Fun Facts about the film "Twilight"

While passing the time for the LA Premiere of "Twilight" to begin the publicity firm handling the premiere, gave us a fun fact sheet to peruse through. I thought I'd share with with all you:


"Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer. ©Pacific Rim Photo Press.

Book Highlights:
• The series of 4 books has sold 25 million copies worldwide. Translation rights have been sold in 37 countries.
• The series is a New York Times Best Seller and has been on the best seller list for 65 weeks. Selected as the New York Times Editor’s Choice.
• On USA Today’s Best Seller list for 103 weeks (TWILIGHT spent 6 weeks at #1).
• BREAKING DAWN, the fourth book in the series and released on August 2, sold 1.3 million books in the first 24 hours.
• For seven straight weeks after BREAKING DAWN was released, all four books in the series were on USA Today’s Top 5 Best Seller List.
• The week BREAKING DAWN was released, TWILIGHT (released in 2005) had its best week ever and sold an additional 120,000 copies.
• After being on the New York Times Best Seller list for 2 weeks, the TWILIGHT MOVIE COMPANION is #1 on the “How To” paperback list.



Online Highlights:
• Recognition of the book has generated over 350 fan sites all over the world, including TwilightLexicon.com & TwilightMoms.com.
• The official film website has received over 11MM views since October.
• The trailers have garnered over 12MM views on MySpace, which is a record.
• TWILIGHT has the most friends on MySpace of any film, second only to X2 (beating both 300 and TRANSFORMERS).
• The debut of the final trailer in the TWILIGHT widget and on MySpace Trailer Park on Thursday, 10/16, generated over 3.5 million views in the first 48 hours,
• There have been over 110,000 adoptions of the TWILIGHT widget.
• TWILIGHT is the #1 most searched movie on IMDb Pro’s MOVIEMeter. Stars Robert Pattinson is #1 on their STARMeter, ranking higher than Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt and Kristen Stewart is #2, higher than Angelina Jolie.
• There was so much response to the TWILIGHT casting photos when they were initially posted, MTV.com’s server crashed. The response was very similar to in numbers to the likes of Harry Potter and Spider-Man franchises.
• When EntertainmentTonight.com posted the second teaser trailer on their website, they received more views than any of their breaking news stories.
• Both Fandango and MovieTickets.com, the two online movie ticketing providers, have each reported over 200 hundred sold-out shows a week before release.


Robert Pattinson plays Edward. ©Pacific Rim Photo Press.


Kristen Stewart is the lovely Bella. ©Pacific Rim Photo Press.

Publicity Highlights:
• Fan base generated thunderous applause and worldwide publicity at Comic-con International – with thousands of eager fans camping out the night before to see the cast and crew present new footage.
• The 1st Entertainment Weekly TWILIGHT Saga cover was the best-selling cover of the year for them, surpassing their Dark Knight and Harry Potter covers.
• The first EW cover was so successful; they did another triple TWILIGHT cover. It is rare for EW to feature the same film twice on their cover.
• In late August, Extra aired their segment from Ashley Greene and Rachelle Lefevre’s H Magazine photo shoot, and it was the second-highest rated show in primetime, next to Ugly Betty. Additionally, they posted the segment to their website and got three times the traffic they get on the Jonas Brothers.
• Vanity Fair featured an entire cast spread in their December issue – one of over 50 magazine features on the film.
• Ticket sales for the Rome International Film Festival sold out in a few hours, prompting festival organizers to add another screening. In Spain, over 1,000 screaming fans tried to get into a presentation at the Sitges Film Festival, more than 3 times the maximum occupancy.


Justin Chon who plays Bella's best friend is the only major Asian American featured in "Twilight." ©Pacific Rim Photo Press.


Paramore is one of the featured acts on the soundtrack of "Twilight." ©Pacific Rim Photo Press.


Cam Gigandet (l) most recent film release before "Twilight" was "Never Back Down" with Sean Faris (r). ©Pacific Rim Photo Press.


Taylor Lautner who plays Jacob had his major film debut with Robert Rodriguez's "Shark Boy and Lava Girl." ©Pacific Rim Photo Press.

Sean Faris faces the public - Never Back Down Opens Today

Finally, Sean Faris' debut lead role in "Never Back Down" will been seen by the general public as the movie opens nationwide today. As for my long awaited feature on Faris, here it is:

Q&A: Sean Faris
March 12, 2008

By PETERSON GONZAGA
Entertainment News Wire
HOLLYWOOD _ Sean Faris bears an uncanny resemblance to Tom Cruise. When he was 10 years old, he even fooled his family's neighbor who said he looked like Cruise by replying, "Yeah, he's my dad. But I'm living here with my uncle because my dad travels all over the world." The story spread around the neighborhood until Faris' sister spilled the beans.



Resemblances aside, Faris can stand on his own two feet when it comes to acting. In the upcoming film "Never Back Down," he plays Jake Tyler, a conflicted Midwestern teenager whose anger at his father's death leads him to become a fighter. Djimon Hounsou ("Blood Diamond") plays mixed martial arts coach Jean Roqua, who formally introduces Jake to the world of MMA and teaches him how to choose his fights wisely.

Dressed in a ribbed gray sweater and jeans, and seated in a Beverly Hills hotel overlooking Rodeo Drive, Faris is clearly enthused about his first major lead role.

