10 days and counting . . . .

Tomorrow is November 11 and for some that means a day to commemorate those soldiers who fought for Australia post World War I. For others it means exactly one month until the Twilight film opens in Australia.
And not only do those lucky buggers in the US get a black president, they also get to see Twilight in a mere 10 days time (November 21). Needless to say, with the opening just around the corner pressure is beginning to mount. Apparently the filmmakers behind Twilight are sick of hearing their movie is the next Harry Potter just because it contains elements of the supernatural and occupies the boy-wizards previous release date. Director Catherine Hardwicke said these comparisons are producing unrealistic expectations for the film as the seven-book Potter series sold 400 million copies and generated $4.5 billion in worldwide box office figures while Twilight is going off a global fan base that has purchased only 17 million books. Only! That's a lot of forrest right there! Hardwicke went on to tell Entertainment Weekly that Twilight is more of a sophisticated Romeo and Juliette story, which is what I have been preaching for months now. There are three alternative Twilight covers being released by EW tomorrow in the lead up to the film one featuring Edward Cullen aka Robert Pattison solo, one featuring Bella Swan aka Kristen Stewart solo and one (below) featuring the together.Summit Entertainment are the studio behind the Twilight film and no doubt the execs are hoping for a massive hit given the company's shaky success rate. In it's 18-month history Summit has only released five movies with nothing grossing over $25 million and efforts such as Sex Drive being flat out failures. If Twilight is going to be a hit it's going to need to lure fans other than hardcore followers of the series. To break even and make a substantial profit for the company Twilight needs to have at least a $20 million opening weekend in the US. As reported on this blog last week, the sequel New Moon is apparently not set in stone according to Hardwicke. Although Stephine Meyer and Melissa Rosenberg have started working on the script, Hardwicke says the film must gross $150 million for the studio to approve a follow-up, which will require extensive special effects and location shooting. Oh gawd, now I'm getting nervous with all this money talk. I really hope this is a hit. But even if it's not, as long as it's a good film that's faithful to the subject matter then I'll be a happy vampire. Blogger, I meant blogger.