Breaking
Dawn
Movie Trivia:
'You have to accept what is.'
(Total
Trivia Entries: 72)
Want to find out which directors were considered for taking on this project? Keep reading Breaking Dawn movie trivia to find out all the details.
Directed by: Bill Condon
Written by:
Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay)
Stephenie Meyer (novel)
Starring:
Kristen Stewart - Bella Swan
Robert Pattinson - Edward Cullen
Taylor Lautner - Jacob Black
Jackson Rathbone - Jasper Hale
Ashley Greene - Alice Cullen
Sarah Clarke - Renee
Peter Facinelli - Dr. Carlisle Cullen
Elizabeth Reaser - Esme Cullen
Kellan Lutz - Emmett Cullen
Nikki Reed - Rosalie Hale
Anna Kendrick - Jessica
Michael Welch - Mike
Christian Serratos - Angela
Justin Chon - Eric
Billy Burke - Charlie Swan
Ty Olsson - Phil
Michael Sheen - Aro
Christopher Heyerdahl - Marcus
Jamie Campbell Bower - Caius
Christian Camargo - Eleazar Denali
Mía Maestro - Carmen Denali
Maggie Grace - Irina Denali
MyAnna Buring - Tanya Denali
Casey LaBow - Kate Denali
Angelo Renai - Minister Webber
Booboo Stewart - Seth
Alex Rice - Sue Clearwater
Kiowa Gordon - Embry
Tyson Houseman - Quil
Chaske Spencer - Sam Uley
Bronson Pelletier - Jared
Alex Meraz - Paul
Tanaya Beatty - Rachel
Mackenzie Foy - Rensemee
Ali Faulkner - Bianca
Casting:
In May 2010, Billy Burke and Peter Facinelli were the only actors who were confirmed to return for both parts of Breaking Dawn, while other cast members such as Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz were still in negotiations for a second part. If the actors did not reach an agreement in time for Summit to make their official announcement, apparently the studio would have gone ahead and recast their roles, as they did in Eclipse (2010) by casting Bryce Dallas Howard as Victoria.In June 2010, Summit officially confirmed that a two-part adaptation of the fourth book would start production and that all major actors, including the three lead roles, the Cullen family and Charlie Swan would return for both parts of Breaking Dawn.
In preparation for the movie, apparently Robert Pattinson spent six months going through a strict diet and exercise regime, but he stopped the regime as soon as the honeymoon scenes for Part 1 were over.
Apparently during the lovemaking scene in Part 1, Robert Pattinson's butt crack was showing during filming, so the crew had to re-cut the scene with the butt crack being painted over. Pattinson commented on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that in PG-13 movies "you can show butt cheeks but not butt cracks."
Robert Pattinson has commented that he had to try not to laugh during the shooting of the birth scene in Part 1.
Stewart commented on the wedding scene in Part 1; "I wanted to run down the aisle. I was literally pulling away from Billy Burke. Now it's a trip to watch the wedding scenes. It was so volatile and emotional, I was being such a crazy person."
Due to a minor wrist injury Stewart was wearing a brace on the day of the wedding sequence shoot. Modus FX had to create a CG model of the hand and then carefully craft a rig to create natural motions. Once that was finished, every minute movement of the hand had to be matched exactly. The rotational panning shot totals 300 frames and called for elaborate camera and object tracking. Modus used subsurface scattering to accurately capture the partial translucence of her skin to make it look more authentic.
According to Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner was in tears after the cast watched an unfinished cut of the movie.
Mackenzie Foy learned of her casting as Renesmee while filming an episode of Hawaii Five-0 Ho'apono.
Besides Mackenzie Foy, ten actresses, including Christie Burke, Rachel St. Gelais, Sierra Pitkin, and Eliza Faria were cast to play Renesmee to portray her at her various ages in Breaking Dawn, as well as a CGI-animated baby.
To protect Mackenzie Foy during filming on the set, Bill Condon had set up a swear jar where any cast and crew members caught swearing or uttering profanities were fined on the spot. The amount collected from the jar was donated to St. Jude's Children Hospital.
Author Stephenie Meyer had a cameo role as one of the wedding guests in Part 1, she can be seen as Bella is walking down the isle.
In mid April 2011, filming wrapped for most of the cast ending the 3 years of production for the franchise, but on 22nd April some additional scenes were shot for the honeymoon sequence on St. Thomas Island in the Caribbean. Pattinson, Stewart the the filming crew did their shoots in the sea all day long and then went out for cocktails on the beach and and watched the sunrise. Pattinson thought the day was "amazing" and commented, "I then asked myself why we didn't do this in those four years. Every difficult moment just vanished." Stewart commented on her final scene; "After that scene, my true final scene, I felt like I could shoot up into the night sky and every pore of my body would shoot light. I felt lighter than I've ever felt in my life."
