Special Collections: Twilight (2008)

Summary

Overdue Podcast: Special Collections – Twilight (2008)

Date: April 6, 2026
Hosts: Andrew and Craig
Episode Overview:
This Special Collections episode departs from Overdue’s typical book reviews to tackle the 2008 film adaptation of Twilight. In a lively, digressive conversation, Andrew and Craig revisit their long-standing relationship with the Twilight franchise and the cultural phenomenon of the movie, touching on its production history, adaptation choices, casting, and the film’s many quirks. The episode flows from background research and Stephanie Meyer’s blog posts to the hosts’ impressions of key scenes and performances, all delivered in their signature dry, affectionate banter.

---

Introduction & Context ([03:34])

• Why a “Special Collections” episode?
  • The hosts are taking a lighter month after 11 years of not missing a Monday release. “When I say I am working less hard... I watched the film Twilight two times. Two separate times.” – Andrew ([04:46])
• Long history with Twilight:
  • Previously covered every main novel and related companion books (gender-swapped version, Edward’s perspective). “We’ve kind of exhausted the book version of this franchise...every once in a while you wake up and your eyes are all black and you’re like, I need to eat a piece of fiction...” – Andrew ([09:16])
• This episode serves as a “sequel” to Episode 300, which featured the original Twilight novel.

---

Production & Adaptation History

The Road to the Movie ([10:00]–[22:00])

• Origins:

  • Twilight movie rights were first optioned by Paramount/MTV Films, but initial scripts (Mark Lord’s) diverged wildly (“Bella riding jet skis and being chased by the FBI”) ([13:30]).
  • Stephanie Meyer was given far more creative input in the Summit Entertainment version.
  • The film comes at the rise of faithful book adaptations—Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter—as youth-lit franchises.

• Summit Entertainment:

  • Rose from being a “foreign sales house” to a major production company, with Twilight establishing their name ([15:27]).
  • The film’s success later underpinned acquisitions and bigger productions for Summit and Lionsgate.

• Stephanie Meyer’s Influence:

  • Meyer had veto power and was present on set. She even made a cameo in the diner scene.
  • Meyer’s blog chronicled casting anxieties—urging fans to be cool about Kristen Stewart as Bella, noting fan objections always translate to “she doesn’t look like me.” ([20:06])
  • At the peak of pre-movie hype, “she is already bearing the scars of what having a really, really enthusiastic but also intense fan is like.” – Andrew ([19:16])

Notable Quote:

"No one is going to match up with your mental picture exactly. The thing to hope for is a really great actor who can make us believe she is Bella...for approximately two hours." – Stephanie Meyer, via Andrew ([20:50])

---

Casting Deep Dive ([23:01]–[32:40])

• Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart):

  • Cast off her performances in Panic Room, Speak, and Into the Wild ([23:15]).
  • Other contenders included Lily Collins, Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Trachtenberg.

• Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson):

  • Fresh from playing Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter.
  • Originally not considered “hot” enough—rumors swirl of a "glow up" for the part ([26:16]).
  • Kristen Stewart insisted Pattinson was “the guy” to play Edward.

• Fan and Meyer’s Shortlist:

  • Henry Cavill was Meyer’s fantasy pick for Edward, though he “aged out” ([28:38]).
  • Bella: Daniel Panabaker, Ellen Page, Emily Browning were Meyer’s picks—none were cast.
  • Top fan suggestion for Edward: Hayden Christensen; Patterson ranked #2.

---

Director & Screenwriter ([33:10]–[40:46])

• Director Catherine Hardwicke:
  • Chosen after Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown.
  • Did not return for sequels; claims she wasn’t fired but chose not to direct New Moon due to scheduling and story preferences ([36:38]).
• Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg:
  • Notable for her work on Dexter and later, Jessica Jones.
  • Had only a month to complete the script due to an impending Writer’s Guild strike.

---

Notable Quotes:

“You all the time be making La La Land.” – Andrew ([16:08])

“Film is directed by Katherine Hardwicke, whose prior credits include Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown.” – Craig ([33:40])

---

Twilight (2008): The Film

Structure, Style, and Key Sequences ([45:21]–[84:30])

Plot Recap & Highlights

1. Bella Moves to Forks ([45:21])

   • “Bella Swan is making a decision. She’s moving from dusty Phoenix to wet Forks.” – Craig
   • Fun recurring bit: Bella’s mom as “phone mom,” always in the background of action movie scenes ([46:01]).
   • First “Team Charlie” moment; Charlie’s awkward parenting and constant consumption of “Team Rocket tall boys” ([48:23]).

2. High School Dynamics ([48:45])

   • Bella is swarmed by new friends, “gonna put you in the student newspaper.”
   • Side characters (“the normal high school kids”) are more fleshed out in the movie: “because they have three-dimensional actors” – Andrew ([50:02])
   • “It cuts the other way against Bella and Edward” – the awkward, physically anxious acting of both leads is both mesmerizing and bizarre ([51:08])
   • “They have to pee all the time...either turned on in bio class for no reason or have IBS and need to get out of here right now.” – Andrew ([51:17])

3. Bella and Edward’s Dynamic

   • Scene-by-scene breakdown of sparse, charged interactions: bio class, diner meals, the infamous mushroom ravioli ([52:23]).
   • Edward’s refusal to craft a proper cover story for his eyes: “it’s the fluorescent lights” ([61:10]).

4. Vampire Lore & Adaptational Choices

   • Movie foregrounds the “bad” vampires (James, Victoria, Laurent) much earlier than the book, which the hosts see as a positive move ([55:11], [56:37]).
   • “On balance, I think it’s better that you see bad vampires out.” – Andrew ([56:57])
   • Still, both hosts feel the Bella/Edward romance isn’t fully convincing: “I don’t know why she loves him” ([57:58])

5. Key Set Pieces

   • Composting Field Trip: Implied homage to the book’s many bio class scenes ([61:47])
   • The Sparkle Scene ([67:48]): The “revelation that he’s a vampire happened in like a sun-dappled grove...not in some teenager’s car.” – Andrew
   • The Cullen Family:
     • Notably attractive, barely older parental figures; comedic “Italian dinner” sequence ([70:05]).
     • “If somebody was your immortal mom, but technically not related to you, but also was very. A very attractive woman...just like, what would you get up to eventually?” – Andrew ([69:04])
   • Vampire Baseball – [73:12]:
     • “It’s the silliest thing, but I would watch it 100 times.” – Andrew ([74:31])
     • “Everybody’s like, jumping to catch balls and crashing into each other. And it makes big thunder noises.” ([74:16])

6. Finale: Showdown & Prom ([75:02])

   • Action scenes favor wires and practical effects; vampire fights described as “Crouching Vampire, Hidden Werewolf” ([64:25]).
   • Bella’s improbable injuries explained away to her mom (“fell down two flights out a hotel window”), shown as a literal slapstick montage ([78:32]).
   • Prom closes the film, with “Bella in a boot” and Jacob awkwardly relaying warnings from his grandpa ([79:52]).

Notable Quotes:

“I think the other high school characters...are more fleshed out in the movie just because they have three dimensional actors who are there to portray them correct and to make them more like people than they are in the book.” – Andrew ([50:01])

“It makes both of them look like they have to pee all the time...or they have IBS and they need to get out of here right now.” – Andrew ([51:17])

“Vampire Baseball...it’s objectively stupid, but it’s so silly and memorable and I would watch it 100 times.” – Andrew ([74:19])

---

Analysis, Impressions, and Cultural Reflection

• Accidental comedy:
  • The hosts delight in small gaffes (“shaking the ketchup bottle and nothing comes out”—[60:10]); quirks that might disappear in franchise polish.
• Style & Score:
  • 2008 fashion trends (shirts over shirts).
  • Carter Burwell’s minimalist score “felt more TV to me...not movie enough,” but adds “roughness and texture.” – Andrew ([84:18])
• Textural “weirdness”
  • The film bears the marks of a pre-franchise, rough-edged adaptation: “enough weird little, human, little rough edges...that has texture and is interesting in the way that like, a 2022 Marvel movie just is not anymore.”
• Legacy:
  • Fundamental place as “one of the sections on the Rosetta Stone of millennial culture.” ([81:30])

Notable Quotes:

“After Harry Potter, this is like the biggest...one of the sections on the Rosetta Stone of, like, millennial culture...and it’s so strange.” – Andrew ([81:30])

“I’m kind of glad that we got this rather than whatever the MTV script was, because we got that, that would even be more dated.” – Craig ([81:44])

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Closing Thoughts ([82:58])

• Neither host loves the movie, but both appreciate its idiosyncratic texture and charm.
• “It was fun to watch…I enjoyed watching it. If we find a way to do the rest of them behind the paywall, I won’t be upset.” – Andrew ([84:31])
• The episode closes with announcements for upcoming annotated editions of classic Overdue episodes (Dune, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde).

---

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “They have to pee all the time...they’re either turned on in bio class for no reason or they have IBS and need to get out of here right now.” – Andrew ([51:17])
• On Catherine Hardwicke’s contributions: “She wrote a bunch of lines the night before and said to Robert Pattinson, pick the one you like...[and so we get] ‘Hold on tight, spider monkey.’” – Craig ([71:06])
• “His main job is eyes go big.” – Craig on the actor who plays Jasper ([24:34])
• “If our town had to have a pervert, I’m so glad it was him.” – Andrew on the character Waylon ([66:51])
• “We watched Stephenie Meyer in real time go from being like a blogger to being a, like an internationally known author of books that are transformed into these famous movies.” – Andrew ([33:17])

---

Notable Timestamps

• 03:34 – Episode proper begins; context for Special Collections
• 10:00 – Introduction of Twilight movie adaptation background
• 23:01 – Casting deep dive
• 45:21 – Scene-by-scene plot and impressions begin
• 61:47 – Composting field trip (merging of bio class scenes)
• 67:48 – Sparkle scene in the woods with Edward and Bella
• 73:12 – Vampire baseball set piece and analysis
• 78:01 – Hospital/aftermath sequence and comedic injury excuses
• 84:18 – Comments on film score and texture
• 86:04 – Upcoming annotated episodes announced

---

Final Takeaway

Twilight (2008) is a strange, iconic, and surprisingly textured film that only becomes more fascinating with age, especially when explored by hosts as attentive, wry, and invested as Andrew and Craig. Whether you’re a Twihard, a skeptic, or somewhere weirdly in-between, this episode offers both laughs and, surprisingly, a warm appreciation of the movie’s messiness and cultural legacy.

