Posts tagged twilight eclipse

I’ve been a fan of David Slade since I watched his debut film Hard Candy, and even though his second film 30 Days of Night didn’t quite floor me as much as his debut, I still loved his visual style. With his third film Slade has directed the best Twilight film to date, it still wasn’t my cup of tea, but it was about 122354905 times more exciting than New Moon. I accept that the Twilight series is not made for me, my reaction to this film is not– omg omg omg omg EDWARD IS SOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOT, I’m team Jacob <3<3<3<3 luvluvluvluvluv……..to be honest I couldn’t give a rats ass, but seeing as this series has a MASSIVE audience (the caps lock still doesn’t do the ‘massive’ justice) it’s connecting with people.

Below is the result of me catching up with David Slade at the London Press Conference for ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’. Eclipse has already broken the box office record for a midnight opening in the US, and I’m sure it will have the teenage population going nutty over here when it opens in the UK this Friday.

How did you get involved with Twilight?

David Slade: The producers sent me New Moon, the book, and I started reading it. I’m a slow reader and Chris Weitz was signed, but I don’t think I was ever really a contender for it to be honest. When Eclipse came around they sent me the screenplay. It was mad, there was a week and three days between them sending me the script and saying, would you like to do the film? It was all very quick. Thankfully there was no dark moment of the soul where I had to think about it too much!

How did you find it directing Twilight: Eclipse? Especially considering you didn’t direct the first two films, were there certain constraints for you?

David Slade: Obviously there’s continuity, there actors and actresses have done it twice before, so the most important thing for me was to listen. I had one-on-one meetings with each and everyone and listened to what they loved about the other movies, with regards to their characters, what worked out, what didn’t work out, what they want and then we’d talk about script. After all the talking I knew exactly where they were at, as well as what I was after To that extent I was fully informed.

In terms of constraints, the reason they got different directors was to have a different aesthetic. I was just so immersed in making the film that it became my own film, by virtue of it being in my head so much. If anything I was encouraged to do more and be more different. I’m not particularly reverential. I only saw the first Twilight film once. From the very first meeting we said this was the most mature film, that is was going to be more realistic in every way. There were no constraints besides the obvious things.

What do you think the appeal is for the Twilight series?

David Slade: It’s a love story, a true love story. These days we live in such ironic times in terms of media coverage and the way that people write scripts and write dialogue, irony is such part of the zeitgeist now. To find something so unapologetically a true love story is so rare and it’s nice. It wears it on its sleeve, which is quite healthy, it’s nice to see true love as a nice thing, not to get all angsty. I also believe what Stephenie has done with the vampire is somewhat institutionalized it and made it acceptable and given it a family, something that can be pur, but at the same time at the end of the day it’s dangerous because it’s a carnivore. He goes out into the woods and rips bears apart and drinks their blood. It’s taking the unattainably dangerous and making it loveable. Those two things together are really attractive.

What was your take on the theme of chastity?

David Slade: I think we had to address it because I didn’t want Edward to come across as a prude. He really wants to have sex and you can tell he does., but he comes from a different period. I don’t think the film dictates that message. I think if anything, it does two things: it reverses the role which neutralises the men and not the women and two, in a time when women are over-sexualised it suggest that you don’t have to jump into sex straight away, which isn’t the same as some kind of Biblical chaste message. It’s more about timing and being in control