THE PHENOMENON CONTINUES
The Twilight Saga film series stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner and tells the story of 17-year-old Bella Swan who moves to the small town of Forks, Washington to live with her father, and becomes drawn to Edward Cullen, a pale, mysterious classmate who seems determined to push her away. But neither can deny the attraction that pulls them together…even when Edward confides that he and his family are vampires. To complicate matters, Bella's best friend Jacob Black is a
werewolf, designed solely to kill vampires. Read more

THE CAST CONTINUES TO GROW
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse sees the return of the major cast established in Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, plus along with director David Slade, several new actors and characters join the Twilight family. Slade worked intensely with Jackson Rathbone and Nikki Reed exploring the past of their characters. "With the back stories in Eclipse, you actually get to do a 1930's movie, you get to do a Western, and you get to go back into the 1700's and 1800's…. plus this big contemporary movie."
New cast members include vampires Bryce Dallas Howard as Victoria, Xavier Samuel as Riley, and Jodelle Ferland as Bree. Additional Quileute characters are introduced: Julia Jones and BooBoo Stewart as siblings Leah and Seth Clearwater, as well as Alex Rice as their mother Sue Clearwater (who is widowed by the death of Harry Clearwater in The Twilight Saga: New Moon). Other notable new cast members are Oscar-nominated Catalina Sandino Moreno as Maria, Jack Huston as Royce King, and singer Peter Murphy as the first vampire.

Bella, Edward, and Jacob: The Pinnacle of the Triangle
Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon made Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner into global household names for their portrayals of Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black.
"Eclipse is about a triangle and the tension between these three characters," comments screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. "The rivalry and jealousies - just the most basic of all human emotions of love and loss. At its core, it is all very raw and it all comes to a head in this movie. It's just really rich territory to mine. It's so great writing the character of Bella, getting to bring out her strength and really getting to explore the depth of that character, particularly as portrayed by Kristin Stewart. She has such inner strength and she's really becomes a heroine in this story. I love writing those kinds of characters." Read more

The Cullen Family -  a clan of vampires
Continuing in the saga as The Cullen Family are Ashley Greene as Alice, Peter Facinelli as Carlisle, Nikki Reed as Rosalie, Jackson Rathbone as Jasper, Kellan Lutz as Emmett, and Elizabeth Reaser as Esme. "The Cullens have pretty much decided to accept Bella, but Bella's really put them in a position of jeopardy. There's an entire clan of vampires coming to Forks and they're going to have to defend her and themselves," says Godfrey. Read more

Victoria - the villainess hell-bent on revenge
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse finds Victoria - the villainess of all three films - still hell-bent on revenging her lover James, who met his demise at the hands of Edward and the rest of the Cullens in Twilight. This time around Bryce Dallas Howard plays Victoria, while newcomers - Xavier Samuel as Riley and Jodelle Ferland as Bree - portray pawns in her scheme. Read more

Riley - ringleader of the reckless newborn vampires
Australian actor Xavier Samuel makes his American film debut as Riley. "We just received his audition in the mail and Gillian Bohrer from Summit was the first one to email me saying 'Have you seen this guy's audition? He's great.' He's a fantastic young actor. We brought him over for an on-camera audition and he felt like the right sensitivity and intensity for Riley," remembers Godfrey. "Riley as a human was a nice guy, but Riley as a newborn has to be a leader. He is the main soldier, but underneath that he's still very vulnerable, because he loves her and he doesn't realize that he's just a pawn." Read more

The Newborn army
Filmmakers cast a young Canadian actress as a hapless member of the newborn army. "Jodelle Ferland, who's been in a ton of movies already at the age of 15, is shockingly good as Bree, which is one of Stephenie's favorite characters," says Godfrey. "Poor Jodelle," sighs Meyer. "She gets the vulnerability of this person who's waking up in a new life and who's confused and suspicious, but doesn't know what to do except follow what she's been told. I think Jodelle brings a lot of that." Read more

The Volturi - a venerable coven of vampires
Returning as members of the legendary Volturi - a venerable coven of vampires who weigh and impose the laws of the vampire world - are Dakota Fanning as Jane, a high ranking and powerful Volturi, and Cameron Bright as Alec, her brother; as well as Volturi enforcers Charlie Bewley as Demetri and Daniel Cudmore as Felix. The foursome is sent to the Pacific Northwest to investigate the killings in Seattle. While in the area, they also check on the status of Bella's immortality, of great interest to their leader Aro, as well as Marcus and Caius, who all remain in Italy. Read more

The Wolf Pack Gets Bigger
In The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, the wolf pack allies with their ancestral enemy to defend Bella, who learns more about the wolf concept of imprinting as well as the tribe's legends. New Quileute characters are portrayed by Julia Jones, Booboo Stewart, and Alex Rice as the Clearwater Family: Leah, Seth, and their mother Sue, who has assumed her late husband position on the tribal council. Read more

