‘I’m excited to see finished stuff from ‘Eclipse’ rather than anything in progress,’ director says.

By Terri Schwartz

With filming on “Eclipse” wrapping up, we couldn’t resist asking “New Moon” director Chris Weitz whether he had seen any of the footage from next summer’s blockbuster. He hadn’t, he said, because he’s been busy working hard to bring fans “New Moon,” which hits theaters in less than a month. Surprisingly, he said he didn’t really want to see the footage yet.

“As a fan and a filmmaker, I’m excited to see finished stuff from ‘Eclipse’ rather than anything in progress,” Weitz said. “When you see works in progress, there’s always some guy standing in front of some big green curtain, and it’s all terribly disappointing. You really want to see the good stuff once it’s all finished.”

After “New Moon” was finished filming , Summit Entertainment announced that David Slade would be directing “Eclipse.” Weitz said he had some early chats with Slade to let him know what “New Moon” was going to look like and how he had filmed the story, and then let Slade decide how he wanted to film the series’ third installment.

“It was like the transition team, so I could kind of let him know where things are going,” Weitz said. “The transfer of power was very successful. The transition teams coordinated extremely well.”

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‘Twilight’ scribe Melissa Rosenberg confirms that the director is putting his own stamp on the franchise.

By Jocelyn Vena

If Ashley Greene, Taylor Lautner and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg can spill anything about what fans can expect from “Eclipse,” it’s that they can expect it to be dark and gory. And for fans of director David Slade, not to mention people who’ve read “Eclipse,” this should be completely unsurprising.

“David has a darker sensibility, so it clicks,” Rosenberg told E! Online. “The story has a slightly darker tone. I mean, it goes into a full-out battle, so it is darker in the nature of what it is. David was the perfect director for it.”

Slade, who follows Chris Weitz and Catherine Hardwicke in the director’s chair for the franchise, may be putting his slant on the story, but fans will still find common ground between “Eclipse” and the other two flicks already shot in the “Twilight Saga.” “They have the continuity of having the same writers and same actors, but the directors put their own stamp on it,” Rosenberg added. “They’ll be similar, but very different.”

Rosenberg’s comments about the film echo what stars Ashley Greene and Taylor Lautner have shared with MTV News about what the “Hard Candy” and “30 Days of Night” director has in mind for “Eclipse.”

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“And so [I] bid a fond farewell to Vancouver,” tweets The Twilight Saga: New Moon star Michael Sheen. “Its been epic, lush, choc and sound as a pound.” He is headed off to London after the close of filming for his portion of the much-anticipated sequel to Twilight. Having begun filming only a week ago in Vancouver, Sheen’s short stint in British Columbia involved the production of very important scenes for the film.

Catherine Hardwicke’s 2008 film Twilight, the first of the series, took 50 days or so to produce, and Chris Weitz has been on the case with The Twilight Saga: New Moon since early March. With filming wrapping up in Vancouver, and with the crew and some of the cast off to Italy at the end of the month to resume filming some of the final sequences of the movie, it appears that Weitz will have spent a little more time filming The Twilight Saga: New Moon than did his predecessor.

Rightfully so, some say. While Twilight’s run-time was right around two hours, fans contend that its successor should be longer. With many crucial scenes from the book expected on-screen, say they, two hours is simply not enough.

So, how long should The Twilight Saga: New Moon’s run time be?

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‘Twilight’ exclusive: Director Catherine Hardwicke thanks fans for making her ‘Director’s Notebook’ No. 1

by Pop Watch

She made the movie, she wrote the book, and now Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke has a message for all her fans out there: Thanks for helping the movie and the book (and, really, everything else Twilight) hit No. 1! The filmmaker/author just found out that her Twilight: Director’s Notebook will be at the top of Sunday’s New York Times best-seller list, so she wrote a little note and shot a little video to commemorate the occasion. We present both to you, exclusively…

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Find more videos like this on Catherine Hardwicke

Taking a Twilight Bite Out of the New Moon Rumors

by Larson Hill

Now that a lot of rumors surrounding the Twilight sequel New Moon have been proven false, it’s kind of funny to traverse the web and look back at the apparent and so-called bogus New Moon craziness. The latest to come down the Twilight pike is the revelation by Ashley Tisdale that Vanessa Hudgens never auditioned for New Moon at all. Since we live in an online entertainment age where the gap between confirmation and speculation has been reduced to minutes, if not seconds, it’s become increasingly difficult for larger, mainstream entertainment outlets to prevent from getting out-scooped by smaller websites that number in the thousands. In fact, it’s easier than ever for fans to get Twilight hoodwinked and New Moon hornswaggled now that the web seems to be one big message board.

