So maybe stocking that $799 replica of Bella Swan's wedding dress from Breaking Dawn -- Part 1 in your bridal store was not a great idea. TMZ reports that scheming single Twi-hards have been faking engagements just to score fittings with Kristen Stewart's knock-off gown making it "extremely difficult to conduct business" in Alfred Angelo bridal boutiques everywhere. Hey, at least they're not recreating the birth scene! [TMZ]
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn might have held onto the #1 slot during the Thanksgiving frame, but holiday buzz lifted those plucky Muppets to a strong second place showing; with $24.7 million over three days, Jason Segel, Kermit, and Co. should ride the Rainbow Connection all the way to a very nice pile of green by weekend's end. Meanwhile, Happy Feet Two continues to slide and Aardman Animation's fellow wintry offering Arthur Christmas opened with a modest $4.5 million Friday. Martin Scorsese's 3-D fall family flick Hugo, on the other hand, enjoyed a strong debut on a fraction of the screens. Maybe audiences weren't quite ready to ring in the yuletide cheer?
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Say you're a teen Twilight devotee. Ever since last year's Eclipse, you've been counting down the days until Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner reprised their roles for the long-awaited, demon fetus pregnancy installment in Stephenie Meyer's fluffy vamp franchise. Your boyfriend promised he would take you to Breaking Dawn -- Part 1, only at the last minute he bailed (typical!) and you missed the one thing that was getting you through a particularly rough and angsty period of your adolescence. What do you do?
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Throughout the Twilight franchise, one screenwriter has adapted author Stephenie Meyer's bestselling book series about a teenager and her love for a vampire for the screen: Melissa Rosenberg. It's a tricky job, balancing the desire to satisfy fans with the need to make Meyer's 500+ page-novels cinematic, all while transforming heroine Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) from unsteady teen to self-possessed woman. But in Breaking Dawn - Part 1 Bella finally is an agent of her own destiny, her senses awakened, and her choices confident. Was she, as Rosenberg insists, an active heroine under the surface just waiting to spring into action all along?
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The Twilight Saga sparkled to another #1 opening, as if you had any doubt; it was just a matter of how many millions Breaking Dawn would rake in, after Friday's $72 million opening day. But while all the excitement over weddings, butter-colored honeymoons, and monster vampire babies couldn't quite help BD eclipse New Moon (groan), it still nudged out Pirates of the Caribbean: The One with the Kraken for the #5 biggest opening of all time. That's forever, baby. Let's get our imprinting on in today's Weekend Receipts.
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After you watch the horrific repercussions of Twilight's sweet, placenta-chomping vampire romance this weekend, check out the indie drama Bellflower, one of the year's more vivid and gut-wrenching examinations of the more painful side of love. You think delivering a monster baby is stressful, Bella Swan? Just see what happens to poor Woodrow (writer-director Evan Glodell) in the aftermath of puppy love. At least he's got the kick-ass, flame-throwing, apocalypse-ready Medusa car to ride around in... which can be yours, Bellflower fans, for just a few (thousand -- OK, many thousands of) bucks!
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As Cullen family ringleader Carlisle, Peter Facinelli has faced off with the Volturi, rallied his clan to keep Bella and Edward safe and, in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1, walks a tightrope trying to keep Bella unharmed during her unexpected pregnancy. Facinelli talked with Movieline about working with writer/director Bill Condon and Stephenie Meyer on the final two films and the daunting task of shooting them -- at the junket for the film earlier in the day, Facinelli was still marveling at the screenplay's heft.
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This weekend, fans and critics will dissect The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, to evaluate the film's dreamy wedding, nightmare pregnancy and cinematic merit. But what does the actual vampire community think about the latest Stephenie Meyer adaptation that features Robert Pattinson as a hunky bloodsucker, Kristen Stewart as his teen bride and Taylor Lautner as a walking set of abs?
To get answers, Movieline tracked down an Atlanta-based, self-identified vampire named Merticus who --- in spite of his community's near-universal hatred of the tween-targeted franchise -- was willing to shed light on the vampire misconceptions perpetuated in the latest Twilight installment.
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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part I is such a departure from the previous three Twilight pictures that you could almost consider it a rogue offshoot. Director Bill Condon steers the franchise away from visions of wan, suffering teens and fake-fur werewolf tussles and brings it closer to -- if not necessarily close to -- something resembling human adult sexual obsession and its attendant responsibilities and anxieties. It's like Jules and Jim for the Tiger Beat set.
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Now that the Twilight film franchise is drawing to a close (with $1.8 billion in receipts and counting, not including the projected $125 million opening predicted for this weekend's Breaking Dawn - Part 1), series screenwriter and Dexter veteran Melissa Rosenberg has turned her attention to a sizable slate of television projects. Talking with Movieline today, Rosenberg delved into the Sopranosesque qualities of her newly announced female-led crime drama Penoza and discussed the challenges of bringing a Jessica Jones superheroine series into a post-Birds of Prey/Wonder Woman world.
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Jackson Rathbone says he has felt right at home playing Jasper in the Twilight films, though the vampire's quiet, reserved nature contrasts with the actor's other identity: as the leader of L.A. funk rock band 100 Monkeys, who kick off their first European tour this month. Rathbone, who was strumming a guitar between interviews at the recent junket for this week's Breaking Dawn - Part 1, spoke with Movieline about balancing film and music, Twilight's effect on his success as a musician, and moving on from the series after Breaking Dawn - Part 2 hits theaters next year.
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I'm clinically unashamed most of the time, but today I come to you with a confession worthy of St. Augustine or at least Diane Keaton: Twilight may be the ultimate Bad Movie We Love. It is surely bad, as it looks and acts like the longest, moodiest Evanescence video of all time, but it's also hard to resist. It's neither pretentious nor overconfident. It's silly. Bella Swan is hot for a shock-white ghoul with darting pupils and a social disorder. Celebrate.
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Didn't have the stamina to camp out in downtown Los Angeles this week for tonight's Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1 premiere? Fear not! Tonight, Movieline has your live stream of the red carpet event featuring stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. Quickly, grab your finest bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling cider and meet Movieline after the jump!
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Ashley Greene has been playing Alice, an unwaveringly supportive sisterly friend to Kristen Stewart's Bella, since the beginning of the Twilight series. In Breaking Dawn -- Part 1 the psychic Alice serves as wedding planner and all-around helpful vampire girl, but also faces a sudden inability to help Bella by seeing her future, or that of the child she's carrying. Greene talked about Bella's well-being, the nature of relationships and the film's intense birth scene.
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