Shooting Dates: March 2007 - May 2007
Shooting Locations:
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Portland, Oregon
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Montepulciano, Siena, Tuscany, Italy
Release Date: November 20, 2009
New Moon Production Facts and Trivia- New Moon took in an incredible $26.3 million during midnight screenings on the film's opening day, trouncing the record of $22.2 million set by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It also set a record for the biggest opening day in history, taking in $72.7 million on Friday, November 20th, and nudging The Dark Knight and its $67 million opening day into second place. New Moon's opening day box office was bigger than Twilight's entire opening weekend take.
- In order to prepare his cast director Chris Weitz (About a Boy, The Golden Compass) handed out a 20-page syllabus spelling out his ideas about the story, the characters, and the tone of the film. "I wanted everyone to know what sort of movie we wanted to make and what had already been discussed with Javier [Aguirresarobe], our DP, and with David Brisbin, our production designer, what had gone into the script from Melissa [Rosenberg], what kind of thinking had gone into where we were, so that it was a holistic experience rather than the somewhat brutal process that making a film can sometimes be," said Weitz.
- Weitz has a family history of vampire films, but New Moon marked the first time he'd sunk his teeth into the genre. His grandmother had a role in the 1931 Spanish film, Drácula, and his brother, Paul, directed the teen film, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant.
- Edward Cullen isn't in the second book of the Twilight series very much, but Edward and actor Robert Pattinson are so popular, director Weitz and screenwriter Rosenberg added in more Edward than Stephenie Meyer did in the book.
"Well, it's tricky," observed Weitz. "You don't want too much Edward because then you lose the really important sense of missing him. On some level you don't want too little because everyone loves Rob. The fortunate thing about it is reading a book which, I think, takes you about 13 to 17 hours and our film which lasts two hours, actually Rob's not out of the movie for terribly long. I mean, I think the crucial difference between the book and the film is that when Bella hallucinates Edward's voice she also sees him. It's just a nice little flavoring, a little dose of Edward whenever we needed that. But I was very keen that when we presented it visually, it be as subtle as possible. And so it was kind of re-imagining the ghosting effect and trying to come up with something quite special for it. And what we did was using green screen we mapped Edward onto the dynamics of a candle flame, so that the way that he moves and flitters in and out is the way that a candle's flame would behave."
- Taylor Lautner ended all speculation that he couldn't fit the part of more mature Jacob Black in the second Twilight movie by gaining 30 pounds of muscle. In addition to hiring a personal trainer, Lautner consumed at least 3,200 calories a day. "[...]I literally would have to carry a little Baggie of beef patties, raw almonds, sweet potatoes," explained Lautner at the LA press junket for New Moon. "So it’s not like every two hours I’m eating ice cream. It was difficult."
- All of the actors who play members of the wolf pack are of Native American descent. Chaske Spencer is Lakota (Sioux), Bronson Pelletier is Cree-Metis, Kiowa Gordon is Hualapai, Tyson Houseman is Cree, and Alex Meraz is Purepecha (Tarasco). In order to play the protectors of their tribe, the actors all took part in 'wolf camp' to learn to act like a pack.
- Tippett Studio created the CGI wolves for New Moon, visiting a wolf preserve and studying the gorgeous animals for hours before starting work.
"We built the wolves from the inside out in the computer,' said effects supervisor Susan MacLeod. "So we started with a skeletal system with moving joints that can be animated. And on top of that, we laid muscles that can flex. And then a layer of skin and fur. We wanted them to look and act like real wolves without any sort of anthropomorphic quality."