Quileute Nation Tribal School
Prior to filming Eclipse, Tinsel Korey spent a week at the real Quileute Nation on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. She volunteered to teach acting classes at the K-12 Tribal School there. "As native people we're taught than when you have a gift, you give back. So this was my way of honoring the Quileute's being in the book and also bringing them to be a part of it," says Korey. Read more

The werewolves loved collaborating with director David Slade
Like the vampires, the werewolves loved collaborating with their new director. "I like David Slade because he's real meticulous, he knows what he wants, and he's fast," comments Spencer. "I like directors like that - he gets right to the point, you get cranking it out, and looking good." Read more

The Humans
As Bella's in-the-dark parents, Billy Burke also returns as Charlie Swan, with Sarah Clarke reprising her role from Twilight as Bella's hippy-dippy mother Rene Dwyer. Read more

New Characters from the Past
Oscar-nominated Catalina Sandino Moreno as Maria, Jack Huston as Royce King, and English musician Peter Murphy appear in roles that flesh out the back stories of Jasper, Rosalie, and the Quileute Tribe.Read more

MAKING ECLIPSE: ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse began shooting on August 17, 2009 in Vancouver and continued for 11 weeks in numerous locations around British Columbia. Many of the forested locations in the movie were remote with limited accessibility.The huge production featured a large main shooting unit and a full 2nd unit which shared responsibility for the three main action sequences… Read more

How to capture vampire speed
"One of the biggest challenges of the movies has always been to capture vampire speed," adds producer Wyck Godfrey. "One of the things that David and E.J. came up with was we want to do this in-camera. We really want to show these vampires flying through the woods at the phenomenal speed that Stephenie Meyer describes in her books."Read more

Filming in real locations
"One thing about the Twilight franchise is that everything is based in a real environment. Viewers can identify with it because everything's believable," adds Bannerman. "We had to sell the beats that we had to sell. That's why we go into the real forest. That's why we go into real gorges, if we can find them. That's why we go to real cliffs. That's why we go to real rivers. That's why we go to real mountain peaks." Read more

The second biggest action sequence: Jasper teaches the wolves how to fight the Newborns
The second big action scene involves Jasper teaching his family, and the wolves, how to fight the newborns. "I think that the training clearing sequence is this movie's baseball sequence. It's a full display of vampire abilities. Read more

Making the wolves as real as trees
"I wanted the wolves to be as real as the trees," says Slade. "I always say look at the number of leaves on the trees, and look at the number of hairs on the wolves' body--you need to feel like they belong in the same world. To me, reading the book, there were these great things about how Bella would be really comfortable with Jacob in wolf form - the way she would lay against him. I wanted to capture that great tactile nature to him, so if she's going to pat him on the head, he's got to be as real as she is.Read more

The Final Action sequence
The finale action sequence takes place simultaneously on a mountaintop and in a distant field. For the mountaintop campsite, filmmakers used a combination of the top of the real Mt. Seymour and a re-creation of that peak built on stage.Read more

Shooting in remote locations and building an entire mountain top on stage
In reality, the shooting crew used a combination of 4X4s, Humvees, an old ski lift, and plain old-fashioned foot power on hiking trails to maneuver to the remote location …. "Our production designer Paul Austerberry, who was David's designer on 30 Days of Night, has in his career already made several huge exterior sets on stage working with a lot of fake snow. So we built the entire mountain top on stage and dressed it with the snow," explains Godfrey.Read more

The final battle sequence
"The finale battle sequence is a really complicated - cutting back and forth between the mountain and the field - and you're trying to make sure that all the actors know where the wolves are coming in," adds Godfrey.  Read more

Constructing the Cullen Family residence
In addition to the snowy mountaintop campsite set, filmmakers constructed a second large elaborate set on stage: the Cullen family residence.Read more

The meadow scenes
Two meadow scenes bookend The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Filmmakers brought in 75,000 flowers, taking 15 man-days to install, to once again make the meadow a majestic and magical place for the two young lovers. Read more

The costumes
Costume designer Tish Monaghan enjoyed working with the new director. "When I met with David Slade originally, we had a good discussion about the characters and the direction of the Cullens and Bella in particular. I introduced him to the existing pallet, but also tried to accommodate any requests that he had. I think it's a little bit difficult for a director to come in on the third one and try and put a stamp on things because we're revisiting a lot of the same characters." Read more

Final words
All the filmmakers felt a responsibility to the fans in making The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. "The Twilight universe is completely unique. I cannot think of anything like this really," says Slade. "The phenomenon is so huge and so disarmingly unlike what you'd expect, there really isn't a parallel. I came into this film not really understanding that. To a degree, it hadn't yet reached critical mass at that point. I don't think anybody could be prepared really for it as a filmmaker.. Read more

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