Twilight is a 2008 American romantic fantasy film directed by Catherine Hardwicke from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. It is the first installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, a teenage girl, and Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, a vampire. It focuses on the development of Bella and Edward's relationship and the subsequent efforts of Edward and his family to keep Bella safe from another coven of vampires.
The project was in development for approximately three years at Paramount Pictures' MTV Films, during which time a film adaptation that differed significantly from the novel was written. Summit Entertainment acquired the rights to the novel after the project's stagnant development. Rosenberg wrote a new adaptation of the novel shortly before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike and sought to be faithful to the novel's storyline. Principal photography began in March 2008 and took 44 days, being completed in May; the film was shot in the state of Oregon.
Twilight premiered at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, California, on November 17, 2008, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 21, by Summit Entertainment. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film grossed $412 million worldwide. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 21, 2009, and became the most purchased DVD of the year. The soundtrack was released on November 4, 2008.
The film was followed by four sequels: New Moon (2009), Eclipse (2010), Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011), and Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012)
Plot
Seventeen-year-old Bella Swan leaves Phoenix, Arizona, and moves to Forks, a small town located on Washington state's Olympic Peninsula, to live with her father, Charlie, the town's police chief. Her mother, Renée, is remarried to Phil, a minor league baseball player.
Bella becomes reacquainted with Jacob Black, a Native American teenager who lives with his father, Billy, on the Quileute Indian Reservation near Forks. At school, she finds the mysterious and aloof Cullen siblings particularly intriguing. She is seated next to Edward Cullen in biology class, but he seems repulsed by her.
When Bella is nearly struck by a van in the school parking lot, Edward instantaneously covers a distance of over thirty feet to put himself between her and the van, stopping it with only his hand. He refuses to explain his actions to her, warning her against befriending him. Jacob tells Bella about a long-standing animosity between the Cullens and the Quileutes; the Cullens are not allowed on the reservation.
When Edward saves Bella again, this time from a gang, she does research and concludes he is a vampire. He eventually confirms this and explains that, upon meeting her in biology class, he found her scent irresistible. He says the Cullens only consume animal blood.
The pair fall in love and Edward introduces Bella to his vampire family. Carlisle Cullen, the patriarch, is a doctor at the Forks Hospital. Esme is his wife, and Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie are their informally adopted children. The family's reaction to Bella is mixed, as some of the Cullens are concerned that the family's secret could be exposed.
Edward and Bella's relationship is jeopardized when three nomadic vampires—James, Victoria, and Laurent—arrive, responsible for a series of deaths being investigated as animal attacks. James, a tracker vampire, is excited by Bella's scent and becomes obsessed with hunting her for sport. The Cullens protect Bella from the trio. Laurent chooses to warn the Cullens about James, who in turn attempt to draw James away from Bella, but James manages to track her to Phoenix. She is there hiding with Jasper and Alice, and James tricks her into thinking he kidnapped her mother by luring her into her old ballet studio.
James reveals the kidnapping was a ruse as he attacks Bella, infecting her with vampire venom. The Cullens arrive and kill James, decapitating and burning him, as Edward removes the venom from Bella's wrist, preventing her from becoming a vampire.
In the aftermath, Edward accompanies an injured Bella to prom, where he refuses her request to transform her into a vampire. They are unaware that James' mate, Victoria, is watching them, plotting revenge for her lover's death.