Transcript

[Andrew]

This is a headgun podcast.

[Craig]

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[Andrew]

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[Craig]

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[Andrew]

Yes, we did get one of their comforters. We got set of their jammies. I'll tell you what, this comforter does put the comfort in comforter.

[Craig]

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[Andrew]

Yeah, no banks, just all under the mattress.

[Craig]

All under the mattress. Traditional big wireless carriers are trying to take my money out from under the mattress and put it in a bank, probably and sit on it like a big dragon on a mountain of treasure. Enough. Ditch the crazy high wireless bills, the bogus fees, and those free air quote perks that cost more in the long run. It's time to switch mobile. Andrew, you've switched, right?

[Andrew]

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[Craig]

Probably.

[Andrew]

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[Craig]

That's great. Because of all the savings and the service.

[Andrew]

Yeah, because of all the savings and because I just don't have to think about my service that much.

[Craig]

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[Andrew]

While Andrew and Craig believe the joy of discovery is crucial to enjoying any

[Craig]

well told tale, they will not shy

[Andrew]

away from spoiling specific story beats when necessary. Plus, these are books you should have read by now.

[Craig]

Hey everybody. Welcome to Overdue. It's a podcast about the books you've been meaning to read. My name is Craig.

[Andrew]

My name is Andrew, of course.

[Craig]

And welcome to Overdue Special collections volume the cartoon.

[Andrew]

We're wheeling out the cart. I don't know, five, ten. We're wheeling out the cart for everybody this month. Yeah, it's normally a cart that only exists for people who subscribe to the patreon patreon.com overdupod normally this is a book podcast about the books you've been meaning to read. And every week one of us reads a book that we've never read before and we tell the other person about it. Yeah, but we have been talking and we have not missed a Monday in like 11 years. And we need like a lighter, we need a lighter month.

[Craig]

We've got great plans for the month ahead. We are dedicated to providing you with an audio experience that you can enjoy for about an hour or so, 60

[Andrew]

to 75 minutes depending on the subject

[Craig]

and depending on how many times you listen to it, maybe you'll listen to it a bunch of times.

[Andrew]

I mean, you know what, I bet everybody listens to our podcast at like 0.5 speed.

[Craig]

Really?

[Andrew]

So they can get all the jokes and the references stuff. When I say I am working less hard to take a break, I do mean in this case that I watched the film Twilight two times. Two separate times.

[Craig]

Once with.

[Andrew]

Once in a room with Craig and once by myself in a hotel room.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Let me tell you which one was more depressing.

[Craig]

Yeah, well, so as Andrew said, Special Collections is our, you know, Patreon exclusive most of the time kind of movie and other media podcasts are mostly animated

[Andrew]

films and also the, the two hour pilot of Star Trek Deep Space Nine which I, I would love to Live in a universe where I had time to do the whole thing. Yeah, yeah, you are, too. I know you're on board.

[Craig]

I don't have to say.

[Andrew]

I don't have to say I would

[Craig]

actually do it if there were more space time to do it in.

[Andrew]

Time enough. And last, that's what that Twilight Zone episode is about.

[Craig]

Time enough to podcast. Yes, yes.

[Andrew]

Everybody disappears and society is destroyed. And he's like, finally, I have time to record all the podcasts I want. And then he sits on his microphone.

[Craig]

So for this month, we are going to kick it off with our special collections episode on Twilight the film 2008, sort of a sequel episode to episode 300 of Overdue, which was recorded in May 2018.

[Andrew]

I prefer to think of this as an adaptation of that episode.

[Craig]

And then I will just kind of preview for the folks at home. We are going to do three annotated editions of classic overdue Epps. So the next few weeks, you will encounter episodes on Dune, Frankenstein, and Jekyll and Hyde, all three of which kind of predate our. The structure that we have been using for 700 episodes.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

Right.

[Andrew]

For the first year and a bit, we would just kind of show up and start talking about the books. And I mean, usually the discussions, once we were. Once they were running, once they were war warmed up. We're not all that different. I mean, probably they're better now. I'd like to think that they're better now.

[Craig]

I listened back. We had some okay conversations.

[Andrew]

Okay. But yeah, we didn't talk about the author of the Context or any of that stuff. And so I, you know, we've never found out stuff about the Iowa Writers Workshop. We never find out what books get featured in Jimmy Fallon's book club. We never find out that kind of cool stuff that we find out now when we do research.

[Craig]

Yes. So.

[Andrew]

And so we're gonna just, like, tack on research sections to those episodes and do some light re editing of a couple things probably also.

[Craig]

But yeah, so get to hear the time capsule portion and modern us thinking about those episodes and doing a little additional research. So if you haven't gone back to those recently, you don't need to buckle up.

[Andrew]

Yeah, don't do it. Please don't do it.

[Craig]

But this week, coming at you again, Twilight 2008, a film that Andrew and I have both seen twice now and collectively four times. Yeah.

[Andrew]

Four eyes have watched the movie Twilight four times for you, probably more than none.

[Craig]

So, yeah, I don't. Where do you want to start, Andrew?

[Andrew]

Obviously, Twilight is a creative work that our podcast has a long history with, starting in episode 300, but I think. Was it between 300 and 350 or did we go 50, 50, 50, 50 for.

[Craig]

I thought we may have gone a little faster, but let me look.

[Andrew]

I thought we went a little bit faster than that, but, yeah, we started. We read the book Twilight for episode 300, then we did the other four books, which are New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And then we did the. Much later on, we did the gender swap one with Beaufort Swan and Edith Colin.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

And then we. And we also did the one that's the first book again, but from Edward's

[Craig]

perspective, which I thought. I thought we did. Edward's perspective first.

[Andrew]

I don't like. Listen, I'm not saying that we did. I'm not saying we did these in any specific order. I'm carefully not saying the names of either of those other two because I don't remember which one is which.

[Craig]

Midnight sun. And it's not From Dusk Till Dawn.

[Andrew]

Midnight sun and From Dusk till Dawn, the famous Twilight novel. So we. We've kind of exhausted the book version of this franchise. Yeah, I mean, she's. She. I think she has made references to going back, and if she goes back, we'll have to go with her. But we're done with books. We read all the books. And so every once in a while you wake up and your eyes are all black and you're like, I need to eat a piece of fiction and I can't eat books because that's inhumane and it would make me a monster. So what can I eat instead?

[Craig]

I'm gonna eat a movie, Shove celluloid in my face.

[Andrew]

And now Twilight. Is that. Now this movie? Twilight, is that for us?

[Craig]

The 2008 movie Twilight, directed by Kathryn Hardwick, written by Melissa Rosenberg, Distributed by Summit, Produced and distributed by Summit Entertainment. We're not going to talk too much about the other movies today.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Just in case we watch them, Just

[Craig]

in case we can't resist.

[Andrew]

History is suggesting that we might not be able to resist going back to the. Well, I don't know.

[Craig]

We'll see. We have had a fun time with these books. Ups and downs, I think found ourselves kind of compelled by the original few. Found ourselves really surprised at how much we did not like Jacob like that. That kind of emotional reaction was honestly pretty impressive.

[Andrew]

We got. We have friends who have watched Twilight and they watched New Moon and their team, Jacob. And I'm like, you gotta. You don't know to keep you can't just stop there.

[Craig]

But.

[Andrew]

So we're making a decision without all the information you need.

[Craig]

We're going to talk about this first movie, talk a little bit about how it came to our screens and to our eyeballs, and then we'll talk about the movie itself. As we've said, we've watched it four times, Andrew, collectively. The movie was originally optioned by Paramount slash MTV Films.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I knew that.

[Craig]

But they sat on it for a bit trying to work on a script by Mark Lord that was apparently a mess.

[Andrew]

Interest in Twilight goes back to when it was an unpublished manuscript.

[Craig]

Correct.

[Andrew]

Like, arguably the movie has slightly deeper roots than the book does because it was being passed around in 2005. Ish. Among studio guys who wanted YA books to film.

[Craig]

Yes. And this is, this is sort of

[Andrew]

the heyday of the Harry Potter franchise. I mean the Hunger Games franchise is coming. There are lots of these happening or about to happen. I mean, we're in the immediate aftermath of Lord of the Rings stuff, obviously. Like it's a golden age for multi

[Craig]

part book adaptations that are like more faithful than not. Right. I think that is like kind of the turning point that Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter usher in. And then this comes out in 2008, which is maybe the year. It's the same year as Iron Man, I think, which is the beginning of the MCU.

[Andrew]

I mean, I remember it was. It was not 2000 late.

[Craig]

It was not.

[Andrew]

It was 2008.

[Craig]

It was 2008. What? Mazel tov. Is that the same song? I don't remember. But so yes, this is part of the aughts leaning into. Well, what if we made it more like what the Source was? Because the Source has a fandom and those are the people we want to buy tickets, not the movie going public of the 80s and 90s.

[Andrew]

That is really. That's an interesting observation because I think it dovetails with Myers experience with the movie. And Stephenie Meyers, I don't remember if we've mentioned her name. Her name is Stephenie Meyer without an S. This is obviously Stephenie Meyers with a possessive S. Just feel like I need, I need to put a little hat on that.

[Craig]

That she like points at something that's hers and goes, that's Stephenie Meyers. I'm Stephanie Meyer.

[Andrew]

Stephenie Meyer. Yeah. I mean maybe I do that with stuff.

[Craig]

Yeah. No one ever. No one ever puts an S on your name. People have ever put an S on the end of my name because they can't believe that My name no gettings. They can't believe that my name would just be a word. It befuddles them. Mark Lord was writing a script based on the movie Twilight, based on the book Twilight that had Bella riding jet skis and being chased by the FBI and was the star track runner in her school.

[Andrew]

Sounds sick.

[Craig]

Sounded like a cool movie that shouldn't have been called Twilight.

[Andrew]

I believe Meyer is on the record being like, yeah, they could have made this a different movie without the name attached to it.

[Craig]

Yes. There they decided not to make it for a variety of reasons. I saw one oral history where one of the execs was like, well, the popularities, the popularity of the books hadn't fully, like, crested yet. We weren't sure about, you know, hitting that wave. And also there was another, like, vampire movie that had bombed somewhere in there. And so they were a little spooky.

