'Eclipse': Behind The New And Improved Wolves

11 Jul 2010

If you’ve seen The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, odds are you left raving about the wolves — particularly the scene in which Jacob, in wolf form, saddles up to Bella during the training sequence. It’s one of the moments Phil Tippett — a two-time Oscar winner for Jurassic Park and Return of the Jedi whose visual effects house, Tippett Studio, handled the wolves for both Eclipse and New Moon — is most proud of. “That was an unusual thing for us in that most of the time, we are doing these ‘god awful animals start tearing each other apart,’” Tippett told us recently, phoning from England where he’d just celebrated Ray Harryhausen’s 90th birthday. “So it was great to have a quiet moment. A tender scene that telegraphs a budding and suppressed relationship was tricky. In fact, the entire training sequence was difficult in that the wolves do nothing. A bunch of wolves standing around watching vampires train and trying to portend some kind of anxiety was tricky. It’s tricky for any actor when you have to carry a certain part of the scene where you do nothing, because you have to figure out a way of filling up the nothing with something.”

It was important to Eclipse director David Slade that Taylor Lautner actually film that scene with Kristen Stewart so she was able to establish eye contact with him instead of with a golf ball that could’ve been used as an eyeline and painted out later. The wardrobe department dressed Lautner in a neutral grey leotard and hoodie — primarily so his skin tone wouldn’t bounce back onto Stewart and create lighting issues when Wolf Jacob was added, Tippett says. We, however, like to believe someone was already thinking about the DVD extras. That will be great, won’t it?

The tender moment was made more challenging by the fact that Slade had a different vision of the wolves than New Moon director Chris Weitz. For starters, Weitz wanted the wolves to have their actor’s eyes. “He kind of wanted the performance to feel like the wolf behavior was being filtered through a human brain,” Tippett says. Slade wanted the wolves to have wolf eyes to de-anthropomorphize them. “David wanted the performances to be more feral, twitchy, and agitated. He wanted to see wolves that were more photographically representational, which had to do with things like getting more hair follicles, making the paws smaller.”

The believability of the wolves was equally crucial in the climactic fight sequence with the newborn vampire army. “We had to come up with a rationale for what happens when a 1,300-pound wolf that’s running 35 miles an hour crashes into a newborn vampire [played by an actor that weighs 165 lbs], how we justify that,” Tippett says. “David allowed us the transgression of saying, ‘Well, let’s just say that the newborns, since they’re not made of human material but some kind of a more marble-like material, have an actual mass of something like 500 pounds, so they have a lower center of gravity.’ And that allowed us to begin thinking about how to make all of that palpable, without thinking that they’re existing in two different physical universes.” Watch a clip of how that action gets put together below.

Which wolves did you prefer: New Moon‘s or Eclipse‘s?

The 2010 TIME 100: Robert Pattinson Makes The List

30 Apr 2010

Rob has made it onto Time's 2010 Top 100 List, which includes people "who most affect our world". Chris Weitz got to write the excerpt on Rob:

I have to be careful about what I write here because it will be tweeted the moment TIME hits the stands. And if I say something bad about Rob Pattinson, I'm dead meat. That's the devotion the Twilight films inspire. It's certainly not how he planned it. And though I am continually impressed by the aplomb with which he handles the hysteria, I occasionally think he would take it all back if given the chance. Because essentially, Rob, 23, is a reserved, bookish sort of specimen, a guy who'd rather spend the night at the corner table in the pub with friends — a bit of a weirdo, frankly, in the best sense.

So how to write about someone who seems to answer Freud's rhetorical question, What do women want? Perhaps it's just worth pointing out that it'd be fun to have a beer with him even if he weren't Edward Cullen. That we haven't seen a tenth of what he can do onscreen. And that important things, beyond the veil of Hollywood, occupy his time too — music, conversation, ideas, a sense of the absurd. Which, maybe, explains why he never gets to my e-mails. I love you, Rob! Call me!

Video: 'New Moon' Behind-The-Scenes

24 Mar 2010

Here are some behind-the-scenes videos from the 'New Moon' DVD:

'New Moon' Star Nikki Reed Amazed By Crowd At DVD Release

23 Mar 2010

'They just love the movies, and it's great to be a part of it,' 'Twilight Saga' actress said at a DVD-release party in California.

