You're the Twilight of my life . . .

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while then you may recall a post I did on how The Lovely Bones is the movie I’m most excited about for 2009. That comment stands but purely because the release of Twilight has been bumped up to November 21 to fill the void where Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was. HOORAY! REJOICE! INSERT ALL OTHER WORDS OF HAPPINESS HERE! In case you haven’t noticed Twilight is my current obsession. What is Twilight you ask??? Just the best noir romance novel ever I reply! While on holiday in North Queensland last week I purchased a copy of the book, which has been on my to-read list for a while. I loved it so much I read it in a day and a half. A week later I’ve now finished all four books in the series (New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn), which is the fastest I’ve ever read anything in my life. My final week of holiday has practically been devoted to finishing the series and nothing else. Okay, occasionally eating and sleeping but that’s it. I’ll stop blabbering about Twilight’s greatness now and explain a bit more.

The novel was written by American lass named Stephenie Meyer in 2005 and became a number one international best seller and ended up on New York Times Bestseller list. The three follow up novels have been released in the time since then with similar success. The final instalment in the Twilight saga was only released this month. I could talk for years about Twilight but the simplest run down of the story is 17-year-old Bella Swan moves to the rainy town of Forks to live with her dad Charlie and falls in love with vampire Edward Cullen who attends the same high school. What follows is an epic struggle as the two soul mates fight against the many horrific forces that threaten to drive them apart. The danger, adventures and relationships get better as the books progress so hopefully the movie is enough of a success for the other novels to be made in to films too.

Since this is one of the best books I’ve read ever I was more than a little terrified when I heard they were making Twilight in to a movie. Especially when I thought of all the ways they could stuff it up. So when I finally worked up the courage to peek at who was directing . . . . REJOICE! CATHERINE HARWICKE! If anyone dare says “who?” I will punch you in the ear. Hardwicke is the colossal talent behind Thirteen which she co-wrote with juvenile delinquent Nikki Reed who the story is based on. She then backed up to direct one of my fav films `Lords of Dogtown’ starring Heath Ledger and Emile Hirsch. She also got Reed back to play the female lead. My main reasons for being excited about Harwicke being behind the camera for Twilight is this a director who cares more about staying true to the story, the characters and the essence of the project than commercial success or big budget special affects. This chick rocks and critics have applauded her work in the past so hopefully this will be no different.

Directing a film about a supernatural love story is a massive step out of Harwicke’s comfort zone so I dare say she fell for the tale like millions of readers out there so will therefore be dedicated to getting it right. She’s also renowned for playing a major part when it comes to casting her actors. And who has she cast? Like all her films she has wanted to keep the audience focussed on the story not the star power and has gone for a bunch of relative unknowns. Kristen Stewart is in the title role of Bella and she looks just perfect for the part from the movie poster and stills I’ve seen. Stewart has a lot of experience as a young actress and has worked alongside the likes of Jodie Foster previously. English actor and musician Robert Pattison is playing Edward Cullen and again he looks like a prefect fit. Pattison played Cedric Diggory in two Harry Potter films. Thankfully Pattison has a strong background in theatre and is considered one of the most brilliant up and coming talents on the stage. He’ll be able to put those years on London stages to good use to portray Edwards vulnerability, intelligence, danger, turmoil, strength and loving nature. Pattison has been touted as the `next Jude Law’ by British Critics and hopefully they’re right. Hardwicke has got her favourite gal pal Nikki Reed back to play Rosalie, one of the members of Edwards awesome vampire family.

In the lead up to Twilights release at cinemas I will no doubt be smothering you with every bit of information I can find on how the film is coming along etc. I’ve attached every picture I could find from the movie to this post. If you’re a fan of the novel then hopefully you will be as pleased as I am with how well the actors have been cast and styled to fit Stephanie Meyers descriptions in the book. Perfecto! More importantly, look at the chemistry between Stewart and Pattison! Boo-yah! They have definitely got Bella and Edwards relationship down pat! Excitement!