New Moon (film)

"The next chapter begins."

- New Moon tagline

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. It was directed by Chris Weitz. 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 was 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 on 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.

Plot
"These violent delights have violent ends." "And in their triumph die, like fire and powder." "Which as they kiss, consume."

- Bella narrating the opening line from Romeo and Juliet

The movie opens on Bella's 18th birthday. She wakes up from a dream in which she sees herself as an older woman, whom she initially thinks is her grandmother, Marie Higginbotham. Bella celebrates her birthday with Edward and the rest of the Cullens. Whilst at the Cullen household where Alice has organized a party, she receives a papercut whilst trying to open a present from Esme and Carlisle. As Jasper hasn't been away from human blood as long as the rest of the Cullens, he 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. Bella landed into a table full of glass, causing her arm to bleed copiously. The Cullens can't control their instinct to consume human blood and start to lose control, except for Carlisle who treats her arm. After this event, Edward realizes it's too dangerous for Bella to be around his family of vampires and tells her he doesn't love her any more and disappears. 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 Renée.

Bella starts to lighten up and decides to watch a movie with her friend Jessica. It is here that Bella approaches a group of strange men she confuses with the thugs Edward saved her from in Twilight and takes a ride on the back of one of their motorbikes.

Images of Edward tried to stop her from doing so but she refused to listen. After that episode, Bella realizes she starts seeing very realistic images of Edward when she's in danger. Bella seeks comfort in her best friend Jacob Black, in which eases her pain over losing Edward. Bella starts to realize 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 shape-shifters arrive in time to chase down Laurent and kill him. Jacob later informs Bella 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 and informs her that Charlie and Billy's friend Harry Clearwater has died of a heart attack. Despite the warmth and closeness they feel towards each other, a quick succession of events later that evening try to tear Bella and Jacob apart. Jacob drives Bella home, only to discover that Alice has inexplicably turned up there; he recoils from her presence and flees to La Push to regroup. However, he soon returns to apologize to Bella; they nearly kiss when the phone interrupts them. When Jacob answers, tells the caller that Chief Swan was arranging a funeral. Having received cryptic information, Edward assumes the funeral is for Bella, thinking she had committed suicide. Grief-stricken, he departs in order to meet with the Volturi, and Bella and Alice rush to try to stop him.

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 Felix And Demetri 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 Jane's ability, instantly gives up and does as she says without hesitation.

After much conversation with the Volturi, they decide that Bella is too much of a liability and Aro orders Felix to kill her. Edward jumps in to save her and a fight ensues 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 preparations 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 favor of Bella becoming one.

Jacob goes to Forks to visit Edward and Bella, where he reminds them that the Cullens and the Quileute wolves have a treaty, which will be broken if the Cullens ever bite a human.

After Bella stops Edward and Jacob from fighting, telling Jacob she loves him but not to make her choose between him and Edward as her answer will always be Edward, Jacob tearfully returns to La Push. Edward asks Bella to let him wait five years, but Bella refuses, so he offers three years and still she refuses telling him it's too long.

In turn, Edward tells her that he will only turn her into a vampire on one condition: she has to marry him first. This movie ends on a cliffhanger with Bella stunned and the question unanswered.

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

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 used a flittering image of Edward.

On September 9, 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.

Box office
The Twilight Saga: New Moon was released in theaters on November 20, 2009 in the US, UK and Canada, and on November 19, 2009 in Australia. It was rated PG-13 in USA and 12A in UK for some violence and action.

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.

DVD and Blu-Ray
New Moon was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on March 20, 2010. Special features included:


 * Edward and Jacob "fast forwards"
 * 6-part making documentary
 * Becoming Jacob
 * Shooting in Italy
 * Audio commentary with Director Chris Wetiz and editor Peter Lambert
 * Music videos
 * Introducing the wolf pack
 * Team Edward vs. Team Jacob: The Ultimate Love Triangle

Behind the scenes
The song in the background of the third trailer is "Moving Mountains" by Two Steps From Hell.

Soundtrack
The New Moon soundtrack was released on October 16, 2009. The lead single of the soundtrack is "Meet Me on the Equinox" by Death Cab for Cutie.

Score
The New Moon score was composed by Alexandre Desplat, following Carter Burwell, the composer of the Twilight score.

Trivia

 * Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Twilight, was set to be the director of New Moon as well. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, Hardwicke had to back out.
 * Each member of the wolf pack had to have papers proving their Native descent. Chaske Spencer is Lakota (Sioux), Bronson Pelletier is Cree-Metis, Alex Meraz is Purepecha (Tarasco), Kiowa Gordon is Hualapai, and Tyson Houseman, who was discovered at an open casting call, is Cree.
 * The film's American premiere was November 16, 2009, which, in the lunar cycle, is a new moon.
 * Diego Luna was offered the role of Aro.
 * Most of Anna Kendrick's dialogue when Bella and Jessica were leaving the movies was improvised.
 * New Moon is Chris Weitz's third movie based on a bestselling book.
 * In the parking lot scene it is Bella's eighteenth birthday. Coincidentally, the scene was shot on April 9, Kristen Stewart's nineteenth birthday.