SANTA CLARITA, California — While there were midnight parties for the "New Moon" DVD and Blu-ray release taking place across the country Friday night, only those living in the Los Angeles area were treated to the company of both the director and a main star. Director Chris Weitz and actress Nikki Reed traveled to the Wal-Mart in Santa Clarita to celebrate the release.

"I like to go to Wal-Mart to hold press conferences just at odd moments, so this is not my first time," Weitz joked when he spoke with MTV News at the event. "But usually people don't show up with cameras. I'm just talking to an imaginary microphone."

Reed answered a bit more sincerely, saying, "It's amazing. It's fun, you know? ... It always feels very undeserved, I guess, when you show up at a place like this and there's 400 people standing outside."

Even after spending three years on the "Twilight Saga" films, she said never gets used to the incredible reaction of the fans. Reed plays a member of the Cullen brood of vampires, Rosalie Hale, and is the "sister" to Robert Pattinson's Edward Cullen. Despite her high-ranking status in the list of fan-favorite actors from the series, Reed said she still never expects the type of turnout there was just for her Friday night.

"I always want to go out and go, 'You know that I'm not Rob. It's just me here. It's me and Chris,' " she said with a laugh. "[Yet the fans] still come around."

Reed did acknowledge that the fans are the driving force behind the series and are responsible for the "Twilight" films' vast success. "They just love the movies," she said, "and it's great to be a part of it."

Credit: MTV

'New Moon' Director Gets Away From Frenzy

18 Mar 2010

CNN just released an interview they conducted with 'New Moon' director Chris Weitz, where here discusses the upcoming DVD, the cast, directing the movie, and more:

CNN: How did a Cambridge-educated, nice, half-Jewish boy get involved with "New Moon" to start with?

Weitz: (laughs) Well, they asked. I think the first reason that I got involved was that I liked the actors very much. I think they're very good. Then I went to see the [first] movie in a little theater, and the response of the fans around me was amazing -- their degree of devotion, the delight they took in it. And you don't always get that as a director. You don't always know that there are going to be people watching and taking pleasure from what you're doing, so that's kind of a wonderful opportunity.

CNN: In the DVD commentary, you said you let the opening shot of the moon go on and on because you figured there would be 30 seconds of screaming when the titles came up. Was that true?

Weitz: The first time I saw it, there was quite a lot of screaming, just because of the buildup and anticipation were so great. People had been waiting so long to see it that it was good that they had a bit of time to calm down before you first saw Bella.

IESB Exclusive Interview: Chris Weitz Looks Back at The Twilight Saga: New Moon

05 Mar 2010

IESB has an exclusive interview with Chris Weitz, where he reveals that he will likely not be directing 'Breaking Dawn'. I think that's too bad! He gets quite in depth reflecting on directing 'New Moon' and the upcoming DVD release. Read below what he has to say regarding the next film:

IESB: Looking back on the process of making New Moon, from pre-production to the finalization of the DVD, what will you remember most about the experience? Was there anything that you learned about directing or filmmaking that you'll carry with you to future projects?

Chris: What I learned was the power of a devoted audience, in supporting the filmmaker's efforts. I felt incredibly supported by the fans throughout the process. And then, to see their enjoyment and anticipation was such a visceral experience that you don't usually get to have on a memory. What I learned, as a director, was that very early on I promised myself and the actors that I would never rush them along or expect them to do something, just because it was a movie and we had a schedule to meet, and that we could always talk things through, no matter what. When I worked with my brother, I was probably the guy who was less likely to talk with the actors, and this was a full commitment to always engaging with them, and that's something I'll always take with me.

IESB: With the reception for New Moon being so overwhelming and favorable for the final outcome of the film, would you consider coming back to helm the last film, if that were to present itself, or have you moved on from the Twilight Saga?

Chris: I wouldn't say it's so much that I've moved on. It's just a very daunting prospect for someone with a young family to imagine taking on what I think will probably be an 80-day shoot. It may have moved on from me. I think the best set-up for this series of films may be that there's a new filmmaker for each one.

Click here to read the entire interview.