Cast
Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, a 17-year-old girl who moves to the small town of Forks, Washington, from Phoenix, Arizona, and falls in love with Edward Cullen, a vampire. Her life is endangered after James, a sadistic vampire, decides to hunt her. Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, a 108-year-old vampire who was changed in 1918 and still appears to be seventeen. He is Bella's love interest and eventually falls in love with her. He can read minds, except for Bella's, along with superhuman speed. Billy Burke as Charlie Swan, Bella's father and Forks' Chief of Police Peter Facinelli as Carlisle Cullen, a compassionate 300-plus-year-old vampire who looks to be in his early 30s. He serves as the town's physician and is the Cullen family patriarch. Elizabeth Reaser as Esme Cullen, Carlisle's vampire wife and the matriarch of the Cullen family Cam Gigandet as James Witherdale, the vicious member of a trio of nomadic vampires with an intention to kill Bella. He is Victoria's mate and a gifted tracker, due to his unparalleled senses Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen, Jasper Hale's mate, a vampire who can see the future based on decisions that people make Anna Kendrick as Jessica Stanley, Bella's first friend in Forks Nikki Reed as Rosalie Hale, Emmett Cullen's mate, a vampire described as the most beautiful person in the world. She is hostile toward Bella throughout the film, worried that Edward's relationship with a human puts their clan at risk. Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black, an old childhood friend of Bella and a member of the Quileute tribe Kellan Lutz as Emmett Cullen, physically the strongest vampire of the family Jackson Rathbone as Jasper Hale, a Cullen family member who can manipulate emotions. He is the newest member of the Cullen family and thus has the most difficulty maintaining their "vegetarian" diet of feeding only on animal rather than human blood. Michael Welch as Mike Newton, one of Bella's new friends who vie for her attention Gil Birmingham as Billy Black Justin Chon as Eric Yorkie, another one of Bella's classmates who vies for her attention Christian Serratos as Angela Weber, one of Bella's new friends in Forks José Zúñiga as Mr. Molina Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria Sutherland, James' mate who assists him and Laurent in causing havoc in the Olympic Peninsula Edi Gathegi as Laurent Da Revin, leader of a trio of vampires wreaking havoc in the Olympic Peninsula and the most civilized of the trio Sarah Clarke as Renée Dwyer, Bella's mother who lives in Arizona with her new husband, Phil
Matt Bushell as Phil Dwyer Gregory Tyree Boyce as Tyler Crowley, another one of Bella's classmates, also vying for Bella's attention. He nearly hits Bella with his van. Trish Egan as Ms. Cope Ayanna Berkshire as Cora Ned Bellamy as Waylon Forge Solomon Trimble as Sam Uley. Solomon Trimble was credited as "Jacob's friend" in the film, but was widely recognized as playing the part of Sam. Katie Powers as waitress Krys Hyatt as Embry Call. He was recognized as playing the part of Embry in the Twilight film, though his role was uncredited.
Production
Development In early 2004, Greg Mooradian of Maverick Films, looking for young adult novels to adapt to film, received an unpublished manuscript of Twilight and began to read it. After reaching the scene where Bella Swan is saved by Edward Cullen from being hit by a car, Mooradian understood the appeal of the novel. He soon brought the manuscript to David Gale, then executive vice president of Paramount Pictures' MTV Films division, to propose a film adaptation, believing the novel to be "tailor-made" for the MTV brand's teen audience. Gale, in turn, brought it to Paramount's then co-president of production, Karen Rosenfelt, who lobbied to option the rights to the novel. MTV Films eventually acquired the rights in April of the same year and later hired Mark Lord to write a script. The screenplay that was subsequently developed was substantially different from its source material, being more action-oriented. According to Lord, he originally pitched his adaptation as a vampiric take on the play Romeo and Juliet, but MTV Films "wanted to just put in some more action to advance it more and give something more for the male audience. They thought they were going to lose the male audience with too much of a romance." MTV Films was pleased with the script he delivered, which included, among many changes, the character of Bella Swan being a long-distance runner, cursing, using shotguns against vampires who killed her father, being turned into a vampire, and riding a jet ski while being chased by the FBI. When talking about MTV Films' original script, author Stephenie Meyer said, "They could have filmed it and not called it Twilight because it had nothing to do with the book, and that's kind of frightening."
Following a change of management at Paramount Pictures, the studio's new president of production, Brad Weston, told Gale that he believed audiences were not interested in films about vampires and werewolves, after being involved with box-office bomb Cursed at Dimension Films, and development stalled. In January 2006, Paramount put Twilight into turnaround. Rosenfelt, who had left Paramount and came aboard Twilight as a producer, was determined to make the film and attempted to forge a co-production deal between Paramount and Fox 2000 Pictures, where she had a producing deal, but Fox 2000 did not agree with Paramount's terms. Rosenfelt later tried to generate interest at Fox Atomic, but Fox Atomic passed. In October 2006, Rosenfelt met with Erik Feig, then president of production of Summit Entertainment, and mentioned to him that, of all the projects she wished she could make, she thought Twilight had the biggest potential. After their meeting, Feig obtained a copy of the novel, read it, and passed it on to colleagues at Summit, who perceived it as an opportunity to launch a franchise. When Paramount Pictures let the rights to Twilight expire in April 2007, Summit acquired them, agreeing in contract with Meyer that their film adaptation would be more faithful to the novel than MTV Films' version.
Before even having the rights to Twilight, on the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Feig talked with director Catherine Hardwicke, of whom he was a fan, about working with Summit Entertainment and sent her five scripts of films the studio was developing, including Mark Lord's draft of Twilight for MTV Films. Hardwicke did not like any of the scripts, but ended up curious about Twilight. She bought a copy of the novel and realized the script she had read had very little to do with the source material, which she soon began envisioning as a film. Following Summit's acquisition of the rights, Hardwicke was set to direct the film and Melissa Rosenberg was hired to write the script in mid-2007.