vampires" and the "True Blood"/Sookie Stockhouse phenomenon.
It's an excellently written, well though out look at the current state of vampires which includes a musing on why these specific types of vampires are so popular in today's culture. Read the article here.
I heart the bunnies. And here they are performing "Twilight" in the usual style; in 30 seconds.
Unfortunately, the folks at Starz don't believe in sharing so you have to head over there to check out the goodness, at least until someone adds it to YouTube.
UPDATE: It keeps getting added and deleted. Here's the most recent upload.
So we already know about the release on March 21st (did you check out my totally kickin' counter? OK, it's only kinda cool. Actually, it's a tad cheesy but oh well) and we have another update, this time on what's going to be includingon the 2 Disc DVD.
Since speculation about this has been so high, I decided that the short announcement required its very own post. According to Stephenie herself, Taylor Lautner will be returning to reprise his role as Jacob in "New Moon".
I'm very happy to announce that Taylor Lautner will be playing Jacob Black in New Moon and that he's doing so with the enthusiastic support of Summit Entertainment, the producers, and Stephenie Meyer.
The characters in Stephenie's books go through extraordinary changes of circumstance and also appearance; so it is not surprising that there has been speculation about whether the same actor would portray a character who changes in so many surprising ways throughout the series. But it was my first instinct that Taylor was, is, and should be Jacob, and that the books would be best served by the actor who is emotionally right for the part. I think that fans of Twilight the book and the movie will be surprised by the Jacob Black that Taylor will bring to the screen in New Moon; and I'm looking forward to working with him and the rest of the cast in realizing the film.
very best
Chris Weitz
Good news indeed. I guess all of the lobbying paid off!
Still no release date or specs on the DVD but Summit has released the cover art for the 2 disc special edition release of "Twilight".
Slightly disappointed that they've gone with something so generic but it was to be expected. I haven't been able to track down any other details but will post them as soon as they're available.
Turns out that this is turning into a bit of a "Twilight" blog and apparently, I have all the answers. Well, I don't have all the answers - I'm just a fan yet, I've had a few people contact me about the DVD release of the film. I posted a few details earlier but in case you missed it...
I have no idea when the film will be released. In an interview, Catherine mentioned Spring of 2009 and there's been talk of a release between February and April though if I had to guess, I'm thinking later in the year considering the film is still doing so well in theatres.
As for the DVD itself, Hardwicke has talked about a number of deleted scenes which will appear on the DVD release including a scene from "Midnight Sun". You can check out all the details of that from an interview at MTV. Unfortunately, that interview isn't available to folks outside the US and I can't seem to find it on YouTube but if you know where it's at, please leave a link in the comments section. I found this but it appears to be only a portion of the interview.
If you're really keen, you can already Pre-Order the DVD from Amazon.ca.
The nice folks at Twilight Novel Novice have posted some cool Christmas themed Twilight desktops which are kind of fun along with some graphics that could be used in personalized Christmas cards that are sure to make your fellow fangrils scream with joy and glee.
On the shopping front, the Borders Twilight Shop has some cool items - I'm particularly fond of the messenger bag but as anyone who know me can tell you, I need a new bag like I need a hole in the head.
As for the kid with everythign "Twilight", why not expand the horizons? Here's a good list of other books, movies and even TV shows that might be of interest to a fan. I'd like to add Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" to the list.
And if you're still looking for something unique, be sure to check out eBay. There are thousands of "Twilight" related items and there's still a little time to shop and make the Christmas delivery cut-off.
Early, very early (maybe too early) this morning, I read a great article written by Kim Voynarover at Cinematical regarding the "Breaking Dawn" backlash that I mentioned yesterday.
I considered simply posting this on Twitter but I thought it might be of interest to others who may be curious about the developing situation and who don't follow me or read Cinematical regularly. It's an interesting read, one that I agree with nearly 100% and Kim brings up and expands on a few of my thougths. Definitely worth checking out.
Sunday afternoon I devoted 2 solid hours of my day to "reading time", something I haven't done in a few months. With a stack of DVD's sitting on the coffee table, I curled up instead with a blanket and the last 300 pages of Stephenie Meyer's "Breaking Dawn".
I wasn't going to write anything extensive about the book, mostly because it was brain candy, but after reading something about the backlash for the book, I thought it may be worthwile to add my two cents. One of the reasons the "Twilight" series has been so popular has been the fact that it features an epic romance. It has nothing on Diana Gabaldon's Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall romance (now that's epic romance right there) but there's a certain innocence in Bella and Edward's relationship and the "can't have that" threads that run through the first three books are what really kept me interested. I always assumed it was just good storytelling - an impossible love - but I was not surprised to find out later, much later infact, that Meyer is very religious and thinking back to the novels, it was clear that she was purposefully keeping things relatively clean.
