The Twilight Saga: New Moon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Chris Weitz
Produced by	Wyck Godfrey Karen Rosenfelt
Screenplay by	Melissa Rosenberg
Starring	Kristen Stewart Robert Pattinson Taylor Lautner Ashley Greene Rachelle Lefevre Billy Burke Peter Facinelli Elizabeth Reaser Nikki Reed Kellan Lutz Jackson Rathbone Anna Kendrick Michael Sheen Dakota Fanning
Music by	Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography	Javier Aguirresarobe
Editing by	Peter Lambert
Studio	Temple Hill Entertainment Maverick Films Sunswept Entertainment
Distributed by	Summit Entertainment
Release date(s)	November 16, 2009 (2009-11-16) (Los Angeles premiere) November 20, 2009 (2009-11-20) (United States)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$50 million
Money made	$709.8 million

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (or simply 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.

Summit Entertainment announced it had greenlit the film on November 22, 2008, following the early success of Twilight. Principal photography began on March 23, 2009, in Vancouver, Canada, and ended in Montepulciano, Italy on May 29.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon premiered in Los Angeles on November 16, 2009, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 20, by Summit Entertainment. Despite receiving generally negative reviews from critics, the film grossed $709.8 million worldwide, becoming the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2009. It set domestic box office records as the biggest midnight opening in the United States and Canada, grossing $26.3 million, which was superseded by its sequel, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. This led to the highest single-day domestic gross on an opening day, with $72.7 million, until it was beaten by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). The film also became the widest independent release, playing in 4,024 theaters, until it was surpassed by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. New Moon was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on March 20, 2010. As of July 2012, the film has grossed $184.9 million in North American DVD sales, selling more than 8.8 million units, four million of which were sold within its first weekend, beating Twilight's 3.8 million units sold in its first two days.

The film received three sequels, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, in 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively.

Plot

On her eighteenth birthday, Bella Swan awakens from a dream where she is an old woman and Edward Cullen, her immortal vampire boyfriend, is forever young. Despite her lack of enthusiasm, Edward's family host a birthday reception for her at their residence. While unwrapping a gift, she receives a paper cut. Edward's foster brother, Jasper, is overwhelmed by the scent of Bella's blood and attempts to attack her but is restrained. Believing that he and his family are putting her life in danger, Edward ends their relationship, and the Cullens leave Forks.

Bella is left severely depressed and isolated for months. Her concerned father, Charlie, wants to send Bella to live with her mother in Jacksonville, Florida. She refuses, promising to spend more time with her other school friends. After she and Jessica see a movie, Bella approaches some rough-looking bikers outside the theater, much to Jessica's dismay. The dangerous encounter reminds Bella of a previous near-assault where Edward rescued her. She imagines seeing and hearing him and realizes that thrill-seeking activities evoke his image.

Bella's Quileute friend Jacob Black helps ease her pain by engaging her in various activities. He says that many of his friends follow and obey Sam, another Quileute. While attending a movie with Bella and Mike, Jacob abruptly leaves after becoming inexplicably upset and suffering a burning fever. Bella drives to his home after he avoids seeing her. Jacob has cut his long hair and now has the same Quileute tattoo on his upper right arm as Sam and other tribe members. He tells Bella to stay away.

When Bella hikes to the meadow that she and Edward often visited, she is confronted by Victoria's vampire companion Laurent. As he is about to kill her, a wolf pack appears and attacks him. Bella eventually discovers that Jacob and the other tribe members are giant werewolves. Their age-old enemies are vampires, though a treaty exists between the Cullens and the tribe. Jacob's pack members are currently on alert for Victoria, the vampire seeking to avenge her mate, James, whom Edward killed to protect Bella. With Jacob focused on adapting to his new shape-shifting powers, Bella again finds herself alone and returns to seeking thrill-inducing activities, deliberately oblivious to Victoria's presence.

Through a series of miscommunications, Edward believes that Bella has died after Edward's sister Alice has a vision of Bella jumping off a seaside cliff. Distraught, Edward travels to Italy to ask the Volturi (a powerful coven that act as vampiric overlords) to end his life, as he is incapable of doing so himself. When they refuse his request, he plans to force their hand by exposing himself as a vampire to humans during a large festival. Alice returns to Forks, shocked to find Bella is still alive.

