Fan Fare

“Twilight” stars in UK premiere no-show

The crowds were there but the stars weren’t. Whatever the reasons, and several were reported in the media, the central cast of the hit Twilight vampire movies did not attend the London premiere of the third instalment on Thursday night, much to the waiting fans’ annoyance.

“Gutted” was a word used more than once among those who had queued in London’s Leicester Square for hours to catch a glimpse of their big-screen heroes.

Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner appeared by video message, which was enough to satisfy some of the “Twihards” in attendance. But many others felt short-changed by their absence, particularly as Pattinson, now an A-list Hollywood heartthrob, is a Brit. Most members of the media were aware they weren’t going to show up, but I wonder why the news had not got through to the fans? And would those fans have shown up had they known?

An own goal that will backfire? Probably not. Once the disappointment passes, it is hard to imagine many people keen enough to attend a premiere not actually going to see the movie.

Twi-hards howl for “Twilight Saga: Eclipse”

We knew it would be big. We still don’t know how big, and we won’t until after the upcoming debut weekend. Read about the box office  here.

But we do know that even before it has played one full day in theaters, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” has already broken a record. The film’s midnight screenings on Wednesday raked in more than $30 million at North American box offices. Read about that here. In fact, you can read about the movie here, a review here, our interview with Taylor Lautner here, and a story about Native Americans in the film, here.

We were in Hollywood to talk to some of the “Twi-hard” fans, and some folks who were not so excited. Watch the video to see what we learned.

(video by Marc Price)

Yo man! “Twilight” hunk Robert Pattinson … as a rapper???

Thought you knew all there was to know about the “Twilight” movies and their stars?

Think again.

Heart-throb Robert Pattinson has revealed a surprising ambition before he turned to acting. Seems one of his first career aspirations was to be a rapper.

“I used to want to be a rapper when I was, like, 14,” the British actor, now 24, said during an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show”  with co-stars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, which is set to air on Thursday.

He recalled that he perfected his American accent by watching Hollywood movies. “But Kristen thinks I do the most terrible American accent.”

“No, no I don’t,” Stewart laughed in response. “Occasionally, some word will come out, and I’ll be like, ‘We don’t say that!’ ”

Rapper or vampire?  How do you prefer your Pattinson?

“Twilight” stars Stewart, Lautner grab Oscar spotlight

Call it Oscar’s equivalent of hiring a really good Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon to nip a wrinkle here and tuck a chin there.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday said four of today’s hottest young actors and actresses — Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron — will be presenters at this year’s ceremony for the world’s top film honors on March 7.

The Oscars have long been the arena of mostly veteran actors and actresses, and that is one reason — albeit not the only reason — the telecast is considered by some to be out-of-touch with mainstream moviegoers who tend to be mostly young. We aren’t so sure that piece of conventional Hollywood wisdom is true, but we do know that when box office hits like  the “Lord of the Rings” movies get a lot of nominations, more people tune in to the telecast than when low-budget dramas such as “No Country for Old Men” walk off with the best movie prize. We also know that “Lord of the Rings” was aimed mostly at young audiences and “No Country” at adults.

So, very likely in an effort to spur young audiences to tune-in, Oscar organizers have signed up the foursome to present. All good, but we’d offer that maybe they didn’t have to. Action adventure “Avatar,” the biggest box office hit of all time, is among the most-nominated films and it, too, was targeted mostly at young audiences.

Joan Jett, “The Runaways” rock Sundance

So, maybe you thought the Sundance Film Festival was just about movies? Think again.

A big part of a successful movie is a good score, hit song or great soundtrack. Any director or producer will tell you music can make or break a film, and each year the festival promotes music seminars to help filmmakers learn the ins-and-outs of creating or picking good tunes. Also, the festival will screen a few films dealing with musicians, bands or the recording industry, and this year is no exception.

“The Runaways,” which tells the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll story of the all-girl 1970s-era band of the same name led by Joan Jett, brought youthful energy and starpower to  Sundance 2010′s opening weekend. You can read about the movie here. Stars Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart were in town for the movie’s premiere.  Fanning portrays Cherie Currie, whose career as the Runaways lead singer flamed-out as a teenager due to alcohol and drug use, and Stewart is Joan Jett. Jett, with her band The Blackhearts, continues to rock into her 50s and while the movie does not open until March, she was at Sundance playing a Saturday night gig at Harry O’s. We were there and put together the brief video clip above.

‘New Moon’ sinks fangs deeper into box office

(Reporting and video by Marc Price)

Vampire romance “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” took the top spot at North American box offices for the second straight weekend, sinking its fangs into ticket sales and drawing out $66 million over the 5-day U.S. Thanksgiving holiday ($42.5 million for the three days). It’s two-week total in the U.S. and Canada now stands at just under $231 million. Add to that an international haul of $243, and global sales hit $474 million.

Perhaps in this season of swine flu we have a new virus, “New Moon Flu,” which mostly women seem to get. It turns them into zombies (no disrespect, but it seemed appropriate when talking about movies with monsters) who then march into theaters.

But there are more films with broad appeal in theaters. Football movie “The Blind Side” and disaster flick “2012″ held up well to land at No. 2 and No. 3 on box office charts, respectively. You can read our box office report here.

Of new movies, Disney comedy “Old Dogs,” starring John Travolta and Robin Williams, was No. 4 which was likely a disappointment given the star power of Travolta and Williams. But those guys are getting up there and younger movie fans seem more tuned-in to the youthful stars of “New Moon” — Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (pictured above). That said, there’s a young star in “Old Dogs,” too, Seth Green. He’s featured prominently on the movie’s poster. (Maybe they should’ve given him some fangs).