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Screenplay & Production:
Only after Summit Entertainment approved the second and third adaptations of the franchise did talks begin for a Breaking Dawn movie, at the time they had scheduled the two part movie to be released within six months of each other.In mid 2009, producers of the previous Twilight movies stated that they had every intention of making Breaking Dawn, however, author Stephanie Meyer commented on her website's Breaking Dawn FAQ, that if an adaptation were to be created, it would have to be split into two movies because the book too long. She also thought it impossible to make due to the baby character, Renesmee. She stated that an actress could not play that part because she's a baby that has complete awareness and that the only thing that she's seen is a CGI human who looks real. But she did acknowledge the movie could be possible due to the quickly-advancing technologies.
In March 2010, Summit Entertainment considered splitting the book into two movies along he same lines as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. However, this put the status of Kristen Stewart's, Robert Pattinson's and Taylor Lautner's contracts under question as they were only under contract for four movies, until finally producer, Wyck Godfrey, confirmed that all three main cast members would sign on to do the two part movie.
In March 2010, it was announced that Summit started searching for Academy-Award nominated directors to take on the project. One of the directors that were approached was Sofia Coppola, however, she was not chosen as she was only interested in directing part one of Breaking Dawn.
The other director that was also approached for taking on Breaking Dawn was Gus Van Sant and his reason for auditioning for the role was because Robert Pattinson had mentioned he would be the ideal director for this movie. He described the audition as being very nerve-wracking and stated; "I got very nervous. There were, like, 15 people. I had never really auditioned or gone into a job interview in that way since maybe 1988 or '87. I guess I was unprepared for it. In this case, they wanted me to talk about their project, which really needed to follow very closely the book. I was talking about the book, and really all I was saying was, 'OK, this is great, let's go to it.' That was the pitch. I think they're used to something else. They're used to, for those of you who might audition for film jobs, a 40-minute dissertation with perhaps visual aids and a pep talk about how fantastic this project is going to be. I just didn't know how to do that."
In April 2010 Summit announced that Bill Condon would direct Breaking Dawn and the producers would be Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt, and author Stephenie Meyer. On his decision for choosing to direct this movie, Bill Condon stated; "The very nice folks at Summit, they sent me the novel. I loved it. I quickly imprinted on the material." Another reason Condon chose this project was his desire to work with Kristen Stewart.
In March 2010, screen writer, Melissa Rosenberg, spoke about the challenges of adapting the book; "It's the big one, it's gonna be a big challenge, and I guarantee you that not all of the fans will be happy, and I guarantee you some of them will be. You have to give up the ideal of making everybody happy, it's just not gonna happen, but you hope you make the majority happy. Again, for that last book it is about taking that specific character Bella on her journey. It's a big journey, it's a massive change for her, and you hope to realize that." She also commented; "You start with, and you end with, what is the emotional journey for these characters. That is the most important thing to capture, that is the only thing to capture. Everything else is up for grabs, but you must take these characters on the same emotional journey that they took in the book, and hence take the audience on the same emotional journey that they took in the book and that's the goal, you hope that you achieve that."
On the infamous graphic birth scene in the novel Rosenberg addressed the speculation on it's adaptation to screen, stating; "On the fan site, on Facebook, all the comments are 'It has to be R rated! You have to show the childbirth! Gore and guts and sex!' For me it's actually more interesting to not see it. You know, you can do childbirth without seeing childbirth, it doesn't mean it's any less evocative of an experience."
The battle scene between the Cullens, their witnesses and the Volturi in Part 2 was not present in the book and was written for the movie in order to provide the movie with a dramatic action sequence.
In June 2010, Summit officially confirmed that filming of the two part adaptation would begin in November 2010 with the first part to be released on 18 November 2011, and the second part to be released 16 November 2012. Filming began on November 1, 2010 and wrapped on April 15, 2011.
In July 2010, Summit announced that filming would take place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as well as in Vancouver, Canada and at the Raleigh Studios in Baton Roug with both parts being shot back-to-back.