[Andrew]

All the time be people all the time be reacting to one data point.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

When multiple data points should be. Are warranted.

[Craig]

There's a producer at Paramount, Karen Rosenfeld, who's actually working on a lot of Nickelodeon movies of the era, who was a big booster for the Twilight project. It didn't go anywhere. And she was the one who mentioned it to Eric Feig at Summit Entertainment and Summit. By this point, it started in the early 90s as a. Like, this is a thing that doesn't exist really in the same way anymore at scale like a foreign sales house. Like, they made their money getting American films distributed in Europe or wherever. And I think at this point, you know, 20 to 30 years hence, the bigger studios are so big that they have just kind of eaten all of that. It's all vertically integrated at this point. Right.

[Andrew]

But kind of integration just goes up and up and up because it's technically legal. I guess we've decided a, they are in the legislative bodies and in the court system and stuff, technically legal.

[Craig]

They start producing and financing films. They're involved in American Pie, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Memento, the Blair Witch Project. But this is the one that really puts them on the map with its, you know, a huge blockbuster success. They have since gone on to a lot of other success with things like Ms. Mr. And Mrs. Smith and the Hurt Locker and La La Land. My favorite Oscar winner. And in 2012. That's not true.

[Andrew]

You all the time be making La La Land.

[Craig]

I am all I keep.

[Andrew]

And I all the time be saying all the time be. I guess now I've had a weird week in 2012.

[Craig]

Summit does get purchased by Lionsgate for whatever that's worth. But so Summit hears about this script. They like it, and the execs had seen Kathryn Hardwick's film thirteen and liked it. And so they embark on getting the rights for Twilight.

[Andrew]

Yeah, Paramount lets them lapse in 2007 after they'd sort of slow rolled their own production and mothballed it. And then Summit picks it up after Paramount lets it expire. As far as I know, there's no like, you know, collaborating between the two studios. No, it doesn't seem like happen aside from just execs talking to other execs.

[Craig]

And Meyer's contract did give her a lot of like, veto power over parts of it. I don't know how much of this, how much of that contract where there was input from like, Hardwick and Rosenberg, both of whom seem really on board to make a quote, unquote, faithful adaptation. But there's like, stories about how Meyer was allowed, you know, invited to come up with a list of things they weren't allowed to change. And she was on set all the time. She even has a cameo in the diner. Why am I speaking, like the Krasan Malaysia voice? She is. She weighs in on how they handle the sparkle vampire stuff. Right? Yeah. They're honoring her as best she can.

[Andrew]

Well, and it's interesting because I don't know, like, I don't know what was, what was contractually required. I mean, obviously they were Paramount, MTV films, whatever. They were making this version that had nothing to do with the book. And it didn't seem like Meyer.

[Craig]

It was like a real world road rules version of the story.

[Andrew]

Yeah, it didn't seem like Meyer was involved or could do anything. But then they gave her a lot of input on, on this. Like, they let her look at the script. They let her look at a rough cut. There was a line from the book. The.

[Craig]

The lion and the Lamb.

[Andrew]

Yeah, the lion and the Lamb one. And Meyer has said, you know, I actually like the, the script version better for a movie, but this line is tattooed on people. And, and it's one of, one of a few. Like, I, as part of my research, went back to Stephanie Meyer's blog and read a bunch of entries that were specifically related to the movie from like 2007, 2008. And it does seem like at this point she is already bearing the, the scars of what having a really, really enthusiastic but also intense fan sure is. Like. And I know we've talked in other episodes about how like the, the, either the gender swap one or the Bella or the Edwards perspective one. I think the Edwards perspective one was written, was like a lot of it was written and then some of it leaked and she was like, okay, this is leaked. So I don't, I don't want to do this anymore.

[Craig]

I believe it, yes.

[Andrew]

That she had a lot of, A lot of really intense fans.

[Craig]

That was the Midnight Sun Edward perspective one because they. She gave drafts of it to Robert Pattinson to prep for the movie. So she, like, she already had that material.

[Andrew]

And so she's, she's saying to the people making the movie, quote, if you take that one and change it, there's a potential backlash situation. There's another, just another note where she's talking about casting announcements for the, for the film. This is happening in December and November of oh 7, which is around a year before the movie comes out. And especially the announcement for Kristen Stewart being announced as Bella has a, has a lot of like lampshading stuff from Twilight. Like, from Twilight, from Stephenie Meyer.

[Craig]

Oh, interesting.

[Andrew]

Begging. Yeah, begging Twilight fans to be cool about it.

[Craig]

Oh, weird.

[Andrew]

And partly, I think she encouraged this herself. We'll talk about that more in a minute. But she says for every actress that has been suggested as Bella in the past few years, there are always a slew of critics that cry, but she doesn't look like Bella. Which can often be translated thusly, she doesn't look like me. To this I would like to say, of course she doesn't. Bella is a fictional character and she looks different to everyone, as is the same with every actor who will be cast in the next few months. No one is going to match up with your mental picture. Exactly. Or mine. The thing to hope for is it for a really great actor who can make us believe she is Bella or Alice or so forth for roughly two hours. I think we've got that with Kristen Stewart. I can't wait to see her step into the role.

[Craig]

I love that it only works for about two hours and then it wears off.

[Andrew]

The spell wars wears off and then we all turn back into pumpkins. But yeah, the Pattinson announcement is. She says, whereas I'm ecstatic with some as choice for Edward, there are a few act, very few actors who look both dangerous and beautiful at the same time and fewer who I can picture in my head is Edward. Robert Pattinson is going to be amazing.

[Craig]

End of, end of quote, end of quote.

[Andrew]

She does not have to beg the fans to be like, yeah, to be cool about it.

[Craig]

Weird.

[Andrew]

There's probably a gendered element to It. But yeah, it's, you know, both in what she is fighting for behind the scenes and also in how she is reacting publicly at this point to news about the movie happening.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Is all like, yeah, you've been being assaulted on Tumblr by weirdos for, you know, for, for three years, two years, however long it's been at point. Well, you were, you were trying to protect yourself and other people from that while also like keeping your, your lovely weird fans happy is the thing I'm

[Craig]

reading into all you're also saying. So those are like you know, fall or winter of 07 announcements, right?

[Andrew]

The, the Bella announcement is November 2007 and Edwards Pattinson's Edward casting happens in December. So.

[Craig]

So yeah, because the other thing I want to, to make sure folks can keep in mind as they think about this movie is Breaking dawn came out before the movie Twilight was released. But after all of this like casting news is happening. So like it is this. All of the film buzz is entering into the. The final Twilight book is coming energy at the same time. Which I think is. Is better for the movie. Right. Because if you did it in 2006, everyone's still team Jacob. They don't really understand what's going on. And the movies are. The books aren't as popular as they're going to become that these things snowball. These series usually do. So the thing that is interesting about Bella and Edward that I found like. So did you find.

[Andrew]

Did you finally find something that was interesting about them? Gotcha. Got him. The Twilight fans.

[Craig]

I want to talk about Hardwick and Rosenberg in just a second, but just to quickly check in on casting. Stewart, aren't they dead?

[Andrew]

I heard Hardwick and Rosen. Hardwick and Rosenberg were dead.

[Craig]

That's good. Yeah. Hamlet sent Hamlet made them create a vampire play and then he sent them to die in the Netherlands or whatever he. Hardwick, she casts Kristen Stewart from Into the Wild, predominantly other films that Kristen Doer have been into. She's very good in Panic Room.

[Andrew]

That was. That was the number one movie that they cite as part of her casting announcement is. Yeah, she was in Panic Room.

[Craig]

She was in Panic Room. She was in Speak, which is another adaptation of. I don't know if that book is quite ya. I think you read that for the show like many, many years ago. Into the Wild is like kind of a Oscar adjacent movie that she was in which is I think what Hardwick had most recently seen. I saw that she was in Jumper with our old friend Hayden Christensen and she was filming Adventureland in the Pittsburgh area when Hardwick was trying to do casting and brought the actor who went on to play Jasper in the film who's mostly there to make his eyes go big. That's, that's. I, I was surprised to find that he was one of the finalists for Edward because his main job is eyes go big.

[Andrew]

Like I don't have, I don't have a lot of notes on the, on the casting for any of the other Colins except to talk about Carlisle and Esme.

[Craig]

Okay, great.

[Andrew]

For slightly, for slightly different reasons. Okay.

[Craig]

And so other actors that had been kind of named in the Bella lottery were Lily Collins, Jennifer Lawrence. There are reports that Michelle Trachtenberg may or may not have even had an offer. So there are other people out there that were not 17 year old Kristen Stewart who it's reported that like during the production process they had like our restrictions because she's not 18. And, and it's all sorts of weird stuff making her act alongside Robert Pattinson who's 21 at the time and did you.

[Andrew]

I mean and listen, does this possibly

[Craig]

highlight an inherent tension in the story,

[Andrew]

things that are in the text where Bella is 17 and Edward is like 100?

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Well, maybe. I don't know. Let's not talk about it. Did you want to, I mean did you have other production stuff you wanted to cover or do you want to hear more about Stephanie Meyer's blog? Which one do you. This. This is again? Myers Possessive Stephanie Myers blog.

[Craig]

Well, I, we can, can we come back to the blog? While I come back to the blog

[Andrew]

I just have casting specific stuff.

[Craig]

Oh okay. Do, do. Let me just talk about Pattinson real quick and then hit the blog Patson, please do. Had been in Harry Potter. That's like the thing. He'd been Cedric Diggory in Goblet of Fire and everybody thought he was good and, and cute. I don't even think they thought he was hot. They thought he was cute and he

[Andrew]

don't speak for everybody. I don't possibly know that it's possible. What's your source on that?

[Craig]

I don't know. Well mostly that when they announced him as this or when they were getting ready to they had to do like a glow up on him to like get him ready for the announcement. That's that informs my prior statement. I don't know what people thought about him specifically. I suppose I don't want to.

[Andrew]

What did you think about him in Harry Potter Potter Goblet Fire?

[Craig]

I is I'm honestly the main thing I Remember from that is when they talk to Ray, finds in when like Ray finds, kidnaps Harry to talk to him. That's like for out of the competition. That's like the only thing I remember about that movie.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Craig]

Is maybe I don't think I saw the movies. Maybe I saw.