The other selling point was the female protagonist though to be honest, Bella stood out to me as someone girls would latch on to. She was awkward and sensitive and managed to get the perfect guy which could have some appeal to girls but other than that, she seemed a bit too meek for me - if I want to read about strong young women I'll turn to Tamora Pierce, so it didn't surprise me much when in "Breaking Dawn", Bella comes across much the same way as she did in the previous books: needy. Surprisingly, Meyer also infuses her with a streak of intelligence and power. Not a bad thing: we all have secret powers if we only know how to tap into them.
What I didn't expect was that people would latch onto the pregnancy part of the story so darn much. So yes, there is a clear anti-abortion message here but is that necessarily a bad thing? Could one not argue that it's pro-choice since Bella chose to continue carrying the baby? Worse still, do we really want to ruin a perfectly good and innocent story by looking into it this deeply? Depending on which side of the fence you're on, you could argue the series from both sides of the fence - there's plenty of fodder for both, but is that really necessary? I don't think it is.
Because I don't agree with the backlash, doesn't mean I absolutely loved the book. Yes, it kept me enthralled for a few hours and I loved re-entering the Cullen's lives but to be honest, the story took a turn I wasn't expecting and didn't much like. I preferred the danger of Bella and Edward's relationship. Take out the danger and I pretty much didn't care anymore. The entire thing became about the pregnancy and the resulting baby and to be honest, I didn't much care. I would have rather followed Alice and Jasper on their search but I'll take what I can get.
I still haven't managed to get through "The Host", it simply didn't suck me in like "Twilight" did and to be honest, I have a sad little feeling that Meyer will be unable to write anything worthwile outside of Twilight Series. I can see a few more not-so-well received books being pumped out before she decides to return to the Cullen's. Until then, I'm sure I'll find something else of interest - "Uglies" has come highly recommended and "Zombie Blondes" sounds interesting. I also have 2 bookshelves crammed with material...
I read something yesterday which really surprised me. I knew that Stephenie Meyer's closing to the so-called "Twilight Saga" would be a big seller but I'm not sure anyone expected it to sell quite this well. In fact, there were so many pre-orders that the publisher printed a second run of 500,000 books before the launch on Saturday. What really blew my mind were some numbers I read over at Scifi Wire regarding the sales of this in comparison to the last Harry Potter. According to the numbers, "Breaking Dawn" sold 1.3 million copies in the 24 hour period after it's release at 12:01 on Saturday morning. Loads right? Peanuts in com parison to Rowling's megaton bomb "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" which sold 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours in the United States alone. Holy mother. That's a truckload of books. Rowling is the Spielberg of the book world. I haven't looked at the numbers but I'm willing to guess that the only other book to even rival Rowling's domination is the Bible.
My search for the book was a bit of a disaster. I started off on Saturday morning at Costco who had all of the other books in the series (I nearly re-bought them all - I'll have to do that next weekend) but not the new one. Wal-Mart didn't have them either. I spent the afternoon out and about so I didn't have a chance to stop anywhere else. I knew I was in trouble when I spotted a little girl of about 14, at Ridgestock holding the book. I made a bit of a scene with hubby, more as a joke than anything else.
I did manage to finally lay my hands on the book on Sunday morning when Cuz and I met hubby out at the car show in Coquitlam. There was a Chapters accross the street with an entire wall of books so I managed to pick-up my copy. I've been trying very hard to be reasonable about the reading schedule so I haven't been staying up late or anything but I have been overlooking things like DVD's and podcasts. I'll get to that at some point next week.
In the meantime, I have some thoughts about the book so far. There will be some ****MAJOR**** spoilers after the picture so if you plan on reading the book, you may want to skip the rest of this.
So I'm a little over 200 pages in and the following has all happened:
Bella and Edward are married
Bella and Edward have had sex (this is where the imagination comes into play since Meyer gives you very little - she's good that way)
Bella is pregnant
Bella is dying
Jacob has left the pack
Ummmmm, where the heck is she going with this?!?! I'm not confused but I'm anxious to find out what happens next. *sigh* it's a few hours before lunch which means a few hours before I get back to it.
has the book listed at the cheapest price: $10.70
" would make a handsome purchase) you may get over into the free shipping threshold.
