BoxOffice® Pro - November 2011

BIG PICTURE > THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN—PART I
TIME TO TUCK IN
CONDON SHOOTS A BEDROOM SCENE WITH
HIS YOUNG NEWLYWEDS
EVERYTHING’S AT STAKE
Director Bill Condon on Twilight’s bloody crazy two-part climax
by Amy Nicholson
This must be the first time in your
career that there are videos of people
crying after watching your trailer.
That is true! [Laughs] I love them, I love
them all. They’re so great.
What was it like to get that call that you
were chosen to direct the climax to the
huge Twilight franchise—word is you
beat out Gus Van Sant?
It felt like a process more than a call. I was
into it and it felt like we had a connection,
especially with Stephenie. All of us felt like
we were on the same page about it, which
was good. It was good—that’s the main
thing I can say.
Well, you’re about to become a lot more
popular with teenage girls. Even your
future projects will get a boost—Chris
Weitz [the director of New Moon] was
saying that the Twilight fan base was invaluable
in getting the word out about
his new indie film A Better Life.
That’s interesting. That’s good to know. I
was curious about that, whether anything
extends beyond Twilight. But that’s good to
hear from him.
You’re on their radar for life. We interviewed
Robert Pattinson a while back
and he said the only other director he
could imagine handling the blood of
Breaking Dawn was David Cronenberg
[The Fly, Naked Lunch].
And then he went to work for him! [In
2012’s Cosmopolis] But I know what he
means because it is very, very intense in the
last part—it’s almost like a horror movie.
And he’s certainly delivered the most intense
images in the last decade or so. I tried
to get my Cronenberg on a little bit and I
think within the confines of a PG-13 rating,
I think we’ve got something that’s pretty
powerful.
Everyone has been saying for years how
hard it would be to make Breaking Dawn
PG-13. How did you pull it off?
The whole movie is very immersive, kind
of like in the book, which is in the point
of view of Bella and Jacob [Taylor Lautner].
We tried to do the same thing in the
movie—there’s a whole chunk where you
get inside the head of a wolf. And in terms
of the birth, it was, “Let’s do it from Bella’s
point of view. Let’s see whatever she can
see.” Once you decide on an approach like
that, it’s amazon how powerful you can
be without being overly explicit. She gets
glimpses of a lot of things—and hears everything—but
it’s not the cutaway to teeth
clawing through flesh. But you certainly
know what’s happening.
Between this and the MTV show 16 and
Pregnant, teen pregnancy is going to go
way down.
Oh, I know! It’s so true—they’re such
cautionary tales. And poor Bella has a ring
on her finger, so I don’t know why she gets
punished.
I heard that you had a midwife on the
54 BOXOFFICE PRO NOVEMBER 2011