InfoAnda - `Twilight' time: Vamp tale seeks blockbuster bite

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Justin Masterson pitches Tribe to longest win streak in three years | 10 April 2011
UK's Brown under pressure in European, local polls | International | | 4 June 2009
Asean to hold roadshow in the US | 5 March 2011

Dario Fo pays tribute to fellow playwright Harold Pinter | 27 December 2008

">Forum Views () ">Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : `Twilight' time: Vamp tale seeks blockbuster bite

Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Asia Pacific World Search Search: `Twilight' time: Vamp tale seeks blockbuster bite By DAVID GERMAIN,AP Movie Writer AP - Monday, November 17 LOS ANGELES - Girl-meets-boy stories are not the usual stuff of Hollywood blockbusters, even when it's girl-meets-vampire. Neither are stories created by women, with a predominantly female audience, shot on a bargain budget with a cast of relative unknowns and released by an independent distributor trying to establish a niche among Hollywood's half-dozen studio behemoths. Yet Summit Entertainment has good reason to believe "Twilight" will have more box-office bite than your typical teen soap about an awkward high school babe and her cool new mystery beau. "Twilight" has a few stunts and clever visuals, but it's far from the special-effects extravaganzas that dominate the movie business. It was shot for $37 million, a pittance compared with big studio movies that can cost four or five times more. What "Twilight" does offer is epic star-crossed romance, melodrama, peril, an attractive young cast and an action-packed finale. But mostly, it has arguably the most passionate fan base of any literary adaptation since Harry Potter. "It's like a little bizarre, little perfect-storm phenomenon," said "Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke, who began working on the project less than two years ago and has since seen the books grow from earnest cult status to rabid international fan base. "I knew some people loved it, but I didn't know it would get this kind of crazy buzz." "Twilight" tells the story of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), an introspective teen who moves from sunny Phoenix to cloudy Forks, Wash., to live with her divorced dad. At her new school, she is swept up in a supernatural romance with aloof Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), part of a family of eternally young vampires fighting their nature by refusing to feed off humans. Danger looms: Bella and Edward must keep their passion in check so he won't succumb to the desire to drink her blood. Meantime, he and his family are forced into action to protect Bella against a savage band of roving vampires. The chief creative forces behind "Twilight" are women: director Hardwicke, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg ("Step Up," TV's "Dexter") and author Stephenie Meyer, whose four books in the "Twilight" series have sold 18 million copies. Schoolgirls were the first in the "Twilight" fold, drawn in by the all-consuming obsessiveness of Bella and Edward's forbidden love. "Twilight" reads like a confessional, a young girl's diary loaded with compulsive detail and teen angst. "I was convinced before I ever met Stephenie that she was a mad person who completely believed she was Bella, and this was just her fantasy," said Pattinson, best known for playing Cedric Diggory in two of the "Harry Potter" films. "It's kind of like voyeurism. ... It seems like it's something like a fan-fiction thing, which was never intended to be read by anyone." That was the exact intention of Meyer, who wrote "Twilight" late at night while her husband and children slept. Inspired by a dream she had about a "normal girl and a beautiful vampire that was in love with her and wanted to kill her," Meyer said she created the story for an audience of one. "No one was going to read it except for me. That's probably why it comes across as so intimate," Meyer said. "It was a story I wrote for one person to be exactly what I wanted to read at that point in my life, the escape that I wanted. And I stepped into this character's shoes, who was very different from me, and I got to live someone else's life. For me, that's what writing is." Things happened fast once she decided to publish "Twilight." Even before the book came out, Hollywood came calling. An early version of the script turned the intimate story into a standard action movie, with Bella transformed from solitary teen to an outgoing track star who ends up "strapping on a gun and night vision goggles to go vampire hunting," Meyer said. Summit Entertainment, a production outfit that had just expanded to film distribution, took over the project after it was shelved by MTV Films. Hardwicke, who made the acclaimed teen drama "thirteen," came aboard to direct, and the gun-toting Bella was scrapped in favor of a faithful adaptation of Meyer's novel. Since