[Andrew]

All right. Some hemming and hawing from old. From old. Craig would talk. Talk more about Robert Pattinson, whatever.

[Craig]

I just don't, I don't, I don't know much about those movies. After Azkaban, I didn't really watch them a lot. He had been in some TV movies, a few other things that drop in 2008 as well, but nothing really hits like Twilight. Like he had played Salvador Dali in some poorly reviewed movie. Like he was just kind of out there trying to find his next thing after Harry Potter. And they bring him into Twilight. The casting story is that like when he comes in to read for it, he's like in a play. His, his hair is dyed like this, like unflattering dark black. And he's like a little overweight. And they're like, is he the guy?

[Andrew]

And

[Craig]

Stewart's like, yeah, he's the guy. Like, if I'm gonna be in the movie, he needs to be in the movie. And so they, you know, batted around with the guy who plays Jasper, some other guy, and Ben Barnes, who I only know from West World, but he has a face that you recognize when you see him. And then they pick Pattinson and the rest is, as they say, herstory.

[Andrew]

Herstory.

[Craig]

Tell me more about casting, Andrew.

[Andrew]

I just have some stuff from Stephanie Meyer's blog in, like early 2007 where she was doing. She was not involved. This had nothing to do with anything. Just like, who would I cast in a hypothetical? In a hypothetical.

[Craig]

Oh, yeah, sure.

[Andrew]

Because the Twilight movie at this point is entirely hypothetical. Her first choice for Edward was Henry Cavill.

[Craig]

Sure.

[Andrew]

Little mustache. Mustache. Mustache. Superman himself.

[Craig]

Yeah. How old is he?

[Andrew]

Well, so she at a, in a later post lamented that Henry Cavill had aged out of the possibility.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

When she was fantasy casting her fantasy film, she did not consider any actors over the age of 21.

[Craig]

Okay, okay.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I think she, I mean, you know, she's right to do it. These, all these movies throughout time are just riddled with 32 year olds who are being asked to play teenagers. And it usually is obvious that that is.

[Craig]

I was watching the new episode of For All Mankind yesterday, Andrew.

[Andrew]

I have, I have not watched it.

[Craig]

It's fun.

[Andrew]

There's Ron Moore, loves to get Himself into a little, little, little pickle where he has to do a lot of age makeup on people, though, like just ask us all to pretend with him.

[Craig]

But also like there's a new character who is supposed to be an 18 year old graduating from high school. I saw her like saddle like sidle up to her dad at the restaurant and she's just like, clearly 27. Yeah, well, oops, you look the same age as him. But that's not your fault.

[Andrew]

I suppose Maybe she's an 18 year old wearing old age makeup just to fit it. That's it. Because that's how everybody on that show. That's how Ron Moore rolls.

[Craig]

They give it to you when you get to Mars. Who else did she want to put in the movie?

[Andrew]

They just, they just need to have like a little Ronald D. Moore annex at the school where they teach you how to do old age makeup. You know, plays and stuff. Just like in honor of his work on Outlander and for all.

[Craig]

Man, I bet he'd fund it.

[Andrew]

Maybe. Who knows. So Bella, she is, she's got some suggestions for Bella. Several people that I think could do a decent job with Bella. Daniel Panabaker, Ellen Page. Then.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

My favorite right now, my favorite choice is Emily Browning of Lemony Snickets fame. I don't know who that is, but. But Stephanie Meyer likes her lips. Okay. Though I would be very happy with several possibilities for Bella. I will throw myself avatal building if they cast some lip syncing pop star slash actress in the role. Just FYI.

[Craig]

Wow.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Stephenie Meyer coming for lip syncing pop star slash actresses. And then there are. There are suggestions from the community about who might be a good Edward. Who might be a good Bella. Bella. Bella's got some interesting options. They got Alexis Bladell.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Andrew]

They got Rachel McAdams, Anna Paquin. I think I could see most of these.

[Craig]

Yes. Age spread is a little.

[Andrew]

Age spread is weird.

[Craig]

But I think like Bledel would be kind of an interesting choice. But maybe that's the, the, the film I've seen informing that opinion.

[Andrew]

Sure. Most popular Edward suggestions in order of popularity. You want to. Who the most popular Edward suggestion was?

[Craig]

I do want to know.

[Andrew]

What if I told you that I have the high ground and that you were Hayden Christensen? Christensen is the most popular Edward suggestion.

[Craig]

He's mostly doing an Edward thing for the first part of Revenge of the Sith.

[Andrew]

Anyway, so number number three is Orlando Bloom.

[Craig]

Sure.

[Andrew]

Who I think already would have aged out of it by this point. Yeah. And someone named Gerard Way. Who I'm not sure that is Gerard Way. But then number two, the fans got it. They say Robert Pattinson.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Andrew]

So the, you know, the fan. The fans were pressing, but not. Wait, I don't think any, I don't think any of Stephanie Ma. She goes through and she fantasy casts like everybody, and I'm not going to go through all of those, but I think her hit rate is like zero. She does not. She does not successfully get any of the people who she's trying to fantasy cast.

[Craig]

I don't think Gerard Way is the lead singer of My Chemical Romance.

[Andrew]

Okay. But she did not say anything about lip syncing pop star slash actors.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Andrew]

She didn't.

[Craig]

She didn't. You're right.

[Andrew]

And probably My Chemical Romance plays their own instruments.

[Craig]

They probably do.

[Andrew]

Which gets you a million cred points in like an early 2000s music conversation.

[Craig]

Yes. Film is directed by.

[Andrew]

Just, just interesting. That, that.

[Craig]

Oh, yeah, Stephanie.

[Andrew]

We watched Stephenie Meyer in real time go from being like a blogger to being a, like an internationally known author of books that are transformed into these famous movies. So. So you get to see both the, like the blogger part where she's just like, yes. I don't know. Here's some people, I think. And then it transitions over the course of like a year to. Yes. Summit Entertainment put out this press release about who's going to be Bella.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And I need you all to like,

[Craig]

calm down about it because they're my friends now. They're paying me for this movie. Directed by Katherine Hardwick, whose Prior credits include 2003 is 13, 2005's Lords of Dogtown. It's a skater movie with Emile Hirsch and Heath Ledger, among others.

[Andrew]

She did a movie called oh 5 in 2013.

[Craig]

Hadn't thought about that. Lords of Dogtown is the last film credit of one Mitch Hedberg. Interesting. 2006, she did the Nativity Story, a Jesus movie with Oscar Isaac in it. But I think it's mostly about Jesus's mom and how Jesus's mom was a teenager.

[Andrew]

Do you mean a Mary?

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Craig]

And 2008 is Twilight. Her later films include, among others, Red riding hood, plush, Ms. Bala, which is a Gina Rodriguez action vehicle that I remember from when they were trying to make Gina Rodriguez happen all over the

[Andrew]

place to put together into a. Into a thing.

[Craig]

There was a couple years there.

[Andrew]

Are we going to like. I mean, if we wanted to keep trying, I think we could find the Jack Reacher for Gina Rodriguez because they were trying to make. They were trying to make Jim from the Office Happen in a lot of different ways too. I have before one of them finally stuck.

[Craig]

Yeah, until he started making quiet place. I guess he's also the Tom Clancy boy for a while. But he's Jack Reacher. He's not Jack Reacher.

[Andrew]

Isn't he in the tv?

[Craig]

Jim from the Office is the guy from Tom. The Tom Clancy books. He's not Jack Reacher.

[Andrew]

Isn't he? Who's Jack Reacher?

[Craig]

Jack Reacher was Tom Cruise and then they made a big guy be Jack Reacher. We need to figure this out right now.

[Andrew]

Jack Ryan. Jack Ryan. That's a different guy. That's a different guy. Oh, man, I bet all people. A bunch of people. It's. I heard a million voices yelling in the car and then silence. You know, Jack Ryan is trying to find his Jack Ryan moment.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And then he finally found it.

[Craig]

Yeah, that's true.

[Andrew]

So I don't know. Gina Rodriguez could. Could still.

[Craig]

Yeah, I like. I generally enjoy watching Gina Rodriguez or

[Andrew]

just like go back to a TV show that runs for like four seasons and.

[Craig]

Well, she was making one of those. She's making that one where she was writing obituaries and talking to dead people all the time. I don't remember what it's called. It was fun.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Craig]

All right, cool. Catherine Hardwick produced. Also produced. Don't Worry, darling. She's from Texas. She got a degree in architecture, went off to LA film school instead. She worked as a production designer with filmmakers such as Cameron Crowe, Richard Linklater, David O. Russell. And she claims that, you know, she, you know, she comes to making this movie as we've talked about, and then she did not make any of the other Twilight movies.

[Andrew]

Yeah. So on November 21, 2008, this movie is released widely. There's a premiere that happens like three or four days beforehand. The day after, on November 22nd, Summit announces that it is formally greenlit New Moon. And then by December 7th. This is all courtesy Stephanie Meyer's blog. I'm glad that it's still up there for people to read. Hardwick had pulled out of directing the sequel citing scheduling difficulties. So every one of the subsequent Twilight movies, with the exception of Breaking dawn parts one and two, if you want to count them as different movies, gets a different director.

[Craig]

Yes, it's true. Which interesting franchise. Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew]

It's not totally unheard of with multi part adaptations or in long running franchises like the Harry Potter films. Start with Christopher Columbus. Yes, the director. Not the. Not the Italian. The first Hunger Games movie is directed by one person. Then the others are all directed by Another person.

[Craig]

Yep, yep.

[Andrew]

You know, if, if you expand out to multi part, you know, long running franchises like Stars, Trekken wars, all the Marvel stuff like Fast and Furious, they also jump around a lot between directors. But the person who directs the first, like the, you know, the person who directs the first episode of a TV series, first and foremost first person to direct like the first movie in that link does get to make a lot of stylistic decisions that subsequent directors like at least need to check in with.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

To make sure that follow ups feel like they're part of the same like creative work instead of like, oh, this is a completely different thing than the last thing that I saw.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

So if, if we do watch subsequent movies, and I'm not saying we will, but I'm not saying we won't. Curious to see how, you know, if we feel the difference in director between each one or if they're all just kind of aiming to make things that feel of a piece, you know, I

[Craig]

think it's my understanding that we might and I think from what I've heard about this film series that we should keep an eye on how the vampires sparkle in particular.

