In our so –called Twilight universe, melodrama isn’t something bad. Consider it an innate part of the expansive saga pertaining to the life of high school student Bella, who gets tangled between an immortal and fancy love triangle with a vampire named Edward and her best friend, a werewolf named Jacob Black. Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling trilogy-turned motion picture garnered close to $800 million in North America alone, and there will be more to come from around the world, as the popularity of The Twilight Saga: BreakingDawn Part 1 does not seem to falter.
For the Oscar-winning writer and director Bill Condon, who, for the record includes low-budget horror (Candyman, Farewell to the Flesh), contemporary biopics (Gods and Monsters, Kinsey), and controversial and high profile musicals like Dreamgirls, dealing with gigantic Twilight definitely sound like an appealing challenge. He got hooked on the idea of making a movie that was one part melodrama, one part horror, which definitely defines Breaking Dawn. Well, not to mention some outlandish details like an ecstatic love scene, a graphic birth, and some telepathic chitchat among werewolves among others. For Condon directing a “Twilight” movie can be a risqué proposition. Especially when all of the directors of the motion pictures have received major scrutiny by a rabid fandom devoted only to the source material and less that receptive to even little twitches and changes to Meyer’s text. Condon, who also is currently directing the second half of Breaking Dawn, which will be due to air next year, says he is also aware of the risks that are inherent in taking on such a populist, most of the time, critically maligned series. It’s just one of the things all of us fans should expect in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1.
"In some ways that was part of the fun of it," Condon said. "There is something liberating about it. Plus, I really liked the story."
The story, this time around, centers on Bella's nuptials to Edward — she wants to be a vampire like him, his condition is that they get married first — and the life-threatening pregnancy that unexpectedly results from their first bed-splintering honeymoon encounter.
And in order to prime such revered material to the big screen. Condon said that he went looking into Vincente Minnelli and Alfred Hitchcock, depending on tradition for Bella and Edward’s wedding and honeymoon, and highlighting Bella’s pregnancy which devastates her from inside out.
"She needed to look like she's dying or the story doesn't make sense," Pattinson said. "It was great that he went there."
Pattinson declares that he felt this familial kinship with Condon from the moment the director came to meet with the 25-year old actor while he was shooting the antebellum romance “Water for Elephants” back in Los Angeles.
"I had my hair cut really short, and he said, 'Oh, you should have your hair like this in the 'Twilight' movies.' I thought, 'OK, I already like you," Pattinson said with a laugh. "Especially since so many people worried about my hair. It was all they cared about. The hair and a six-pack."
Stewart too praised Condon.
"I wanted a director that I could trust enough that I could completely clear my head and know that all my preparation was going to find its way into my body," Stewart said. "I didn't feel that I was always looking over his shoulder making sure he was capturing it, or looking over his shoulder making sure he wasn't missing some aspect of the book that I knew about and he didn't. I already knew that we were on the same page."
Well, maybe we can see more of the movie than meets the eye when it happens, so save the date this Friday for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 in theaters near you.
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