Alice and Bella travel to Italy to save Edward, arriving in time to prevent him from revealing himself as a vampire. Overjoyed that Bella is alive, he confesses that he left Forks out of concern for her and promises never to leave again. Edward defends Bella from Felix, one of the Volturi, as the Volturi do not allow humans to confide in vampire society, but Edward is easily overpowered. As the Volturi are about to kill him, Bella asks that they kill her instead.

Impressed by a human's willingness to sacrifice her life for a vampire, the Volturi determine that Bella, knowing that vampires exist, must either be killed or be transformed into a vampire. Alice shares her vision of Bella as a vampire with Aro, a Volturi elder able to read thoughts through touch. Aro decides to let them go after extracting a promise that Bella be turned eventually. After returning to Forks, Bella asks the Cullens to vote on her becoming a vampire. Much to Edward and Rosalie’s chagrin, everyone else votes yes.

Jacob reminds Edward that the years-old treaty with Quileute will be broken if any Cullen bites a human, but Bella tells Jacob it is her choice, not the Cullens'.

At the meadows, Edward admits that he will let Bella transform into a vampire only if she agrees to marry him. Initially Bella refuses, but contemplates doing so afterwards (serving as the plot for the next movie).

Cast

Production

Development

Director Chris Weitz at The Twilight Saga: New Moon photocall in Paris, France, on November 2009

In early November 2008, Summit Entertainment obtained the film adaptation rights to the remaining novels in the Twilight book series, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. On November 22, 2008, one day after the theatrical release of Twilight, Summit confirmed that they would begin working on New Moon. Author Stephenie Meyer said, "I don't think any other author has had a more positive experience with the makers of her movie adaptation than I have had with Summit Entertainment." In early December 2008, it was announced that Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke would not be returning to direct the sequel. Hardwicke cited time restrictions as the reason behind her leaving the project. On December 13, 2008, it was announced that Chris Weitz had been hired to direct New Moon. Weitz released a statement shortly after the announcement, assuring fans that he would "protect on their behalf the characters, [the] themes and story they love." He continued by saying, "This is not a task to be taken lightly, and I will put every effort into realizing a beautiful film to stand alongside a beautiful book."

Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg had been working on adapting the novel prior to Twilight's release and handed in the draft for New Moon during Twilight's opening weekend in November 2008, adding, "I would sit down at ten o'clock in the morning and work on [the script]… until six o'clock in the evening." Rosenberg spent the months of June through October 2008 alternating between writing for the Showtime television series Dexter and writing New Moon on weekends. She and Meyer kept in touch during this five-month period.

Casting

Due to major physical changes that occur in the character of Jacob Black between Twilight and New Moon, Weitz considered replacing Taylor Lautner in the sequel with an actor who could more accurately portray "the new, larger Jacob Black". In an attempt to keep the role, Lautner weight-trained extensively and gained approximately 30 pounds. In January 2009, Weitz and Summit Entertainment announced that Lautner would continue to play the role of Jacob in the sequel. In an interview, fellow cast member Kristen Stewart talked about Lautner's transformation saying, "He's an entirely different person physically."

In late March 2009, Summit Entertainment released a list of the actors who would be portraying the "wolf pack" alongside Lautner. The casting for the rest of the Quileute tribe was headed by casting director Rene Haynes, who has worked on films with large Native American casts, such as Dances with Wolves and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. A casting call was also held in Vancouver in February 2009, specifically asking for "any first nations/aboriginal actors and actresses between the ages of 15 and 25".

Filming

Pre-production for New Moon began in December 2008. Principal photography was scheduled to begin on March 23, 2009 in Vancouver, but began a few days early. Weitz envisioned a warm color palette for the sequel, contrary to the first film in the series, whose blue tones were prevalent. His intention resulted in golden tones, a change that was inspired by Italian paintings, and ultimately served as the basis for the crew's collaborative work. The approach also included the use of specific colors at certain points in the movie. For example, although Jacob's house is red, the color does not dominate until the climax of the movie. The director noted that, "The square becomes a flood of red, that's how conscious we were of every visual aspect."

