While I’m not exactly a huge Twilight enthusiast, I do find it interesting that the latest films were helmed by a terrific director, Bill Condon, who also headed up the big screen version of Dreamgirls.
As you may recall, Condon also made Gods and Monsters, a terrific gem about James Whale, the man who directed the original Frankenstein.
Now, Dreamgirls was a dream project for Condon, as it put him in a whole new league as a filmmaker, so it’s interesting to see he made the leap to the Twilight saga after his greatest success as a director.
Condon is also a big horror guy, having worked at Avco Embassy when the company put out the legendary Phantasm, which Bill was a big champion of, and he also directed the Clive Barker horror, Candyman.
Condon told the L.A. Times, he liked the idea of working on Twilight because it was “part melodrama, part horror film.” He also told the Times he knew it was risky to take on such a popular franchise that’s a frequent critics target, but he continued, “In some ways that was part of the fun of it. There is something liberating about it. Plus I really liked the story.”
And both Robert Pattinson and Kristin Stewart liked working with Condon, with Stewart telling the Times, “We were on the same page.”
Condon also told Fearnet, “I think the biggest challenge is that these books are so beloved by so many people. You want to make sure it is your take on the material, but it doesn’t betray what people’s expectations are, yet still becomes a fully cinematic experience.”
He also said making two movies back to back was of course hard. “Kristen Stewart would be high-school Bella in the morning, a vampire in the afternoon, and a pregnant woman in the evening. It was crazy.”
And right as this blog post was being finalized, Deadline reported there was midnight madness for the DVD / Blu-Ray release of Breaking Dawn at retailers like Target and Walmart, starting at 12:01 a.m. all over the country. Love it or hate it, even with the saga soon coming to a cinematic close, Twilight and its followers ain’t going anywhere anytime soon.
