Comic-Con 2012 is in full swing in San Diego and we’re breaking down the movie news from the massive event. If you haven’t caught up on our 10 highlights for the show, read them now.
The first full day of
Comic-Con was Thursday the 12th and reports of the biggest press conferences and reveals are now filtering through the web. Inevitably, one of the most hyped appearances was for the
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2. The final part in the trilogy begun in 2008,
Twilight has always had a big presence at the Con, never more so than this year.
Before the panel proper started, there was a message from those in attendance giving their condolences at the death of a fan, who was killed by a car while queuing for the
Twilight event on Tuesday. 53 year old
Gisela Gagliardi fell into traffic while the line was being reorganised and died on site.
The conference itself kicked off with the main cast appearing on stage – that’s
Kristen Stewart,
Robert Pattinson and
Taylor Lautner, for those who somehow don’t know. For the first time, they’re joined by young
Mackenzie Foy, who will play the pivotal role of
Renesmee in the film – thankfully a little older than the infant in the last instalment. Novelist and producer
Stephanie Meyer was also present and director
Bill Condon sent in a video message as he’s away scoring the film right now.
FOOTAGE BREAKDOWN - MINOR SPOILERS
Then, the audience got the chance to witness the first seven minutes of the new film, sending fans into rapturous applause. It starts right where
Part 1 finished, as Bella (
Stewart) opens her eyes to reveal their deep red colour and the fact that she was successfully turned into a vampire. The first order of business is to go kill something to suck its blood before she’s allowed to go near her infant daughter, so Bella and Edward (
Pattinson) go off to the woods to hunt – though not before she crushes him in a super strength bear hug.
The next sequence featured plenty of moments designed to showcase Bella’s new powers – running, jumping and seeing incredible detail from a distance. Reports vary on the quality of the effects, there’s always been something vaguely cartoonish about Twilights CG-assisted scene, but the energy will be welcome after so many ponderous movies as a human. Bella then senses an injured human and has to be dragged away by Edward before having to fight a mountain lion over a tasty deer. She wins and eats the lion. Yes really.
Back the at the ranch with murderous impulses sated for the moment, she’s ready to meet her creepy daughter Renesmee but not before the requisite sparring with wolf boy Jacob (
Lautner), who is less appealing now that she can smell his wet dog stench like other vampires. As they head inside the house, fade to black and the audience goes wild.
After the footage, the stage filled up with an alarming number of vampiric types, including the extended Cullen family (
Peter Facinelli,
Elizabeth Reaser,
Ashley Greene,
Jackson Rathbone and more) for more general questions. The main trio talked about their emotions as the series comes to an end, with
Stewart happy to finally be able to play a new version of Bella.
Pattinson was jokey, keeping things about as light as you would expect for this kind of press conference and Lautner got the chance to talk to members of the public about staying fit, with one young man admitting the star inspired him to lose more than 100 pounds.
Stephanie Meyer crowned off the panel with a first look at some footage from her other adaptation –
The Host – with an introduction from director
Andrew Niccol. With
Saoirse Ronan in the lead role and a sci-fi story that deals with a future Earth almost totally taken over by a parasitic alien life-form, we can’t deny that it already looks more interesting than
Twilight.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 will be in cinemas from the 16th of November.