then, the project has taken a seemingly charmed course. Sales of the books surged. The audience broadened from girls to include older women. And another teenager, Harry Potter, graciously moved out of Bella's way. In late summer, Warner Bros. decided to bump "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from Nov. 21 to next July. Summit then moved "Twilight" from its Dec. 12 release to Nov. 21, grabbing a prime date just before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest weekends of the year at movie theaters. "Twilight" will have to contend with the Disney family flick "Bolt," an animated canine adventure opening the same day and featuring the voices of John Travolta and teen idol Miley Cyrus. No one in Hollywood expects "Twilight" to put up numbers anywhere near a "Harry Potter," whose five installments have averaged $90 million over opening weekend. Yet in a single weekend, "Twilight" could wind up matching or exceeding the total $48.8 million total domestic grosses of Summit's first five releases over their entire runs. Since debuting a year ago with the fright flick "P2," Summit's receipts have ranged from $1 million for the Christina Ricci fairy tale "Penelope" to $24.8 million for the martial-arts thriller "Never Back Down." "The Hollywood prognosticators, we're really trying to tune it out," said Erik Feig, president of production for Summit. "What is great is we go into this being very, very happy with the film, so whatever it does, we're going to be thrilled with it. Whatever that number is, we do believe people who are going to see the movie are going to like it." Girls and women are expected to dominate the audience, making "Twilight" a rare female-driven franchise. Females accounted for 89 percent of advance "Twilight" sales at MovieTickets.com, said Joel Cohen, the company's executive vice president. Sales for "Twilight" have been brisk, with MovieTickets.com and competitor Fandango.com reporting hundreds of shows already sold out more than a week in advance. Both companies reported that "Twilight" initially was outselling "Quantum of Solace," even though the new James Bond flick opened a week earlier. A survey of ticket buyers on Fandango.com found that nearly half of the people interested in seeing "Twilight" were over 25. "It's early teens to up above 50-year-olds," said Rick Butler, Fandango's chief operating officer. "Some of the daughters have encouraged the mothers to see it. Mothers have heard about it and read the novels themselves and want to take their daughters." Summit has three potential sequels to make if "Twilight" does well enough, so the studio has sought to expand the audience further to pack in young males. "I feel like girls, the ones who are fans of the book, are going to go see it several times," said Stewart, who starred in the horror tale "The Messengers" and appeared in Sean Penn's "Into the Wild." "But it's funny how the trailers now, they're obviously trying to target boys and make it, like, more full of action." A solid male audience seems possible, considering "Twilight" features a studly male with superpowers, a pack of ravenous bloodsuckers and fetching young women, both human and vampire. "I don't see it as only girl-oriented, because I think guys really like vampires, too, and they like hot girls," Hardwicke said. "When we've shown it to our little family and friends screenings, the boys liked it as much as the girls. Just because the early adopters, the first ones that read it, were girls, I don't think it needs to stay there. "If you're a guy and you want to pick up chicks, you should go see `Twilight.'" Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Recommend this article Average (0 votes) Sign in to recommend this article » Most Recommended Stories » Related Articles: Hollywood `Twilight' time: Vamp tale seeks blockbuster biteAP - Monday, November 17 California blaze 'like Armageddon' says actor LoweAFP - Saturday, November 15 Morocco film festival to honour Weaver and YeohAFP - Thursday, November 13 Deputies investigate battery claim against GarrettAP - Thursday, November 13 Related Articles: Entertainment & Lifestyle Wagner's Lohengrin a study in darkness and lightAP - 49 minutes ago Pop opera hunks Il Divo top British chartsAFP - 1 hour 57 minutes ago Arizona governor hits big time - an 'SNL' parodyAP - Monday, November 17 New Bond film is licensed to thrill with record openingAFP - Monday, November 17 James Bond finds cash `Solace' of $70.4MAP - Monday, November 17 Related Full Coverage Paris Hilton American celebutante, businesswoman, model, actress All Full Coverage Most Popular – Entertainment Viewed US space-funeral company plans to launch lunar cemetery Obama thinking big, despite crisis Earth would be heading to a freeze without CO2 emissions Prince Charles wants to speak out as king: biographer Democrats face White House opposition to new economic plan View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular

Other News on Sunday, 16 November 2008
Iraq's Cabinet approves security pact with US
Congo rebel says he supports U.N. peace process | International |
Four Palestinians killed in Israeli air strike
Iraq struggles to sweep Saddam's landmine legacy | International |
Security for any Afghan Taliban talks, Karzai says | International |
Pakistan to re-open Khyber to supply Western forces | International |
India Hindu suspect questioned over second blast | International |
Somali govt says weakened by Islamist onslaught | International |
Ousted PM Thaksin divorces: spokesman | International |
Taiwan mulling shopping scheme to boost consumption: report
Israeli airstrike kills 4 Gaza militants
Indonesia lifts tsunami warning after Sulawesi quake | International |
Wired ... but frustrated
Iraq's government approves security pact with US
Endeavour docks with space station
US media ramps up to cover new White House
Israel PM accuses Hamas of 'shattering' Gaza truce
Israel urges greater force vs Iran nuclear work | International |
Analysis: Some Israelis want tough love from Obama
Iraqi cabinet approves US pact amid bloodshed
Russian liberals launch pro-Kremlin party | International |
New dovish faction shaping up in Israel
Sudan says Darfur clash did not breach ceasefire | International |
Iraqi government starts paying Sunni fighters
Jewish settlers given 72 hours to leave Hebron house
Palm oil prices to plunge due to oversupply, lower demand: report
Obama vows to exit Iraq and rebuild US 'moral stature'
Pakistani rupee seen stabilising after IMF agreement
Obama vows to shut down Guantanamo Bay camp
NZ services sector perks up in Oct-survey
S.Korea Oct dept store sales flat on yr
India in strong economic shape, corporate leaders say
Iraqi cabinet approves US military pact
James Bond rules worldwide box office | Entertainment |
OPEC head: oil production cuts unlikely this month
Vietnam walks tightrope between inflation and downturn
`Twilight' time: Vamp tale seeks blockbuster bite
Olmert calls for world to stop Iran nuclear bomb
Voting begins in Indian Kashmir under tight security | International |
Indonesia quake kills at least 2, tears down houses | International |
Afghan Taliban prepare response to Karzai safety vow | International |
Astronauts open hatch between space shuttle and ISS
Pop opera hunks Il Divo top British charts
Suspected ETA military chief arrested in France | International |
Huge gaps in 'good health' lifespan across Europe: study
Storm churns towards south Vietnam | International |
Japan firm recalls 8 million bottles of U.S. mineral water | International |
Israel urges greater force vs Iran nuclear work | International |
China may legalise unofficial banks: report
Russian liberals launch pro-Kremlin party | International |
Many concerns left unanswered after weekend summit
China's oil demand falls sharply amid global crisis: top producer
S.Korea T-bonds surge on hopes for c.bank support
Music Mogul offers virtual world to musicians, fans | Technology |
World markets sceptical about G20 action plan
APEC leaders expected to adopt measures to contain turmoil
Oil prices fall in Asia
NZ dollar recovers from 3-week lows; bonds firm
Tourist arrivals plummet in Thailand amid credit crunch
Hollywood out of step with American morals: poll | Entertainment |
Two China airlines to get govt aid: state media
Japan slides into recession, 1st time since 2001
Aaron Eckhart leading action movie for first time | Entertainment |
Australia pins high hopes on its most costly movie | Entertainment |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph	VPN on MacOSX	BlogMeter 1.01