[Andrew]

Okay. Is that a director decision? I guess it might be.

[Craig]

But she also claims that she was not fired. She wants to set the record straight.

[Andrew]

She had right of the newspaper that I got fired.

[Craig]

She had right of first refusal. And she, as you said, scheduling or whatever. She says she liked the first book better and didn't want to do the other ones. So. All of the films, however, have a screenplay credit for Melissa Rosenberg, who is from California. She tried to make a go of it on the east coast before going back to film school at USC. She wrote on TV shows including Class of 96, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Ally McBeal and others. She joins the OC writing cast for a season. She wrote the movie Step up and then she became a producer and writer on Dexter, which is where her career really takes off. She is part of multiple like Emmy award nominations and wins for Dexter. And I think she is maybe still working on Dexter when this is happening. And then at some point she has to like be like, I can't do both. Like, you know. Yeah, she thought that she was gonna have like a full three months to write this script, but she was also pretty important in the Writer's Guild at the time as well. And there was a Writer's Guild strike coming. So had remember this about a month, maybe a month and a half to churn this script out and just lock it and then bring it to production. And so she was also. I found the showrunner on the Jessica Jones series. She'd been working on that for like several years at prior outlets before ultimately it was dropped and then picked up by Netflix. The first season of that show is pretty fun.

[Andrew]

Yeah, some people like that stuff.

[Craig]

I found those the latter second and maybe third season. I don't remember if there was a third. Not very interesting.

[Andrew]

I think Chris, Kristen Ritter is returning as the character in some other subsequent thing like soon. So.

[Craig]

But it was, it was certainly a cool, interesting Marvel thing at a time when it felt like that was still cool and interesting. So yeah, that's all I got, I think.

[Andrew]

Only other thing I've got from Stephanie Meyer's blog is a guy named Seth the webmaster, who I don't know if he still is her webmaster, but he is still probably her brother. He says of this film writing on Stephenie Meyer's blog, which since it's all in her blog, I think we can take it for a canonical reaction to how the movie turned out. Seth the webmaster says, although I am not a movie critic, I feel compelled to tell everyone what I thought about the movie. Movie. The first question everyone seems to ask is, was it as good as the book? The answer is no. But I can't think of one good book which had a movie made from it that was as good as the book. I think it would be impossible to reproduce the type of experience that it is to read Twilight in two hours. Will fans of the book enjoy the movie? Absolutely. Well, so called Twihards scream, laugh, squeal, giggle and swoon. Not necessarily in that order. Definitely. And the chosen order will probably be repeated several times. Maybe a better question, especially for those of you who might be afraid to bring your boyfriend. Husband. Boyfriend. Boyfriend.

[Craig]

My boyfriend. Husband.

[Andrew]

This is my boyfriend, Seth.

[Craig]

This is my boyfriend husband, Seth. He runs my webpage.

[Andrew]

I. I'm a husband and I bit your boyfriend. And then he turned into a husband.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Those of you who might be afraid to bring your boyfriend husband is if people who haven't read the book will like the movie, I say yes. It goes on for a little bit longer. And finally, in case you haven't heard it from anyone else, there will be an exclusive clip from the movie shown during Heroes tonight on NBC. Although I haven't heard anything about the clip, I would suggest turning it tuning in because I think Heroes is a pretty good show.

[Craig]

Yes. Yes.

[Andrew]

That one's for you. Thank you. Seth the webmaster.

[Craig]

That's great. What season of Heroes. Was it in 2008?

[Andrew]

This was. Yeah, this would have been in 2000. Like November 2008 as the movie.

[Craig]

Oh, no, that's like later Heroes. That's not as good set.

[Andrew]

How am I supposed to trust your judgment on the Twilight movie?

[Craig]

I say yes.

[Andrew]

Seth says it's not as good as the book, but that you can bring your boyfriend. Husband.

[Craig]

Okay. Thanks, Seth.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

And thank you, Andrew. Let's take a quick break and then we'll come back and talk about our experience watching Twilight the film.

[Andrew]

Twilight the film. Craig, Websites. You need them. I need them. We all need them.

[Craig]

Yeah, I need them.

[Andrew]

Which is why it's good that this podcast is brought it's good that this podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. The guys who make websites good news. They give you beautiful drag and drop tools and templates and 24,7 customer support and email campaigns and all. Everything. Everything, Craig. Everything you need to make a great website. And so we're here to tell you about some of the things that happens when you make a website. With Squarespace, you can offer services. Craig I love offering services. Squarespace gives you everything you need to offer services and get paid all in one place. From consultations to events and experiences. Showcase your offerings with a customizable website designed to attract clients and grow your business. Get paid on time with professional on brand invoices and online payments. Plus streamline your workflow with built in appointment scheduling and email marketing tools. Email tools. All the tools you need to engage clients, promote your services and grow your business are built in. Set up email automations to stay connected, nurture leads and save time while seamlessly integrating your offerings into beautifully designed templates that drive bookings and sales. And finally, Craig, if you want to see if all this stuff that you're doing is making a difference, you need analytics. You got to analyze all that data.

[Craig]

Analyze this, analyze that, analyze all of it.

[Andrew]

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[Craig]

Andrew yeah, Bella Swan is making a decision. She's Moving from Dusty Phoenix to Wet Forks.

[Andrew]

Oh, Wet Forks.

[Craig]

She is leaving.

[Andrew]

We got it. We got a dinglehopper situation over here. Is that the one that he called a fork?

[Craig]

He's leaving her mama and her mom's new man, the baseball man.

[Andrew]

I'm so fascinated by every scene we get in Bella's with. With Bella's mom where she's, like, on the phone and some, like, fast and fur movies happening in the background. That's my favorite part about the movie.

[Craig]

Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Craig]

There's a scene. Okay. Bella is moving away from her mom. She's moving to Forks to live with her dad. Charlie. We'll talk about the plot of the film, I'm sure, but team Charlie. Team Charlie. There are scenes, as you're saying, where Bella is talking to her mom on the phone. I believe in the book. Some of these are over email, but she's talking to her mom on the phone. There's a scene where her mom is calling her from, like, an auto shop on a payphone.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

And Bella's talking to her on her cell phone. And then her mom, like, it's like the little beep that's like you're running out of time or whatever. And Bella goes, wait, did you lose your phone again? And I just. I. Phone. Did phones not have any sort of contacts or caller ID back then in 2008? Like, how did she know. How did she not know her mom was calling from a cell phone?

[Andrew]

I mean, if you heard from a

[Craig]

pay phone, you would hear the ding

[Andrew]

on both sides of the line. Right. That you're about to run out of time. That's how.

[Craig]

Well, no, I. I just mean when she called her in the first place, I think. Did she not know that she was on her cell phone?

[Andrew]

Oh, that. That. I have no idea. That. I do not.

[Craig]

That was.

[Andrew]

I mean, they did. They did have contacts. Yeah, I remember that from the little, like, Sprint foldable. Foldable phone that I had as my first cell phone.

[Craig]

I just.

[Andrew]

Because I got an employee discount on Sprint plans when I worked at Office Max.

[Craig]

All of those conversations with her mom just end so wild in the.

[Andrew]

Like.

[Craig]

Very weird.

[Andrew]

Yeah. She has a phone mom who doesn't mostly appear in the rest of the movie with her, but then, like, in the background when her mom is talking, like, you've got some guys who are in a. A, like an Oscar bait biopic about trying to break the sound barrier or something.

[Craig]

Rules.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I want to see everyone.

[Craig]

Yeah, everyone has a different movie in the background. It's like, yeah, breaking the sound barrier. It's like some sort of inspirational baseball movie. It's good times. But no, she's going to Forks. She's gonna live with her dad, Charlie. I love that. We are first introduced to Charlie by a pan from Bella to the other side of his car. And he just goes. And it's like his eyes just looking at her, like, right, your hair got longer.

[Andrew]

Yeah. It seems like you got a haircut. And she was like, no, actually, it's longer. Don't. Bella does not throw this poor guy a bone, like, at any point during the entire film.

[Craig]

No, she does.

[Andrew]

And he's trying, but he's not very good at it. But maybe he's not very good at it because he keeps drinking those Team Rocket tall boys with a big R on them.

[Craig]

He really does.

[Andrew]

He loves drinking those big beers.

[Craig]

And then she goes to school, and everyone's like, wow, you're new. We're gonna only pay attention to you today. We're gonna put you in the newspaper.

[Andrew]

We're gonna put you in the student newspaper. You're our front page feature. We're not gonna ask you about it.

[Craig]

Anna Kendrick is there and so are other people.

[Andrew]

Mm.

[Craig]

I feel like Anna Kendrick has ever said she's forgotten she's in some of these movies, which I respect that.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Like, so there are two big talking plot. Beat by beat, about the plot in this movie is not gonna produce, like, a super new conversation because it is, like, pretty faithful to the. The film. There's like, some. Or it's faithful to the book. There's like, some stuff we can talk about about the decisions that they made when depicting, like, the sparkling and, like, how vampires move.

[Craig]

There's like a sequencing thing in the middle, too, that I. I want to talk about. But. Yes.

[Andrew]

Yeah, but the two big. My two big impressions, having watched this twice, is I think the other high school characters who basically, like, who. Who fall out of the universe of the show by, like, book. Book, man. I keep interfering.

[Craig]

What medium are we using?

[Andrew]

I keep referring to all this stuff. Stuff with the wrong word. All the other high school students, like the normal high school kids who Bella does not really fit in with. They are more fleshed out in the movie just because they have three dimensional actors who are, like, there to portray them correct and to make them more like people than they are in the.

[Craig]

I don't remember her name, but there's the girl with glasses who has the little. Who, like, winds up asking her guy out to the prom.

[Andrew]

Eric, I think Is his name the.

[Craig]

Yeah, the newspaper kid. And there's like, a little scene where Bella's like, you should ask him out. You're an independent woman. And it's like this nice little, like, teen drama scene.

[Andrew]

And I think it happens in the. I honestly think that happens.

[Craig]

Does it? I don't know.

[Andrew]

I think so. But it just doesn't feel like it

[Craig]

was happening between people.

[Andrew]

Right. You don't see two human beings connect in any way about it in the book. But I think that it works the. It cuts the other way against Bella and Edward because these two actors have to look at Stephenie Meyer source material.