Given the massive popularity of the Stephenie Meyer based Twilight saga and its upcoming big screen adaptations of New Moon and Eclipse, there’s such a groundswell of demand for New Moon that outlets, websites, blogs - you name it - are jumping on any shred of Twilight related information, true or false. The interesting thing is that when you strip away all of the rumors and gossip about New Moon, there’s very little real or official “news” on a weekly basis from a headline to newsworthy information ratio.

Here’s a deeper look inside some of the Twilight and New Moon rumors that we’ve seen in recent months and a few questions that came to mind before and after all of the apparent and alleged innuendo:

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 ‘I’m moving on to other projects,’ says director, who wants nothing but the best for ‘New Moon.’

By Larry Carroll

SANTA MONICA, California — First, the bad news: In an exclusive interview with MTV News this week, director Catherine Hardwicke confirmed that she will never, ever direct another “Twilight” movie.

“I think it’s healthier to have a new person do [each one],” explained Hardwicke, who was recently replaced for the sequel “New Moon” but had some fans holding out hope she might return for the upcoming “Eclipse” or “Breaking Dawn” films. “I’ve loved all the different directors that did the ‘Harry Potter’ [films], because each one had their own cool style and energy, so I think that’s good. And I’m moving on to other projects.”

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 The film’s director and star team up to promote Hardwicke’s book, ‘Twilight Director’s Notebook: The Story of How We Made the Movie.’

By Larry Carroll

SANTA MONICA, California — On a random Tuesday at Santa Monica High School, groups of teenagers shuffle into the auditorium and find their seats. It’s the type of moment that plays out every day across schools nationwide, but something is different: These students wear black T-shirts, point their cell phone cameras toward the stage and hold up signs declaring their love for Edward Cullen.

They’ve assembled on this day to study a very special curriculum — within moments, they erupt in cheers for professors Catherine Hardwicke and Edi Gathegi.

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 Pattinson and Stewart “Still Really Cool,” Says Twilight Director

by MARC MALKIN

Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke remembers the exact moment she decided to say no to New Moon.

“I was in Paris with Rob [Pattinson] and Kristen [Stewart] at dinner and talking to them and it was like, ‘Is this really the schedule? Would we really be starting 10 and a half weeks from now?’ ” Hardwicke told me yesterday in Santa Monica at the launch event for her new book,Twilight: Director’s Notebook. “Yes, we would, for various reasons which I respect, but I really thought it would be better for somebody else, who hadn’t just been working every day for two years without a day off.”

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‘Twilight’ Star Kristen Stewart Talks ‘New Moon,’ Future Sequels ’Everybody has to be on the same page when you’re making a movie,’ actress says of process of choosing new directors for the franchise.

By Larry Carroll, with reporting by Jeff Cornell

BEVERLY HILLS, California — Round and round the directorial wheel goes — who’ll make “Eclipse,” nobody knows. Not even “Twilight” star Kristen Stewart, whose versatile acting skills are on display these days in ”The Cake Eaters” and “Adventureland,” in theaters April 3. Now, as she begins work on the next two Stephenie Meyer sequels, we got Kristen’s thoughts on Chris Weitz vs. Catherine Hardwicke, Drew Barrymore vs. Juan Antonio Bayona, and where the franchise goes from here.

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‘Twilight’ Director Catherine Hardwicke Tells Why She Turned Down ‘New Moon’

‘I just didn’t think I could make a good movie under those circumstances,’ she says of studio’s conditions.

By Jocelyn Vena

Despite being offered a huge sum of money to come onboard, Catherine Hardwicke decided not to direct “Twilight” sequel “New Moon.” The director told Entertainment Weekly that she didn’t want to make the film under the deadline and budget restraints that would have been placed on her for the follow-up, reports the Associated Press.

She recalls being at dinner with “Twilight” stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in Paris when she got the call from Summit Entertainment, which offered her “more money than I or anyone in my family has ever seen.”

But, she added that with the payday came tight budget restraints and deadlines. “I was devastated,” said Hardwick, who will release her book”Twilight: Director’s Notebook” in March. “I really did feel a strong connection to the people around the world that liked the movie, and to Stephenie and the actors. But I just didn’t think I could make a good movie under those circumstances.”

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