The use of film, rather than digital, cameras added to the "old-fashioned" nature of the production. Two main Panavision cameras, a high-speed Arri 435 camera capable of shooting at 150 frames per second, a Steadicam, and VistaVision cameras for visual effect shots were among the equipment used to bring the book to the big screen. As with the use of specific colors, the different cameras and shooting setups would help serve the story points. When Bella was with Edward, the camera was moved on a dolly, in a very rigid, straight line to reflect how their relationship was "perfect". When Bella is with Jacob, the Steadicam provided a fluid and organic style; and when she is with her schoolmates, a slangy visual language was reflected by a handheld.

Once the film went into production, the decision to shoot in Vancouver, rather than in Portland, came after debate on how to match the locations that were introduced in the first film. One member involved in the decision process pointed out that Vancouver had been scouted as a potential setting for Twilight, and it was only because the U.S. dollar had, at that time, dropped below the Canadian dollar that Oregon drew Twilight principal photography to Portland and its surrounding areas. Vancouver was chosen because it allowed a higher production value, while the surrounding areas contained beautiful forests and gray weather. With this decision, however, came the issue of reconstructing key sets that were used in the first film. For the exterior of Forks High School, crew members were able to find a parking lot, but the school's steps needed to be filmed with a greenscreen backing to match those that were originally presented in Twilight. David Thompson Secondary School would then be able to serve as the interior for the high school scenes.

The Cullen house was one of the major "match" assignments, mainly because of the Portland area location's unique design. The production team agreed upon finding a house in the Vancouver area with an interior that emulated the high ceilings, glass walls, and forest surroundings of the first location. One location was positively compared to the one in Portland, and therefore Weitz and the production team filmed portions of the film there. In order to keep with the design of the original house, portions of the story that took place in New Moon were moved to different sections of the house that were not seen before.

Jacob's house as depicted in The Twilight Saga: New Moon

After scouting Vancouver for a place to film scenes that involved the Swan house, the decision was made to recreate the house on an empty lot with a tree line and approaching road. The production team was able to rearrange the exterior of the house to match that in the first movie. When faced with creating the interior, the team measured the house in Portland, and built various pieces of the house on the lot and on a stage in Vancouver. The second film also attempted to clarify the location of Bella's room, which, as seen in the first film, seemed to be located in the front of the house, when in reality it was on the right-hand side. Complications arose when the Portland house was repainted after Twilight's release, which took away the aging the house had come to depict in the film. When recreating the house, the production team referenced the first film on high-definition Blu-ray Disc.

As a director, Weitz had the pleasure of introducing and filming on new locations and sets. Of particular interest was the Quileute reservation and Jacob's house. Using the Quileute country in Washington as a basis, the production team decided to place Jacob's house on the edges of the territory, rather than in the community, because of Jacob's attachment to the wolves. To Weitz, Jacob's house was the stepping stone into the forest world, where the reality of the werewolves is hidden. The production designer was faced with a "real world" versus "book world" challenge when the barn they located, described in the book as a red barn, was green. Initially bordered by a green fence, the decision of painting the barn, aging it, and renovating the exterior proved to be a layout that fit well with Jacob's character.

After scouting more than twelve possible locations to film scenes that would take place in Volterra, Italy, the scouting team selected the town of Montepulciano, which they believe was the best representation of Meyer's description in the book. Principal photography concluded with the scenes that were filmed in this area from May 25 through the 29. For the face-off between the Volturi and Edward, the idea was to have a bigger "bang", rather than just the paralysis of Edward. Initially what was a huge battle with vampires being thrown everywhere turned into a one-on-one fight between Felix and Edward, after receiving a stamp of approval from Meyer. The idea quickly changed from the typical outlandish battle, to portraying Edward as an average guy caught in the middle of a bad situation; for Bella, conveying the feeling of being caught in the middle of a group of vampires fighting was important as well. This scene also required special effects, stunt work, and figuring out how to portray vampires fighting at very fast speeds.

Visual effects

Overseeing the visual effects department for New Moon was Susan MacLeod, who had previously worked with Weitz during the production of The Golden Compass. MacLeod enlisted Tippett Studio to create the computer-generated wolves, while Prime Focus of Vancouver handled the effects of the vampires. To prepare for the aggressive task of making the wolves look real, Tippet artists studied wolf culture. They also were able to reflect leadership and human muscle size by adjusting certain features of the wolves, such as their fat and height. In February 2009, a group of artists were able to travel to Wolf Mountain Sanctuary, outside of Los Angeles, and see real wolves. The artists were able to observe the behavior of both the timber and arctic wolves, who ran in packs of three to five. The idea was to give everyone a deeper feeling of the creature that they were creating.