[Craig]

Huh?

[Andrew]

And be like, I need to, like, do all these little micro expressions to show how this other person is making me feel.

[Craig]

Huh?

[Andrew]

And it makes. It makes both of them look like they're. They have to pee all the time. Like, they are just. They're. The way they move. They're either turned on in bio class for no reason or they have. Or they have IBS and they need to get out of here right now.

[Craig]

It's so funny. I love it.

[Andrew]

It's so strange.

[Craig]

I can't take my eyes off it. Is the thing. It's like, whoa. You know? Like, I can't stop watching how strange they are. Like, it's so funny to me because her eyes do not stop moving or blinking or bugging out. And yet her body is mostly still except for her hair. And she's, like, having a blast, just coming up with different ticks. And he looks like he's gonna ralph in every scene unless he is being suave man to non Bella humans. There's like a. There's like a mode that Edward slips into in the scene where he is taking her to dinner after almost killing

[Andrew]

those men and have the end. They have the mushroom ravioli and nothing.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Like you do when you go to that restaurant. Forks.

[Craig]

Yes. And he is talking when we go

[Andrew]

to that restaurant, am I gonna get to eat or are you gonna get to eat? Because we can't. We don't both get to eat.

[Craig]

That's a great question.

[Andrew]

Do I get one mushroom ravioli or do you?

[Craig]

Huh? Think about it.

[Andrew]

It's not gonna be like after we watched Garfield and we went lasagna.

[Craig]

No, you're right.

[Andrew]

It's not at the restaurant. We aren't both gonna get to eat. Eat.

[Craig]

Huh? Now I'm wondering what we're going to eat after we go see the Odyssey together. Food. Are we going to eat just a bunch of.

[Andrew]

I mean. Yeah, we're Just going to have to like, have it like the thigh of some animal and a bunch of wine.

[Craig]

But no, the, the. There's that scene right before the dinner where he's talking to Anna Kendrick and the other friend and he is like, put on suave face and he's like very like classic Hollywood leading man for a second. And then they get in and he's like, I can't hear your brain. I'm losing my mind.

[Andrew]

I think like if you, if that, that's a faithful thing in the book though, because if you could read, if you could read someone's thoughts, you would know exactly how to act around them to get the reaction that you wanted. How much of human interaction, like how much time have we all spent being like, am I coming off as weird right now? How am I being perceived?

[Craig]

Yeah, no, no, you're right.

[Andrew]

Maybe this is a tour de force for Robert Pattinson. And I think, you know, much like we, we mentioned the Star wars prequels already, but like, much like many of the actors in that, I think these are performers who are doing their best with the material they've been given who have gone on to acquit themselves better in subsequent work.

[Craig]

Apparently the way they all behaved in the first biology class scene was basically their audition scene together and an early run of it they did. And the director loved it, where she

[Andrew]

walks in front of an oscillating fan and he like, I did not. He, he does, he does like a big like, oh, pee. Yeah, he's waving his nose, his hand in front of his nose.

[Craig]

Like, she stinks so bad and she's like smelling herself. Like, do I smell bad? Like, what is that? And I did not realize when we first watched it, Andrew, how much that fan sets up the gust of wind during the baseball game that puts them all in danger.

[Andrew]

It's all linked, man.

[Craig]

This film does all get all getting

[Andrew]

pulled into the super massive black hole that is the Twilight.

[Craig]

There is like a running series of scenes at the diner with her and her dad where they introduce a character named Waylon who is only there to be killed.

[Andrew]

Yeah, that pervert guy is only here in the movie, right?

[Craig]

Yes, he is.

[Andrew]

He doesn't exist in the book. So the movie is more interested in being like, what if the bad vampires at the end are seen any time other than the end, the baseball scene? Like, what if we set them up even one tiny, teeny tiny little bit

[Craig]

and it does this thing that I remember from it, like, like engages with this tension. I don't think it does it particularly well. But, like, the book has that thing where, yes, there are animals getting killed or something, or, like, a hiker got mauled three towns over or whatever. And I think that is there for Bella to wonder, oh. As she, like, starts to learn that he's a vampire. Like, oh, is he really dangerous? Right.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

And there are kind of nods to this, to that in this movie that are completely undercut by the decision to show the evil vampires early. Like, there's. There's no. For me. Like, I can see the structure of, like, well, he goes away when it gets sunny and, you know, he tried to vomit on her. And so he went away for a week. And then he's better after he ate something. After we, like, heard that a guy died, like, after the evil vampires, like, kill someone at a power plant or something in broad daylight for no reason. Reason.

[Andrew]

But I don't. Like. I. I think it's undercut.

[Craig]

I think.

[Andrew]

I know. I don't. I actually. Yeah. Okay.

[Craig]

I think the movie is trying to. Is more interested in making sure that the vampires at the end don't come out of nowhere. That I don't think it is quite getting the point across that it's like, maybe this is the Cullens. I think on.

[Andrew]

On. On balance, I think, honestly, it's better that you see bad vampires out.

[Craig]

I think it's probably better because

[Andrew]

it's like, when we have talked about this. This story, the three other times that we have talked about, I think each time we have been like, okay, so this is just, like, happenstance at the end. Like, these. These other vampires just happened to show up and it sets stuff up with, like, the weird Roman vampire mafia and, like, everything else rolls out of this completely random encounter. Yeah. So. So I think. Yeah. Grounding that and literally anything is good. And I think you still. You still get in other scenes and other interactions, like, Bella is. Bella is in danger from these people.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Whether. Whether she realizes it or not, like, these are dangerous people. And. And if it still seems like, like, I still want from Bella. More hesitation or more like just like, more thinking.

[Craig]

I don't know why she loves him.

[Andrew]

I don't know why she loves him. I don't understand. I mean, I haven't been a teenager in a long time, and maybe that's. Maybe that's the thing.

[Craig]

Sure, sure.

[Andrew]

But he hasn't been a teenager in a long time either, and he's acting the same way. Just like, this is. This is destiny and I need to be with you forever. And I've Made that Decision based on 1. No data at all.

[Craig]

I. The. I get.

[Andrew]

When you're a teenager, you're not sitting down and doing, like, pros and cons list. Like, it just. It doesn't work that way. And also, I know narratively, in a story like, Insta Love, Happily Forever after, these are all tropes.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

I am overanalyzing it because I do a book back. I had a podcast where I, Like, I fill time by overanalyzing things that weren't meant to be.

[Craig]

But I do think it. With. With.

[Andrew]

It's just. It's just unsatisfying, and it remains unsatisfying in this.

[Craig]

I think the. And I don't. Oh, God, I don't. It's been a while since I read a book from Ella's. From Bella's perspective, Andrew. But I think, like, the. Oh, I'm a fish out of water. I don't belong here. Here's somebody who's very interested in me. Like, that's. That is a compelling thing for Bella, but we don't get that much access to her inner monologue, aside from her tics and the few bits of voiceover.

[Andrew]

Yeah. We get some VO in this.

[Craig]

With Edward, I. I am more inclined to, like, okay, this man who's been alive for a century now there's literally the only person whose thoughts he can't read. He can't help but be fascinated. Like that. Like, that does make some amount of sense.

[Andrew]

The thing. Yeah. Like, the thing about the interactions in this Twilight book is that, you know, by the time you get to Breaking dawn, you're like, oh, Bella being, like, a boring, unreadable cipher is actually, like, the basis for her vampire superpower.

[Craig]

Yeah, sure.

[Andrew]

Or like, all the stuff that you get from Edward's perspective when you. When you read that book. Like, you just need so much other external information for any part of this book to make. Yeah. For it to make sense at all. And, like, by the time you get to the end, I guess there is something there. But, man, that's a lot of books. Yeah. Got.

[Craig]

You got to read well book to read. When they're in the diner, there's a really funny shot where she is putting ketchup on her fries and no ketchup comes out. It's really funny. You gotta watch it.

[Andrew]

She is, from watching it with you waggling. I made. As I made us wind it back, because she's just, like, wobbling this bottle, and nothing comes out. But I wasn't watching closely enough when I was Watching it the second time because I was also trying to do some side quests in pickopia.

[Craig]

Yeah. Huh.

[Andrew]

Pocope.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

But, yes, that is very funny.

[Craig]

It's 2008. Everybody's wearing shirts over other shirts.

[Andrew]

Rules.

[Craig]

They. Oh, when he comes back from eating and he's like, sort of normal, quote unquote. She asked him if he got contacts, and he kind of. I just can't believe he doesn't have a cover story for his eyes. He, like, kind of stumbles and goes, it's the fluorescent lights. And then just.

[Andrew]

He's pretty. In general, he's pretty bad at coming up with COVID stories, which, you know, maybe, you know, he loves her so much, maybe he doesn't actually want to have a cover story. Whatever.

[Craig]

Yeah. I don't know.

[Andrew]

You don't. I don't know. You don't get the sense that he's very quick on his feet for having lived, like, a hundred years.

[Craig]

No, true.

[Andrew]

Literally quick on his feet because he can help.

[Craig]

That's true.

[Andrew]

You know, did come repel truck.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

As it comes careening toward her, there's

[Craig]

a weird scene where they all go to a composting center, which is sort of like. They're like. It's truncating a lot of the different biology class scenes from the book.

[Andrew]

As with Bella's mom, there's a whole other separate movie happening in the background where this, like, biology teacher is doing an oh, Captain, my Captain thing the whole time.

[Craig]

Like, he's Galante of biology.

[Andrew]

Yeah. He's trying to be the cool teacher, and he's just, like, relegated to a couple lines per scene. And then, by the by, like, the. The halfway point of the movie, he's not in it anymore.

[Craig]

But I think your earlier note about the way that, like, a movie can bring some of these side characters to life, if not in even a way that you'd go, that's great cinema. But just like, wow, that's a person. Because each actor has, like, a vested interest in not looking dull on camera.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I could imagine these people going home and having stuff to do, whereas not, like, that's not a thing. That's true of any of the human characters in any of the Twilight books.

[Craig]

There is a hilarious beat. I don't even know what the scene is where she goes home to Charlie and she's complaining about school, I think, because Edward, like, won't tell her what his deal is. And she tries to put her backpack down on a chair and it, like, falls off the chair and it. I think it startled Kristen Stewart, like, and they just kept it in the movie. I can't believe that it was on purpose blocking. It just seemed like a happy accident.

