Love it or hate it, The Twilight Saga has sunk its fangs into audiences. With an international box office gross of over $US1.7 billion so far, the film franchise is up there with Harry Potter as the movie event of a generation. It has created a legion of loyal fans, Twihards, and turned its top-billing cast into Hollywood stars. And yet it is the beginning of the end. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 is released worldwide on tomorrow and marks the first of the final two films based on Stephenie Meyer's best-selling books.Like the last Harry Potter instalment, the fourth and concluding novel in the saga, Breaking Dawn, is split into two films. It follows the continued tension between werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) as Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) prepares to marry her vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Things reach boiling point when Bella returns from the honeymoon pregnant with a supernatural fetus. Stewart was handpicked to play Bella by the original director, Catherine Hardwicke, and said she has become attached to the character.
The 21-year-old said there was a lot of pressure going into production on the final films but they remain "sincere'' to the Twilight story.
"We've been building up to these moments for fours years from when I started doing this (series) when I was 17,'' she said.
"All of these moments are complete fantasy but they're all very rooted in reality and situations I can see myself being in.
"I can't draw a line between myself and what I do. With everything I do it's hard for me to take myself out of it, not just this.
"I tried to just go for it and I feel it's very, very close to the book.''
Breaking Dawn director Bill Condon added; "There's no bigger fan of Twilight than Kristen.
"She's always pushing, pushing, pushing to know that she's capturing that moment and that feeling.''
Condon is the fourth filmmaker to take on the thinly veiled celibacy fable after Hardwicke (Twilight), Chris Weitz (New Moon) and David Slade (Eclipse). It's considerably different territory for the veteran filmmaker who won an Academy Award for his work on the Chicago screenplay. Better known for directing films such as Dreamgirls and Kinsey, Condon dipped his toe in the supernatural genre with 1995 horror film Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh. He said sitting in the directors chair for the final two parts of The Twilight Saga satisfied a lifelong fascination he has had with vampires."When I was a kid I would run home from school to see that show Dark Shadows will all the vampires, creatures and those (supernatural) characters,'' he said.
"Whatever new vampire movie or book comes out, I've always been interested.
"I don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with growing up in an intense Catholic household.''
Condon said the nature of the characters central to Meyer's story was also appealing.
"It sounds really pretentious to say that, but I do really hook into characters that are outsiders,'' he said.
Stewart herself was much of an outsider, carving a career with critically acclaimed roles in smaller films such as Into The Wild, What Just Happened and Undertow. It was her portrayal of Bella that broke her into the mainstream and Stewart is now one of the most sought after actresses in Hollywood. It's a comfortable position, allowing her to work on passion projects such as The Runaways, Adventureland and Welcome To The Rileys between blockbusters like The Twilight Saga and Snow White and the Huntsman, currently filming.
Although Stewart said she misses the anonymity of being an indie actress, she's glad Twilight turned into a box office juggernaut.
"If this was a tiny little independent movie that only ran at Sundance (Film Festival) we wouldn't be able to do the story justice,'' she said.
"Maybe you could do that with the first film, but not this one (Breaking Dawn: Part 1). It's a big film.
"It's nice to be indulgent and be able to shoot for six months with an A-Lister (like Robert Pattinson).''
Yet the Twihard frenzy does have its downsides. The intense media coverage of the stars and the shoot itself made it difficult for the studio to keep images under wraps before they show on the big screen. Stewart said the producers on set were like the "secret service'' filming the highly anticipated wedding scenes.
"During the wedding we weren't allowed any cell phones, no checking emails, nothing,'' she said.
"I had a Volturi cloak on to try and cover up the (wedding) dress as helicopters were circling above.
"I was so thankful for the crew and everyone giving up the technology because I was thinking `if this dress ends up on the internet I'll die.''
As the first half of the final book in the film franchise, Stewart said Breaking Dawn: Part 1 contains several "iconic'' scenes fans have been dying to see. Among them is the controversial birth scene where Edward and Jacob have to forcibly remove Bella's unborn child from the womb. Desipte both films having a mild M rating, Pattinson said the scene is "very graphic''.
"I think the birth scene is so different to everything else in the movie,'' he said.
"For a fantasy series that has a pretty young audience, it goes quite far.
"But if you read the book there's like literally no other way to do it.
"You can't be tame. It goes all the way.''
Real life couple Pattinson and Stewart become parents in the film to half-vampire half-human daughter Renesmee. Stewart spent weeks mentally preparing herself for the moment when she sees her daughter for the first time and said discovering she would be holding a doll and not a real baby was "jarring''.
"In the book that was raw and one of my favourite parts,'' she said.
"Then to know you won't be looking at a child and a doll instead . . . it was hard.''
"It kept reminding me of a Chucky doll,'' added Pattinson.
"I don't know if you've ever seen a baby with a wig on, but it looks like a troll.
"Chucky.''
The situation didn't become any easier when real children were brought into play their daughter through her various stages of advanced growth.
"We have Mackenzie Foy who's an amazing little kid playing her for the most part,'' said Stewart. "Then we had other kids come in that played younger versions of her but I couldn't pick up the kids.
"It was ridiculous, I was very awkward.''
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 opens worldwide on Thursday, November 17.
"I was so thankful for the crew and everyone giving up the technology because I was thinking `if this dress ends up on the internet I'll die.''
As the first half of the final book in the film franchise, Stewart said Breaking Dawn: Part 1 contains several "iconic'' scenes fans have been dying to see. Among them is the controversial birth scene where Edward and Jacob have to forcibly remove Bella's unborn child from the womb. Desipte both films having a mild M rating, Pattinson said the scene is "very graphic''."I think the birth scene is so different to everything else in the movie,'' he said.
"For a fantasy series that has a pretty young audience, it goes quite far.
"But if you read the book there's like literally no other way to do it.
"You can't be tame. It goes all the way.''
Real life couple Pattinson and Stewart become parents in the film to half-vampire half-human daughter Renesmee. Stewart spent weeks mentally preparing herself for the moment when she sees her daughter for the first time and said discovering she would be holding a doll and not a real baby was "jarring''.
"In the book that was raw and one of my favourite parts,'' she said.
"Then to know you won't be looking at a child and a doll instead . . . it was hard.''
"It kept reminding me of a Chucky doll,'' added Pattinson.
"I don't know if you've ever seen a baby with a wig on, but it looks like a troll.
"Chucky.''
The situation didn't become any easier when real children were brought into play their daughter through her various stages of advanced growth.
"We have Mackenzie Foy who's an amazing little kid playing her for the most part,'' said Stewart. "Then we had other kids come in that played younger versions of her but I couldn't pick up the kids.
"It was ridiculous, I was very awkward.''
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 opens worldwide on Thursday, November 17.
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