The Twilight Saga: New Moon (15)

19 November 2009

THE massively popular Twilight vampire series of novels by Stephenie Meyer gets its second movie outing, with THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON (15).

Bella Swan is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love Edward Cullen, but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black.

Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, who are ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested.

Twilight, the first film, was released in November 2008 and was an instant success, no small feat for a project that was being carefully scrutinised by the novels' millions of dedicated fans who were anxious to see how their heroes and heroines were depicted.

The film adaptation of the unlikely romance between a sensitive schoolgirl and a more than a century-old vampire brought in more than $70million on its opening weekend, eventually grossing more than $350million worldwide.

Producer Wyck Godfrey says of the second film: "The challenge was to not simply repeat what the first movie delivered.

"As the story progresses, the world opens up. We have to evolve the characters and deliver the new world visually. We're digging deeper into Bella's life as her world expands."

Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward, says: "Because Kristen (Stewart, who plays Bella) and I have played the parts before, we have a very specific idea of how we think the characters develop throughout the whole series.

"Chris (director Chris Weitz) was very understanding of that. But he also came prepared with a lot of great ideas and he had a lot of research to back them up."

Author Meyer says she is delighted by both films.