[Andrew]

I do. Like, if. If we watch more of these. I am what. What I am worried about is that, you know, they're gonna go in being like, oh, oh, we know we've got, like, a big thing now, and there's not going to be any more shaking the ketchup.

[Craig]

Yeah, I know.

[Andrew]

Like those. Those little weird, happy accidents that happen when people are not feeling, like, the pressure of. Of franchise or the pressure of fame or whatever, when they're just, like, letting little weird rough edges still show through. I. I'm. I'm. I'm worried that they're not going to be there for subsequent movies. They'll be not only, like, the story will be not as good, but, like, the movies will be polished more in a way that makes them less interesting.

[Craig]

Yep. They go to the beach. They learn about the backstory. Andrew, what do you think about the sepia tone backstory?

[Andrew]

Like, it's fine, I guess.

[Craig]

Jacob tells her about the Cullens being something else.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

The vampires kill Waylon. I was reading a little bit. The director said that they barely used any, like, traditional CG in the film. Tried to just have it be speeding people up and using wire work whenever possible.

[Andrew]

You can see a lot of the wire work.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Crouching Vampire, Hidden Werewolf. Because you could, like, every time anybody needs to run up a hill, they are just, like, being drawn in a straight line.

[Craig]

Just.

[Andrew]

Boy, you better be. Better hope they got a lot of foliage around their ankles, because those feet are not.

[Craig]

There's a funny effect when the evil vampires show up at the end during the baseball game. Andrew. Where they are, like, they're walking, but they're walking faster, like, relative to the trees than is possible. They are on some sort of, like, plexiglass sled that a truck is pulling or something. And so they are, like, walking slow. It's like they're walking at the airport, basically. Like, it's. It's pretty funny. Yeah.

[Andrew]

They're on, like, the moving. The moving walkway. The thing at the.

[Craig]

Yeah. So he saves her from the truck, and then he saves her from the attack in the other town. They go, didn't have their ravioli dinner. He says, money, sex, money, sex. Cat. And then there's a shot of a funny guy thinking about a cat.

[Andrew]

That was kind of funny.

[Craig]

On their way home, they find out that Waylon died. And in all of those conversations, I think in the book in the car on the way home from the restaurant, they start talking about vampires. But in the movie, she had to go get this book about vampires from the bookstore. She then is like, oh, he's a murder. He's a murdery monster. And she's scared of him.

[Andrew]

I just like, there. This is a weird observation, but it's like, it's. It's very of the, like earlier era of the Internet. Is that Bella looking up on the Internet what vampires are in this movie, and AJ Soprano looking up what the mafia is on his computer in the Sopranos. It's like this. It's basically the same scene. And I just find that interesting. That's an interesting study in. Study in monster Dom, you know?

[Craig]

Yeah, you're not wrong. It's not, you know, it's only a hop, skip and a jump to setting up a. Not gofundme for your dad. For your dad with cancer or whatever who's actually using it all to make meth. Think about it.

[Andrew]

I am thinking about it. What else?

[Craig]

There's a movie, you know, they. They run in the woods.

[Andrew]

Once this pervert died. This pervert who everybody hates dies. And then. And then suddenly he's like, oh, we all love this.

[Craig]

We all love this man.

[Andrew]

If we had. If our town had to have a pervert, I'm so glad it was him. And I hope that somebody. I hope to. This man who made my entire life as a waitress uncomfortable.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

I hope you find the killer because we all met. We miss him. And all the like Hell's Angels guys who are sitting at the next table, who's sitting in the diner, they all miss him too.

[Craig]

And the way that they love to

[Andrew]

go and be perverts together. Yeah.

[Craig]

His girlfriend, wife, life is like, you gotta. You gotta tell these guys what you're gonna do, copper, or else we're gonna have a riot here sort of thing. No, they go out into the woods and they have like kind of a truncated version of the thing from the book where he acts like a Tim Robinson character yelling, as if you could outrun me. And he's just like throwing things. He looks kind of funny in the sun. It's very silly.

[Andrew]

He looks like his sparkle. This is one of the. The changes from the. The book is. Is they were like, what if the revelation that he's a vampire happened in like a sun dappled grove in the Pacific Northwest and not in like some teenager's car?

[Craig]

Yeah. Yeah. And then he's like, come meet my family. There's a Big piece of art on their wall of all the mortarboard hats that they have from.

[Andrew]

Because they all graduate.

[Craig]

I don't remember if that's from the book.

[Andrew]

Book.

[Craig]

It's kind of weird.

[Andrew]

This is a very straight. Like, we maintain this house so that we have a cover story, but also in the house we have a bunch of, like, weird references to how we're immortal vampires all the time. The only thing about the Colin family I want to talk about at all.

[Craig]

Yeah, please.

[Andrew]

That I think seeing, you know, reading about Carlisle and Esme on the page, I feel like there is enough separation in, like, disposition and how they, like, present.

[Craig]

Oh, sure.

[Andrew]

They are like, yeah, this is the mom and the dad of this weird.

[Craig]

Oh, they are not the mom and the dad in this group.

[Andrew]

No, but in this movie it's like, well, if you were. If somebody was your immortal mom, but technically not related to you, but also was very. A very attractive woman.

[Craig]

Uh huh.

[Andrew]

Just like, what would you get up to eventually? Over the course of many decades.

[Craig]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew]

There's some uncomfortable. Yeah.

[Craig]

Elizabeth Reaser looks very good in this film.

[Andrew]

She looks very good in this film and also in most places where she appears.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

And then Carlisle also is just like a hot. A hot man. Peter Facinelli is barely older, who barely looks older than any of the things that are supposed to be his kids.

[Craig]

No, you're right. When I think about the Carlisle in the book, I think about an older guy than the one I'm seeing in this movie. Movie.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And I know, I know they're immortal. I know it's like, it's. It's intentionally a little bit strange, I guess, but. Yeah, I. I don't know how it would feel if somebody who was like five years older than me showed up and was like, hey, I'm your dad forever now. And I would be like, okay. I guess it's.

[Craig]

It really hits in the scene where they all make Bella dinner or they try to.

[Andrew]

Yeah, yeah, everybody's trying. There's a real gift of the Magi thing going on where she. They're trying. They're trying to make Italian food for Bella because they hear that her name is Bella and assume she's Italian and wants to eat Italian food, which actually rules. But then she ate before she came because they're vampires and she doesn't think that they want to eat food.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

So they both are trying to be considerate to each other, but then they both fail.

[Craig]

Yeah. And then they make like a. Somebody kind of refers to the fact that Edward might eat her at some point. And she goes, because I'd be the meal. And they all laugh.

[Andrew]

Everybody laughs. Very funny.

[Craig]

Rosalie is so angry, she breaks the glass salad bowl. And. Yeah, I don't think if that. Esme was like, now clean that up. Like, I don't think I would listen.

[Andrew]

I wouldn't listen.

[Craig]

I mean, really. You're not my mom.

[Andrew]

You're not my mom. I will only listen to you tell me what to do if we're, like, both wearing leather or something. Like, it's not to be a different context is all I'm saying.

[Craig]

The. They have the weird interaction in the bedroom and then they go outside and they climb on the trees. And he says, hold on tight, spider monkey. This was apparently a line written by the director Hardwick, because they realized they didn't have any dialogue for the sequence. And she wrote a bunch of lines the night before and said to Robert Pattinson, pick the one you like.

[Andrew]

There is a Lego recreation of the Collins.

[Craig]

I've seen this movie showed.

[Andrew]

I mean, I text. I shouldn't send you the picture of it. It has like a little. It has a little truck for Bella. I believe it has a wolf.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Like, it just has a lot of Twilight stuff. And then off to the side is a large pine tree that has Edward and Bella sitting up in the top of it where she's on his shoulders. And I just thought that. I thought that was neat.

[Craig]

It's very.

[Andrew]

This is them up in the big pine tree is as close as this movie gets to, like an iconic shot.

[Craig]

Yeah, I think so.

[Andrew]

I can't think of a lot of other movies where somebody is piggyback on another person and they climb a big pine tree in the Pacific Northwest.

[Craig]

And there's a lot of like, they spent money on those aerial shots. Like, this is before.

[Andrew]

Yeah, no, this is.

[Craig]

This is casual drone camera stuff.

[Andrew]

Yeah, this is not. Everything's a green screen.

[Craig]

No, they did some green screen work.

[Andrew]

Work.

[Craig]

Green scream, green screen work.

[Andrew]

I mean, it makes me want a green screen when I see obvious green screening. Which all of it is like nobody's ever done a green screen and fooled me.

[Craig]

I love you keep.

[Andrew]

You keep trying. I would love to you to keep trying, but I see it.

[Craig]

They make out in her room at night after he admits that he's been watching her sleep for months, which is terrible.

[Andrew]

Yeah, you would have to that to that news.

[Craig]

And then there's a montage of them getting to know each other. I love that this story is most interested in doing that by montage all the time. I like when Charlie is loading a shotgun when Edward comes over to properly introduce himself.

[Andrew]

Yeah. He's like, three beers in, cleaning his gun. And Edward comes over and he, like, cocks it, and he's like, all right, let's bring him in.

[Craig]

And then they do Vampire Baseball Andrew to supermassive Black Hole by Muse that I. Apparently, they had approached Muse to do the full soundtrack, but Muse was busy, and they said, you can use this song. What do you think about Vampire Baseball Andrew? You had not seen it before? I had all of it before.

[Andrew]

It's the silly. It's so silly. I mean, it does. It does benefit, I think, from being shown instead of just told about. Like, somebody had to have. Somebody had to read what Stephanie Meyer wrote and decide, this is what this looks like.

[Craig]

Yeah. Fun. And they're all wearing different pieces of vintage baseball gear.

[Andrew]

Pieces of different vintage baseball gear. Like, Alice is doing all the pitching, right.

[Craig]

Delivery so much.

[Andrew]

She's throwing. She's lifting her leg way up just to show everybody she can do it. And everybody's, like, jumping to catch balls and, like, crashing into each other. And it makes big thunder noises.

[Craig]

Yeah. I.

[Andrew]

It's hard for me to judge how I feel about it, because I think it's really objectively stupid, but also it's so silly and memorable, and I would watch it 100 times.