August 2010, Rosenberg confirmed that the scripts for Part 1 and 2 were about 85 percent completed. The greatest challenge for Rosenberg was the final sequence in Part 2, she stated; "The final battle sequence is a big challenge because it lasts 25 pages. It's almost an entire three-act story in and of itself. You have to track, keep it all in one setting, hundreds of characters. It's an enormous challenge to choreograph on the page and for Bill Condon to choreograph on the stage." She had written various drafts of the scene but she hadn't revised or discussed them with Condon at that time. She said; "That's the next big hurdle to sit down with the stunt coordinator and create the ballet. It's a lot of work. I'm exhausted, but we're intent on making them the best scripts yet."
In regards to writing of the battle scene in Part 2, Rossenberg stated; "I always write out battle scenes, not because I think that they're going to shoot the action sequences as I write them, but because we need to know who dies when, why they die, how they die, who kills them, what is the emotion of the moment. Ultimately it lands with the director and the stunt coordinator; I took it as far as I could on the page. The way I approached it was, who would be the most shocking to kill? Because the first death initiates the battle, it has to be someone who everybody cares about. And because they're all there for Carlisle, it made sense that he was the one. Well, actually, the first one who is killed in reality is Irina. But the whole company doesn't actually know her; Carlisle, they'll go to battle for. And you also want, like, who's going to be the most satisfying to kill? Who have been the various nemeses? So everyone kind of gets a moment. Of course, Bella and Edward had to be the ones to kill Aro. That was the ultimate, and that they do it together felt really right. I really wanted to see Bella just rip his frickin' head off.
Rosenberg went on to add; "The cast didn't find out about the battle scene until I had finished the script, so it was many, many months later when they first got on set. I wasn't there, but I can guarantee you they were pretty psyched because they got to do some pretty fun stuff. And at the premiere, it was just, the screaming just went on and on. Every time someone would die, people were just screaming, "Oh my God!2 And then when they realized what the truth of it was, they screamed all the more. It was so funny. My only problem at the premieres is, I love watching it with that kind of energy and the fans, but they scream so much that they step on my lines. And I'm like, "Shut up, that was a really funny line right there! You just missed it!"
To compromise the necessary sophistication in adapting such a mature book and the need for maintaining a PG-13 rating, Melissa Rosenberg confirmed that the birth scene in Part 1 would be shown from Bella's point of view. Producer, Wyck Godfrey described it by stating; "She is looking through the haze, experiencing pain and everything rushing around her. We only see what she sees." Kristen Stewart confirmed that the birth scene wasn't as grotesque as described in the book and that she didn't puke up blood, but director Bill Condon stated that they shot everything as "powerful and potent as they could".
In October 2010, it was announced that Michael Wilkinson would be the costume designer. However, in April 2011 Summit announced that Carolina Herrera is the designer Bella's wedding dress. Meyer's description of the dress was "a simpler style than the frillier Edwardian stuff. Elegant white satin, cut on the bias, with long sleeves." She stated that the dress was "an interesting mix" and has a "vintage feel, but at the same time, there's an edge to it." Stewart described the dress as very tight, but still liked it and thought that it was very pretty.
Ashley Greene described Alice's bridesmaids dress, which was presumed to have been designed by costume designer Michael Wilkinson, as "magical and beautiful". She spoke about the design process, "We wanted to have all the bridesmaids fit together and also have their own identity. So, we took a little bit of Alice's past and put it into her dress."
Apparently corsets were added to all the cast's wedding outfits, but they were removed during filming because the cast felt uncomfortable wearing them whilst dancing.
In October 2010, Condon announced that Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor John Bruno, along with his team, would helm the visual effects for Breaking Dawn, including the effects necessary to show Renesmee in her various stages of life in Part 2.
In November 2010 filming officially began in Brazil. The first scenes were shot in the Lapa District in Rio de Janeiro for one night. A long city block was rented for shooting.
The honeymoon scene was shot in Paraty, Rio de Janeiro and filming took place in the Taquari area, near an unidentified waterfall and at Saco do Mamanguá beach where a mansion is located. Apparently it rained on every day of shooting. In late November, shooting moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana where most of the indoor scenes were shot on a sound stage and in a house.
In January 2011, producer Godfrey confirmed that part one of the movie would cover the wedding, honeymoon, pregnancy and birth and ends just before Bella's transformation into a vampire, Stephanie Meyer confirmed that the movie will end when Bella opens her eyes as a vampire. Godfrey also stated that the producers wanted to "take the audience through the emotional part of Bella's journey as she becomes a vampire". It will also follow the book's storyline, breaking away from Bella and following Jacob's perspective. Part 2 of the movie will follow Bella's transformation into a vampire, the first moments of her vampire life and the final confrontation with the Volturi.