One of the scenes Tippett Studio was responsible for animating

MacLeod explained that creating the shape-shifting werewolves was not an easy task. The wolf work included shooting "plates", or photographic imagery into which CG creations are integrated. Since the book described the wolves as being as big as horses, full-scale aluminum and board wolf cutouts were used as a visual reference for both actors and crew members. Once the actors had a reference, the cutouts would be removed allowing the cameras to capture the scene. In order for the CG wolves to be in sync with the live action cameras and actors' movements, the team used match movers, a land surveying tool that recorded the shooting location's topography with reference marks.

A raw 3D model of Jacob's wolf was the basis for creating the others. A muscle system, which gave the appearance of muscles firing and flexing, contributed to this model. From there, the initial fur layout went to painters who were responsible for its color and groom. They also added characteristics, such as wet hair clumping together, and applied it to the fur. They refined this look before passing it off to the lighting and technical directors.

One challenge for the production team was how to convey Bella's depression once Edward departs. In the novel, these pages were filled with the names of the passing months, and in the movie, would be represented as a visual effects shot with a camera circling around Kristen Stewart. The window that was used for the original film did not quite fit what Weitz was looking for, so the production team created a bay window when recreating the Swan house. The effect was one of the 300 visual effects helmed by Prime Focus led by visual effects supervisor Eric Pascarelli. It required matching two camera shots: one that shot the actress in a chair, and the other shooting the view outside the window as seen from the house built on location. Using a greenscreen, Prime Focus was able to enhance the changing of seasons with computer-generated leaves and falling snow.

Music

The score for New Moon was composed by Alexandre Desplat while the rest of the soundtrack was chosen by music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas, who also produced the Twilight soundtrack. The Twilight Saga: New Moon: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on October 16, 2009, by Patsavas's Chop Shop label, in conjunction with Atlantic Records. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and climbed to number one a week later after selling 153,000 copies in its first full week of release.

Distribution

Marketing

In February 2009 it was announced that the franchise would take the name The Twilight Saga with the book's title separated by a colon, though the title that appears on-screen is simply New Moon. The first promotional poster was released on May 19, 2009. On May 31, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner revealed the film's first trailer at the MTV Movie Awards. Following the release of the trailer, two scenes from the film were presented at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. A 14-second preview of the second trailer was released online on August 12, 2009, and the full-length trailer was featured before theater showings of the film Bandslam. The film's third trailer was shown at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009. Spike TV also aired a new trailer at the 2009 Scream Awards on October 27, 2009.

American Idol finalist Allison Iraheta hosted an 8-minute block prior to the showing of the film in over 1,200 theaters across the United States, where she talked about her upcoming album and played some tracks, including "Friday I'll Be Over U", "Pieces", and "Trouble Is". In addition, prior to the film's release, author Stephenie Meyer made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show to promote the film.

Release

Many theater showings sold out as early as two months prior to New Moon's release date. The film set records for advance ticket sales, causing some theaters to add additional showings. The film is also the biggest advance ticket seller on Fandango, surpassing Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. New Moon accounted for 86 percent of Fandango's online ticket sales the weekend before the film was released, and its total morning ticket sales on November 20, 2009 are estimated to total $13.9 million.

Home media

Various midnight release parties were held to help promote the film's DVD and Blu-ray Disc release on March 20, 2010, in the United States and on March 22, 2010, in the United Kingdom. Special features include an audio commentary by director Chris Weitz and editor Peter Lambert, a behind-the-scenes documentary, and music videos. Unlike the DVD and Blu-ray Disc versions, the Ultimate Fan Edition DVD includes a 7-minute first look at the sequel, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Within its first weekend of release in the U.S., the film sold over 4 million units, beating Twilight's 3.8 million units sold in its first two days. In North American DVD sales, the film has currently grossed $185,166,822 and has sold more than 8,864,541 units.

Sequel

In February 2009, Summit Entertainment scheduled a film adaptation of Eclipse, the third novel in the Twilight series, for release on June 30, 2010. Weitz would not be able to direct the third film of The Twilight Saga as it would be filming while New Moon would be in post-production. David Slade was therefore confirmed as the director of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse on April 22, 2009.

See also

In Spanish: The Twilight Saga: New Moon para niños