Similarly, martial arts flick “Ninja Assassin” debuted a few notches down the chart at No. 6. We’re not really sure why. Dictionaries define ninjas as skilled saboteur assassins who wear all black. And we thought, “hey, that sounds like everybody in showbiz.” So it should have played well, right?

Oscar hopeful, apocalyptic drama “The Road” also debuted over the weekend and animated film “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which features the voice of George Clooney and has earned generally good reviews, expanded wider in theaters. And in a nod to upcoming romantic comedy “Did You Hear About the Morgans,” we spent our Thanksgiving with a family of Morgans in the Hollywood Hills. To see what they had to say about holiday movies — along with fans outside theaters — click below.

Vampires + romance = box office love

(Reporting and video by Marc Price)

Since when did girls start liking guys that stay up all hours at night — drinking? Blood, no less. Since when? Since always. And if a vamp knows how to bite more than her neck, all the better.

Vampire flicks have come a long way since Bella Lugosi, and while we’re a little young to have seen Lugosi in theaters, we do remember Jim Carrey and Lauren Hutton in “Once Bitten” (Today, that would be titled “Cougar Vampire”). We remember “An American Werewolf in London” and “Teen Wolf” — we’re allowed to mention werewolves given “New Moon” and its pack. And we can say, the beasts are doing far better today romancing the gals.

On the the subject of vamps, we note Johnny Depp was named People magazine’s sexiest man of the year (you can read about that here) last week. Johnny Depp? Everybody knows Robert Pattinson is the sexiest man — or is it Taylor Lautner? C’mon you “Twi-hards” (that’s a few of you pictured at the premiere at left), which is it: vampire Edward Cullen or werewolf Jacob Black? Pattinson or Lautner?

The movie smashed weekend box office records with a domestic haul of nearly $141 million (read that here), and we were out there again. We asked women: would they let Robert Pattinson drink their blood? The answer is below.

Early UK reviews suggest Twilight sequel lacks bite

The Daily Mail calls the eagerly anticipated second instalment in the Twilight franchise “disastrous” and “one long pain in the neck“, and gives it just one star out of five compared with four stars for the first film. The Daily Mirror is kinder, saying the movie “effortlessly sweeps you along in a swirl of intoxicating passion.” It goes on to say the film, which hits US and UK theatres on Friday, works better as a love story than as a supernatural adventure.Whoever you believe in the coming days, when the already speeding Twilight hype machine goes into overdrive, critics’ opinions are likely to have little impact on how the film fares at the ticket booths. The Twilight franchise based on the hugely popular novels by U.S. author Stephenie Meyer is being touted as the next Harry Potter, i.e. billions of box office bucks in the next few days.As in the original, British actor Robert Pattinson plays Edward, the brooding bloodsucker who befriends Bella, played by Kristen Stewart. And Taylor Lautner is set to become the next heartthrob for his portrayal of American werewolf Jacob Black.Catherine Hardwicke’s original Twilight movie made $384 million at the global box office. Few would bet against the sequel beating that tally, no matter what the critics think.

Good friends, chemistry, complex feelings — but no romance for “Twilight” stars?

They’re “really good friends” with major chemistry and “a multitude of feelings for each other”… BUT “Twilight” stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart say they are getting really, really fed up with persistent media  reports claiming they are in love, or secretly dating.

“It doesn’t make any difference  what you say (to the tabloids). I’ve literally been across the country (from Kristen) and it’s like, ‘Oh, they were on secret dates!’ It’s like, ‘Where? I can’t get out of my hotel room!’” Pattinson tells Vanity Fair in its December issue.

Stewart sounds even more impatient: “It’s so retarded,” she tells the magazine. “We’re characters in this comic book.”

That might prove the end of the tabloid match-making of the past year.

But “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke revealed that the couple did share major chemistry while filming the first movie in the vampire book series — a fact that was obvious to the movie’s millions of fans, and which has given some credence to all those off-screen romance rumors.

“What Rob and Kristen had is a multitude of feelings for each other. Complex feelings for each other. It was what we needed. Complex, intense fascination,” Hardwicke tells Vanity Fair.

As Hardwicke wasn’t on board for the much-anticipated “New Moon” sequel, guess we’ll have to wait and see whether all those multitudes of complex, intense, fascination feelings between the pair have progressed in the second movie.

Zac Efron, Robert Pattinson, not fans of their own movies

Zac Efron, a graduate of Disney’s star machine and teen heart-throb of the “High School Musical” series and “17 Again,” is not the biggest fan of his own movies.

And he’s not the only one. “Twilight” stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are not exactly talking their own work up either.

With his latest film “Me and Orson Welles” due out next month, Efron told Nylon Guys magazine, “It’s the first time I’ve ever watched a movie (that I’m in) and in the end I’m like, ‘OK! I didn’t check my watch once!”

In fairness to Efron, he is only 21 year-old, so it’s not like he has the long list of movie credits of, say, a Jack Nicholson. Maybe it takes him a while to get warmed up, and he will have some other favorite roles after “Me and Orson Welles.”

But that does not sit well with some Disney fans.  At the Disney fan website, DisneyDreaming.com, they whipped up an article titled “Zac Efron Disappoints Us Again” after his latest comment.

“C’mon Zac Efron, really? We love your movies, and we support all of your roles,” the short article states. “And on top of that, we PAY to watch your movies in theater, purchase them on DVD and buy paraphernalia with your face on it. The LEAST you could do is act like you enjoyed those movies too.”

Wow, who knew those Mickey Mouse ears could be so sharp?