In February 2011, Adam Howard was added to the Breaking Dawn visual effects team to help create the visual effects for Renesmee, due to his notable on work on a similar issue in The Social Network. Condon revealed that actress, Mackenzie Foy's face and expressions will be placed digitally on the bodies of the other actresses playing the same character through her various stages of life. Condon commented on the process, "Sometimes it was hard because the other actresses were actually just there. It was always going to be just Mackenzie's expressions and things like that, so it was a very specific technical thing that even I was learning as we did it. But I have to say, they were real troopers these girls."
In late February and early March 2011, most of the exterior shots along with Bella's vampire scenes, were shot in Canada.
Producer Godfrey, quoted in Part 1 "there are the pangs of newlywed tension that occur that are relatable even in a fantasy film. Marriage is not quite the experience that they thought it was. He also commented that he thought Part 1 is a real companion piece to Catherine Hardwicke's movie. He also quoted that Part 2 is "an action film in terms of life-and-death stakes".
Special effects were used to illustrate the invisible powers and forces between the vampires in the final battle sequence of Part 2.
Godfrey had originally considered releasing Part 2 in 3D to differentiate between the time before and after Bella becomes a vampire, an idea originally proposed for Eclipse. He stated that if they were to do it then it would have to be shot with the proper "real 3D" equipment, not just convert it into 3D in post-production. However, in the end he said the final decision rested with Bill Condon. However, it was confirmed on February 12, 2012 that Part 2 would not be filmed in 3D.
Most of Breaking Dawn Part 1 and 2 was shot in Louisiana as shooting in Louisiana provided larger tax credits making keep the budget reasonable which a small studio like Summit Entertainment would find favorable.
Bill Condon was the director of Gods and Monsters (1998), which is about James Whale, the director of Bride of Frankenstein. In Edward's flashback scene he is in the cinema watching Bride of Frankenstein.
The wedding scene in Part 1 was the last scene the cast and crew shot and was also shot under tight security. A helicopter hovered above the set, off-duty police officers surrounded the location, and sheets and umbrellas were used to protect the set from aerial shots being taken. To keep the wedding dress a secret, Kirsten Stewart was locked in a room wearing a Volturi cloak to cover the dress.
Director, Bill Condon stated; "The last scene we filmed was the dance scene between Jacob and Bella at the wedding. The last shot is Jacob leaving. I called 'Cut!' and then Kristen yelled, 'Jacob!' and hiked her dress up and started running after him into the woods, saying, "Come back! Don't leave!"
According Kristen Stewart the filming of the honeymoon sex scene in Part 1 was very awkward and by the end of the shoot she didn't feel like they had just filmed a passionate scene. The scene had to be edited in order for the movie receive a PG-13 rating as it was originally R rated.
In the honeymoon scenes we see how Edward tries to distract Bella with other activities in order to keep her from thinking about sex. One of those activities is a game of chess which has red and white pieces, this is exactly like the pieces on the cover of the book.
Stewart had to wear heavy make-up to look thin and ghastly to show Bella through a phase of pregnancy where the baby starts breaking her bones.
The birth scene in Part 1 took two nights to shoot. Apparently the cast had a long discussion with Meyer, a midwife and a doctor to discuss the mechanics of the scene, in particular to decide the area where Edward should place his mouth to bite into Bella's placenta if this situation could ever occur in real life. An animatronic baby was used to shoot a few scenes of newborn Rensemee.
Subtle CG effects were created for Part 1 by Mo
ntreal-based
Modus FX. A
team of 12 artists spent six weeks working on the movie, creating
stylized effects to emphasize the supernatural capabilities of the main
characters without making them too obvious or noticeable. They created
the pregnant belly for Bella which was a challenge as the production
team wanted the baby to kick and move around inside her belly, so the
artists and cinematographer had to match the camera moves, the
lighting, even the film grain, along with the subtleties of Stewart's
skin. The also did a variety of subtle cosmetic
refinements.Both animatronic and real babies were used during filming. However, Kristen Stewart preferred working with the real babies because she felt they helped her give a better performance.
Tippett Studio first began working on the CGI wolves in February 2009 for New Moon (2009), and the look of the creatures has evolved, becoming more photo real over the course of the saga, with the input of three different directors. Eric Leven from Tippett Studio stated; "It's a subtle balance of just how anthropomorphic these wolves are. Bill (Condon) wanted to make sure that we had a sense of the human or the shape shifter in there. Finding that balance of how much of a human performance versus an animal performance was important for Bill." Leven added; "Bill has always treated the wolves as characters and never as computer generated things, and directs them in the same way he'd direct any actor. He would always give us direction like Sam should be angrier. It's the best way to work. His treating these creatures as characters, instead of just computer bits, was really great."