[Craig]

I know, it's really fun.

[Andrew]

Like, is. If you're the. If success, what is. How do you measure success as a filmmaker? Is it. I should. I should watch that once and walk away from that and be like, yeah, that was good. Which is why I did with, like, sinners or whatever. Or should I want to watch it over and over 3,000 times?

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Because you can't really quite understand how all these different elements came together and became a thing.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

But they released in movie theaters that you had to pay money to go.

[Craig]

Yeah, it's pretty good. The evil vampires show up. They want to play baseball with them. Then they learn that Bella is human because a wind blows her scent at James.

[Andrew]

The evil blows her stink.

[Craig]

And they all crowd into one kind of awkward shot where they all look like panthers kind of facing off. I don't like that shot. Really? Everybody. Too many vampires in one shot for me.

[Andrew]

I think Hardwick is just like, what do you think a vampire in attack mode looks like? Yeah, do that, and we'll film it once.

[Craig]

And then the final act of the movie begins where they have to get her away. And then Lauren is like, yeah, that James Guy is kind of wacky.

[Andrew]

And.

[Craig]

Yeah, Laurel. And they take her to the hotel, but then he's got her mom in the ballet studio. But is it.

[Andrew]

And she escapes and it's still not quite clear like what hole through all the different vampire superpowers. She slips through where she gets to escape and go to the dance studio.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

But she does it and she gets tricked and then her like arm gets broke and. And James bites her. But then all Cullens show up and there's big fight. This is the most. This is such. Every dance studio I've ever seen is like the bottom floor of mixed use housings.

[Craig]

This is like a Mortal Kombat level.

[Andrew]

And every. And every single one of them is either. Yeah. We're gonna be open in six months. Oh, hey. Yeah, we closed six months ago. Like every dance studio is that I've experiences like that. And this one is like we're in this giant spaceship. Spaceship. Spacious cathedral.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

And we've been. And we've been here for at least 10 years.

[Craig]

Yeah, it's pretty wacky. I do like when the. All the Cullens show up and they've got James and they like, they kind of draw and quarter him between the guys. And then like Alice. And Alice jumps on his shoulders and rips his head off. Which is pretty cool. Again, this is a departure.

[Andrew]

She's got mind powers, but does she have head ripping off powers? Like has this been a.

[Craig]

Seems like it. She can predict which way your head is gonn fall off. I guess

[Andrew]

visions are subjective. That makes even less sense in this movie.

[Craig]

It really doesn't make sense. This is a departure from the book because all of this happened actually while Bella was knocked out from all the vampire poison. So some of this is kind of new. The other thing that's new is that there's like a blues track playing that is sung by and written by Robert Pattinson. Oh, kind of interesting.

[Andrew]

Listen, we. We. We can. We can rail against actor slash pop stars.

[Craig]

Lip sync. Actor slash.

[Andrew]

But that's just because they're not our actress. Lip sync. Actor slash pop stars. We can try to create our own.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Because we know that ours are actually talented. Not like those other ones.

[Craig]

That is true. And then she wakes up at a hospital after Edward sucks all the poison out. And I think it's funnier that. Okay, so in the book, I went and checked. In the book, Edward tells her the excuse that they gave her mom for what happened to her, where she has a broken leg and lacerations all over her body. In the movie, her mom has to tell Bella what happened, which is so silly, which is that she fell down two flights out a hotel window.

[Andrew]

And then it also also shows the, like, the video for what it would have looked like if that had actually happened.

[Craig]

It rules. I was laughing.

[Andrew]

And it's all this, like, Hannah Barbera stuff where, like, Bella just, like, slips on a banana peel and, like, falls out a window. It's so dumb. I think it's so funny.

[Craig]

Then they go to prom.

[Andrew]

It's not. I'm not disagreeing with you. It is very funny, but it's also very silly.

[Craig]

They go to prom. An Iron and Wine song plays. That apparently is very, very. Became a very big deal off the soundtrack. The soundtrack certainly informed how they would approach all the Hunger Games soundtracks as well. Like a very big. Like, let's get a bunch of bands to do to put songs on this thing. And then.

[Andrew]

Yeah, no, I remember. I remember when all the. All the kids were killing other kids on camera. And then super massive black holes.

[Craig]

Yeah. And then this is.

[Andrew]

This is a joke.

[Craig]

Then it becomes a thing where it's like, oh, we got some cool tracks. And now for all the sequels, we got to get original tracks. I remember this from the Mission Impossible series as well. Everybody's got to get a cut of the action, you know? And then before they dance while she's in a boot, then Jacob shows up again after a long break and is like, hey, my grandpa said, don't date that boy. Okay?

[Andrew]

And Bella has the correct response, which is, your grandpa doesn't have anything to do with.

[Craig]

Yeah, it is one of those things. I. I do want to note that, like, a lot of the Bella Strange ticks stuff is almost exclusively in the Edward scenes. Not that she has a lot of scenes with other people, but, like, when.

[Andrew]

Yeah, when she. When she is just with the other kids, it's like, yeah, this is. This is an awkward person who is.

[Craig]

Is. Who is actually kind of funny and, like.

[Andrew]

Kind of. Kind of, like, quietly funny and insightful.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

Like, when she. When she gives that other girl advice, like you said, like, she. She gets to be a more fully realized person. And then they're like, there are people at this dance who are happy to see her, and she's happy to see them, and they all, like, exchange little waves, and it's. It's more meaningful because the movie has built all these other people up better than the books did.

[Craig]

Yep, yep, yep.

[Andrew]

I don't know what happens to the rest of them subsequent movies. I feel like if you're gonna do another one that revisits the original Twilight again. You gotta do it from, like, Jessica's point of view or something.

[Craig]

That would be fun. That would be fun.

[Andrew]

And you call it New New Jessica.

[Craig]

That's what you would have to call it.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

You couldn't call it anything else.

[Andrew]

Twilight, New Jessica.

[Craig]

Twilight New Jessica. So, yeah, then there's a problem. And they dance and it's over.

[Andrew]

And they dance and it's over. And then the credits play. Yeah, it's. It's a. It's a strange movie. It makes it, like, the whole time we were watching it, I was just thinking, like, after Harry Potter, this is like the biggest.

[Craig]

Yeah, this is.

[Andrew]

This is one of the. One of the sections on the Rosetta Stone of, like, millennial culture.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

This is what we. This is what our era has bestowed on.

[Craig]

And it's the world so strange.

[Andrew]

And it's so strange.

[Craig]

I'm kind of glad that we got, like, I am glad that we got this rather than whatever the MTV script

[Andrew]

was, because we got that.

[Craig]

That would even be more dated, you know, it would.

[Andrew]

It would be even more dated. And I'm. And I'm also glad, you know, this is. This is a big. This is a big franchise film. It spawns a big franchise. It does, like, that classic thing where they're like, well, we have a thing. We have, like a. A work that we. That's the last one in the series. But we're not ready, like, you know, find our balance sheet is not ready for the franchise to be over yet. So we're going to split it in two for no reason.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

Like, it's got all that stuff, but this movie still has enough weird little human, little rough edges to it.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

That has texture and is interesting in the way that like a. I don't know, like a 2022 Marvel movie just is. Not anymore. Because. Because it's been in this, like, franchise rock Tumblr for so long and it has just, like, nothing to say and nothing to do and.

[Craig]

Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of fun.

[Andrew]

It's fun. I don't like it. I'm not gonna say, like, Seth, the webmaster. I'm not gonna say it's as good as the book.

[Craig]

No.

[Andrew]

But it did. You know, it's. It was. It was fun to watch.

[Craig]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew]

The thought of watching it again was not abhorrent to me.

[Craig]

No.

[Andrew]

When I went to watch it the second time.

[Craig]

No. I actually think I like, we each.

[Andrew]

Because we both watched.

[Craig]

I got stuff out of It. That. And I was not like, ugh, all of this again. Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew]

Just kind of check my notes to make sure that everyone. Yeah. The only other thing we haven't talked about is the weird soundtrack when it's. When it's not doing needle drops.

[Craig]

Oh, this.

[Andrew]

It's got the score where like every. They just like pick one instrument that every scene needs to be scored by and like, sometimes vocal that also happens.

[Craig]

Yeah. Carter Burwell. I don't know anything about Carter went on to do. He's worked with the Coen brothers. He did Carol and two McDonough movies. He's got plenty of credits outside of this franchise that are interesting. So I just don't really know why this one is the way. Because I don't love it. This.

[Andrew]

The score felt more TV to me. It didn't feel. It didn't feel movie enough.

[Craig]

Yeah. I don't know.

[Andrew]

But it also added to the, like, the roughness and the texture that I'm referring to.

[Craig]

Yep. Yep.

[Andrew]

I don't know. It was. I have fun. I. I enjoyed watching it. If we find a way to do the rest of them behind the Paywall, I won't be upset, but I do have several other movies on our list before we get to that.

[Craig]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you enjoyed us chatting movies, come join us on the Patreon patreon.com overdue pod for special collections. We've got a few in there and we'll make some more soon. As we say every week. You can email us overdue podmail.com find us on social media at Overdue Pod. Our theme song is composed by Nick Laranjas. Andrew. Folks want to know more about the show. Where do they go?

[Andrew]

Overdue Podcast.com's Internet website. We have the links that Craig just talked about. We also have a patreon [e-mail] overduepod pod get access to the other special collections. Like these are. Most stuff that we do for the Patreon gets released to the main feed eventually. But special collection stuff generally is not being like we might stays back there. We might drop a thing or two occasionally. But mostly, mostly it's just behind the paywall. The good thing is that even if you only subscribe at the $1 level, like, you get all. You get that stuff.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

That's all for you.

[Craig]

That's for you.

[Andrew]

You. But patreon.com overdue pod you do make the show literally possible. We thank you all for doing that and I hope that you hope that you join everyone who's. Who's doing that. And then next week, we start with our annotated edition run that Craig talked about the beginning of the episode. Craig, can you just remind them all the books.

[Craig]

Dune, Frankenstein, and Jekyll and Hyde, in that order. So next week,

[Andrew]

everybody, you got anything else? We good?

[Craig]

Good. No. Next week is June. That's all I got.

[Andrew]

Next week is June. All right, everybody, thank you so much for listening to our podcast. And until we talk to you next time, please try to be happy. That was a Headgum podcast.