With New Moon coming out this Friday--this Friday already!--there's no reason not to expect the deluge of material from the press about the Twilight phenomenon.  One such example: this article from Time magazine about how the Twilight saga shot up the pop culture charts and became this big.

Well, it's actually stuff that we already know, more or less: how Stephenie Meyer conceived of the books, how the books became published, how it became such a big thing, how the movies came to fore.  The interesting tidbit, however, lies in what Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke said about the franchise's stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.

She said that casting Kristen as Bella Swan was easy, but looking for Edward was harder.  "I met all of these guys I felt were quite good, but they didn't have that special other quality that they were alive for 105 years," the director said.  Eventually she found a match with Robert, who auditioned with four other prospective choices in her home with Kristen.

Now here's the really interesting bit.  Since Robert and Kristen took the roles, of course, they've become subject of the are-they-really-together? rumor mill.  Hardwicke was aware that the chemistry between the two actors were really strong.  "After I cast him, I told Rob, don't even think about having a romance with her," she told the magazine.  "She's under 18.  You will be arrested."

But she thinks something might have blossomed between the two.  "I didn't have a camera in the hotel room," she said.  "I cannot say.  But in terms of what Kristen told me recently, it didn't happen in the first movie.  Nothing crossed the line while on the first film.  I think it took a long time for Kristen to realize, 'okay, I've got to give this a go and really try to be with this person.'"

Well, now Kristen is 19, and she sort of confirmed it (or not) in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly: "I probably would've answered it if people hadn't made such a big deal about it, but I'm not going to give the fiending an answer."

Still, gives us folks something to think about.  Five days to go, then.



- Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of Summit Entertainment)