Regarding the look of the wolves, Phil Tippett from Tippett studio stated; "Because we've been working on this franchise for such a prolonged period of time, we've been able to improve the look from show to show. Wolves generally are pretty darn clean and since Bill wanted the wolves rangier, that means a lot more fur matting and clumping, like they've lived out in the woods. We edged towards something a bit more feral. However, there is also a balance between look and technology. The body count of the wolves escalates and because we're adding a great deal more hair to get the right texture, that fur really ups the rendering time. We've gone from four wolves to eight to twelve, to sixteen in Part 2. So we have to be very careful about that balance, because it takes hundreds of hours to render each wolf."
Part 2 is the first "Twilight" movie in the entire series to have a complete opening credit sequence.
The
ending battle sequence of Part 2 required 75 actors on set, a green
screen,
and fake snow as well. The cast and crew spent two months shooting in a
green screen room on fake snow and a few scenes were also shot in
Arsenal Park using green screens. It took about four to five weeks to
complete the filming on the ending sequence of Part 2, which comprises
approximately twenty-seven minutes of the movie. In April 2012, Pattinson and Stewart returned for reshoots to pick up some additional shots for technical work with some of the cast and stunt actors. However, these re-shoots did not include any new scenes or dialogue.
The end credits shown in Part 2 are for the entire Twilight series, not just the last installment.
Part 2 had a $75 million dollar budget making it the most expensive Twilight film.
In January 2011 it was announced that composer of Twilight, Carter Burwell, who had previously also worked with Bill Condon, would be returning to score both parts of the movie
Breaking Dawn: Part 1 soundtrack is the first soundtrack not to feature a song from the band Muse.
In January 2012 production started for the soundtrack for Part 2. Carter Burwell confirmed; "The movie basically upholds the final installment with a score that has the same jungle-music feeling Part 1 brought us. The music pieces that take place in the catalystic final battle will be very much like the nineteenth song in the previous movie's score, 'It's Renesmee' and the twenty-fourth, 'You Kill Her You Kill Me'."
Leaked photo's and footage videos surfaced online when filming started on November 7, 2010. Summit Entertainment responded to the leaks by removing the photos and videos from YouTube, fan sites and gossip websites. On March 31 and April 1, 2011, a mass leak of a 14-second video and numerous low-quality stills hit the Internet resulting to enthusiastic fan reaction and speculations that the film wouldn't be able to maintain a PG-13 rating. Summit Entertainment released an official statement in response to the leaks saying:
"As some of you may know, pictures and screen grabs of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn as a work in progress have leaked on the internet. We are extremely proud of this film and also extremely heartbroken to see it out there at this stage. The film and these images are not yet ready or in their proper context. They were illegally obtained and their early dissemination is deeply upsetting to the actors, the filmmakers and Summit who are working so hard to bring these movies to fruition to you in November 2011 and November 2012. Please, for those who are posting, stop. And please, though the temptation is high, don’t view or pass on these images. Wait for the film in its beautiful, finished entirety to thrill you. Sincerely, Stephenie Meyer, Bill Condon, Wyck Godfrey and Summit Entertainment."
A week after the release of Breaking Dawn: Part 1, incidents began occurring of the birthing scene, where the visual effects involves several red, white and black flashing lights having triggered epileptic seizures in moviegoers. The incidents have become more widespread as news of the incidents began to flood several news sites, making people aware that health issues that attendees were experiencing might have been caused by the scene.
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Bonuses:
Alfred Angelo has been named the exclusive and official licensed manufacturer of Bella's bridal gown. A replica of Bella's wedding dress was marketed under the brand Twilight Bridal by Alfred Angelo. It was revealed in late November 2011, following the release of Part 1, and is available in Alfred Angelo Signature Stores and independent retailers worldwide.Here are some compilation of behind the scenes footage from Part 1:
Interview footage of director Bill Condon for Part 1:
Interview footage of author Stephenie Meyer for Part 1:
Interview with Stephanie Meyer for Part 2:
Interview footage of Kristen Stewart for Part 1:
Interview footage of Robert Pattinson for Part 1:
Interview footage of Taylor Lautner for Part 1:
Breaking Dawn Part 2 Interviews:
Interview with the cast for Part 2:
Still want more, then you can visit the official movie website.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1324999/trivia
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1673434/trivia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Saga: _Breaking_Dawn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Saga:_Breaking_Dawn_-_Part_2
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/12/04/breaking-dawn-part-2-twist-ending/
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