New Moon (film)

The Twilight Saga: New Moon is the second installment of the Twilight film series, based on Stephenie Meyer's novel of the same name. The film was released on November 20th, 2009. Summit Entertainment officially announced that they would move forward with the production of the film on November 22, 2008, following the early success of Twilight. New Moon is rated PG-13 in the US and 12A in the UK. Meyer stated that she is very happy to be able to continue working with Summit Entertainment on the production of the saga, saying, "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. I'm thrilled to have the chance to work with them again on New Moon."

On February 2, 2009 it was announced that a teaser trailer for New Moon would be released in the Blu-Ray edition of Twilight. Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner presented a trailer from the film on May 31, 2009 at the MTV Movie Awards. Afterwards, a high definition version of the trailer debuted online.

Development
It was announced that Catherine Hardwicke, who directed Twilight, will not be directing New Moon due to time constraints. Summit has hired Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass, American Pie) as the director for New Moon, and he stated that he is very happy to be working on New Moon.

Filming
Filming began on March 23, 2009 and ran until late May. Principal photography took place in Vancouver, Canada and Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Chris Weitz said that instead of going with the book's route of having Bella hear Edward's voice, they will use a flittering image of Edward.

In September 09, L.A. Times published more than 40 photos taken on the New Moon set. Some of them give a good impression of what the new film will look like.

Plot
It's Bella's 18th birthday and she wakes up from a dream in which she see's herself as an older woman (Bella's grandmother). Bella celebrates her birthday with Edward and the rest of the Cullens. Whilst at the Cullen household where Alice has organised a party, she recieves a papercut whilst trying to open a present from Esme and Carlisle. Jasper hasn't been away from human blood as long as the rest of the Cullens, and can't control his instinct to drink her blood. Edward is forced to protect her by shoving her out of the way and then doing the same to Jasper. Edward shoved Bella into a table full of glass, causing an excess amount of blood to fall from her arm. The Cullens can't control their basic instinct to consume human blood and start to hiss. After this event, Edward realises it's too dangerous for Bella to be around his family of vampires and tells her he doesn't love her any more and dissapears. Bella, who is heartbroken, lies on the ground and does nothing. After months of seeing Bella in a zombie like state, Charlie scolds her and threatens her that if she continues, he will send her to live with Renee. Bella starts to lighten up and decides to watch a movie with her friend Jessica. It is here where Bella approaches a group of strange men and takes a ride on the back of one of their motorbikes. Bella seeks comfort in her best friend Jacob Black, in which eases her pain over loosing Edward. Bella starts to realise that Jacob is acting differently, and becoming increasingly dark and violent and comes to the conclusion he is hiding a dark secret.

Bella later goes to the Meadow, where she meets Laurent. He informs her that Victoria wishes to kill her, in revenge for Edward killing her mate, James. Laurent tries to kill Bella, saying it will be better than it would be if Victoria did, but the Werewolves arrive in time to chase down Laurent and kill him. Jacob later informs Bella (Once she finds out that the Werewolves are a pack of boys, including Jacob) that Victoria is hunting her and that they chased her all the way to the Canadian border, where she jumps off a cliff, in which is the same cliff that Bella jumps off, to see a hallucination of Edward again. It is here where Bella notices Victoria swimming towards her, and in a fit of panic, knocks herself out for a short while, before Jacob saves her. Due to Victoria frightening Harry Clearwater so badly when she attacked him, he dies of a heart attack in which Charlie attends. Before this event, Alice saw a vision of Bella jumping off the cliff, and presumed she had commited suicide. Rosalie decided to tell Edward, who in turn phones Charlie to confirm the news. Here, Jacob answers and angrily tells Edward (thinking it was Carlisle) that he's planning a funeral which makes Edward believe it's Bella's funeral. After mistaking the news, Edward decided to go to the Volturi and ask them to kill him.

Alice has a vision of this and informs Bella of Edwards actions. They both travel to Volterra, Italy to try and save Edward. The Volturi refused to kill Edward due to the fact that Aro thought it would be a waste, so Edward decides he needs to provoke them by exposing himself as a Vampire to the humans. Bella arrives on time to save Edward, but not before long two of the Volturis guards arrive and order them to speak to Aro. Alice arrives to try and cool things down, before Jane turns up to see what was taking so long. Edward, knowing Janes abilities, instantly gives up and does as she says without hesistation.

After much conversation with the Volturi, they decide that Bella is too much of a liabilty and Aro orders Felix to kill her. Edward jumps in to save her and a fight ensue's between him and Felix. It's not long before Bella is about to be killed herself, before Alice shows Aro a vision of Bella and Edward, proving the fact that Bella will become a vampire in the future even if Alice has to change Bella herself. Aro allows them to leave to make preperations for the transformation, in which Edward has no plan to follow up. Edward, Bella and Alice leave to travel back to Forks. Here, the Cullens vote on whether Bella should become a vampire. All except Edward and Rosalie vote in favour of Bella becoming one.

Jacob goes to Forks to visit Edward and Bella, where he reminds them that the Cullens and the Queilette wolves have a treaty, which will be broken if the Cullens ever bite a human. After Bella stops Edward and Jacob from fighting, Edward tells her that he can only turn her into a vampire by one condition, she marry him.

Release
The Twilight Saga: New Moon was released in theaters on November 20, 2009 in the US, UK and Canada, on November 19, 2009 in Australia. For a full list of worldwide release dates, go to newmoonthemovie.com, click on "Official New Moon Site", and then on the "Worldwide" tab at top.

The film broke the record previously held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for the biggest midnight opening, after it made about $26.3 million in 3,514 theatres.

Rating
New Moon is rated PG-13 in USA and 12A in UK for some violence and action.

Cast
See also: New Moon cast gallery

Featured video
See also: New Moon videos New Moon trailer #3 Video:New Moon trailer 3

Behind the Scenes
The song in the background of the 3rd Preview is Moving Mountains by Two Steps From Hell.