Fans of all ages fall victim to ‘Twilight’ conventions
Romantic. Hot. True Love. Obsessed.
When I asked Twi-hards at a recent Twilight convention in Arlington, Va., why they loved the saga, these words came up in every response.
And who can blame them? The plot allows for Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and the Quileute Wolf Pack* to spend a large portion of the movies with their shirts off wielding rock-hard abs.
*By the end of the Twilight book series, there are 10 shape-shifters in the Quileute Wolf Pack – Jacob Black (Lautner), Sam Uley (Chaske Spencer) , Embry Call (Kiowa Gordon), Quil Ateara (Tyson Houseman), Seth Clearwater (Booboo Stewart), Jared Cameron (Bronson Pelletier, pictured above), Paul Lahote (Alex Meraz), Collin Littlesea and Brady Fuller. The pack has one female member, Leah Clearwater (Julia Jones), Seth’s sister, who manages to stay covered up in the books.
For Taylor Robeson, 14, of Fairfax, Va., Edward Cullen (Pattinson) was her favorite character until the movies came out. That’s when she had to switch to Team Jacob (Lautner). “Because of the abs,” says her friend and classmate, Nina Lucas. “Yeah. When his shirt’s off,” they agree, giggling.
The Official Twilight Convention Tour — featuring live Q&As with the actors, photo ops, autographs, karaoke, a monster ball, and a costume contest — will travel around the country for another year bringing Twi-hard fans everywhere their fix of vampires and werewolves. In the meantime, there are movies to flock to: the first part of Twilight: Breaking Dawn is released in theaters Nov. 18, with the final chapter out a year later.
Read below for more of my experiences from my Twilight convention, including interviews with two Twilight stars.
Chances are, right now millions of Twilight fans are standing in line, waiting to get into tonight’s midnight showings of Eclipse all over the country. But in today’s ultra-connected world, how do you find someone with no knowledge of Twilight, either the movies or Stephenie Meyer’s crazy-popular book series? Someone who doesn’t know that Edward Cullen is the vampire Romeo to the Juliet-esque Bella Swan. Someone who doesn’t know that Jacob Black is a member of the insanely loyal Quileute werewolf pack of La Push, Wash. Someone who doesn’t know that Alice Cullen sees the future, vampires like to play baseball, and you usually want to separate bloodsuckers and werewolves at picnics and other social gatherings. I mean, I’m a comic nerd and I know all these things! (Don’t judge. I can tell you’re judging.) Luckily, I didn’t have to go too far to find someone with no Twilight knowledge at all so she could watch the new movie Eclipse — the third in the series — with no preconceived notions or bias. Our own Laura Hoxworth was a total Twilight neophyte, and she attended an early screening last night of Eclipse to see if it could hold up as a movie for the masses or if it was for super-fans only. Read below for her thoughts.
Vampire. Fantasy warrior. Rock star. Filmmaker. Actor Jackson Rathbone is making the most of his time in Los Angeles and filling it with as much art as he can. “I get off one job and then just move to another job, and there’s pretty much no dead time,” Rathbone says. “It’s one of those things. I could use a few more hours in the day honestly.” He reprises his role as the young vampire Jasper in Twilight: Eclipse, opening tomorrow, and takes on the character Sokka in M. Night Shyamalan’s fantasy film The Last Airbender, in theaters Thursday. But wait, there’s more. He’s also the producer and star of the indie drama Girlfriend, and Rathbone hopes to direct his own short film in the coming months — maybe before shooting the final two-part Twilight finale, Breaking Dawn. And then there’s his band 
Robert Pattinson was the breakthrough star of the first Twilight movie. Taylor Lautner was the “it” guy of the sequel New Moon. So will Australian actor Xavier Samuel be the man of the moment in Eclipse, the third chapter of the mega-popular series opening on Wednesday? Playing the evil vampire Riley, partner of sorts to the even more evil Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) — who’s out for revenge on the loving couple of Edward (Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart) — Samuel has already been that guy for many Twi-hards for a while. “Even going to the New Moon premiere last year, there were fans who loved the Riley character and knew that I was playing him. It is strange hearing people scream your name when you haven’t even done anything yet,” he says, laughing. I recently had the chance to talk with Samuel about his roles in Eclipse and the upcoming Roland Emmerich drama Anonymous, as well as his take on what animal is more dangerous than a pack of movie werewolves. Read below for the Q&A, and check out a clip from Eclipse featuring Samuel. (You can also see him in action in 
June 30 can’t come quickly enough for fans of the Twilight movie franchise — that’s when Eclipse is released in theaters, and the first time a Twilight movie debuts in the busy summer movie season. The third book in Stephenie Meyer‘s romantic vampire book series is more action-packed than the first two, but the first movie trailer for Eclipse puts the emphasis on the love triangle between Bella (Kirsten Stewart), vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) and werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner). In Eclipse, directed by David Slade (30 Days of Night), Bella weighs becoming a bloodsucker and remaining with Edward forever or staying human and being with Jacob, while rivals Edward and Jacob engage in a tenuous truce and rally the troops when the redheaded vampire Victoria (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) comes looking for vengeance against Bella. (For those who missed the last Twilight film, New Moon — or if you can’t wait to see it again — it arrives on DVD and Blu-ray in stores next Saturday, March 20.) What do you think of the first look audiences have had of Eclipse? Comment and let us know your thoughts.