Q: So how are you doing?

A: I'm doing it!

Q: You broke your back halfway through filming. That's crazy! How'd you deal with it?

A: Yeah, it was rough. It really made filming the rest of the movie quite tough. Just the mental aspect of it and the painkillers did not help me with that at all. I got very depressed and I thought like a different person for a while. I mean, it didn't affect my acting. I was still me in the scenes. But it created a whole other challenge, a whole other obstacle to overcome.

Q: Seeing you wince in pain in some of the fight scenes was that real pain?

A: That was real. I was in pain for the entire last few months.

Q: Will that cause you not to do any more MMA-themed films?

A: I'll do it in a second. Just limit the number of takes. We shot so many angles many takes and that's the sacrifice we had to make. Only, next time I do a film, we'll hire a stunt guy. I'll try it a couple of times, and when it's hurting in comes the stunt guy who's getting paid to get hit. I'm getting paid to act.

Q: When you knew you got the role, what was your first reaction? When did reality finally set in that you had grueling work ahead of you to learn MMA?

A: Well, when I found out I was, like, butt naked in the shower. And I was like, "Yeah! Hoooo!" I was like, "I get to learn MMA." Then, when I got to work, I was like, "It's really hard."


Q: What attracts people to this type of sport?

A: It's new, it's different and has instant gratification. A fight lasts only 15 minutes. It has fewer rules. It's more action packed.




Q: Djimon Hounsou mentioned that MMA is like a chess game. Do you believe in that philosophy?

A: Yes. It's a chess game with blood. With MMA, one moment, one mistake, one moment of not thinking can change a whole ball game. The champion can be on top but doesn't think about the opponent's legs. Then homie can reach and grab around and create a leg lock. If you slip, the fight's over. It's all about the moves. It's not just skill, it's experience and knowledge.

Q: While you were training, what was your favorite move?

A: I loved the hanging arm throw. It just feels really cool. I love being in the hanging arm throw or doing the hanging arm throw.

Q: Working with Hounsou _ a two-time Academy Award nominee _ were you in awe?

A: At first it was like that, but then we did rehearsals together and it was just work. I appreciate that I worked with a great actor who gave me on- and off-camera responses. It makes the job easier, because you have a great actor working with you. Djimon also let me lead a lot and push him also. I really appreciated that.

Q: Did Djimon give you any pointers?

A: Acting pointers? No, except for: "Save it, Sean." It's because I'm the type of actor where I want to give my all every time. He said, "You're doing great. Just save it until the camera gets close to here (Faris holds his hands to his face)." I said, "OK, I got you dawg, I gotcha." You just don't want to use it all up.

Q: Are you one of those actors who gets stuck in an emotional mode even after shooting?

A: Sometimes it is hard to let go of your character. I'm not talking about those people that think of mom dying or what have you. I don't pull that b.s. I think of what's going on in that scene. I allow the scene to affect me. But when you do that, you open yourself up to those emotions yourself. When you're in the middle of a scene and your character is in a horrible bad mood, it's really hard sometimes to let that go. Usually you just go home and try to let it go during your personal time.

Q: What do you want to see the audience get out of this? And do you think you were able to portray a typical MMA fighter _ his heart and his passion for the sport?

A: The second question, "Yes." I don't think there is a typical MMA fighter, but I think Jake portrays an MMA fighter of today. Once he's trained, his values are pretty evident. Discipline and self-control are two important elements of an MMA fighter, I believe. As far as the audience, I hope they receive the message especially the younger audience that if you think this sport is cool, don't go mix it up in the streets and set it up as an underground club with your friends. Because it will be unregulated and you could get hurt. If you really want to do it, go take a class and go fight competition. I completely advocate that. It's a good way of letting things out of your system and letting your anger out if you have any. And I just hope they realize it's not a movie promoting fighting it's a movie promoting fighting for the right reasons: to defend yourself and the ones that you love.


Sean Faris with co-star Amber Heard. Heard plays Faris' love interest in the film.

MMA on the red carpet - Never Back Down

This past Tuesday, I thought there'd be a mat on the red carpet waiting for a cool UFC MMA fight to go down. Opps, this was a movie premiere not a fight for "Never Back Down." Wearing my Never Back Down promo shirt I headed over to the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight Theaters in Hollywood. Hoping to see a throwdown, I was treated instead to a red carpet walk down.

"Never Back Down" stars Sean Faris as Jake Tyler, an angry teen who can take down a bunch of football players in one take. Dealing with a tragedy in the family, Jake's family moves from the Mid-West to Orlando, Fl. His football fight follows him through youtube as new school buddy Max (Evan Peters) discovers the footage and sends it throughout the school. Local MMA teen fighter Ryan, now wants a bit of the action. Persuaded to head out to a party, Jake is set up on his first fight. Seeing his heart and drive to fight, Max introduces him to Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou) and the rest is history.

Sean was joined on the carpet with Amber Heard, Djimon Hounsou, Neil Brown Jr, Steven Crowley, Paul Walker, Tilky Jones, and director Jeff Wadlow.


Neil Brown Jr poses MMA style.


Sean Faris shows his toughness.


Amber Heard is Pretty in Pink.


Djimon Hounsou with girlfriend Kimora Lee


Tilky Jones poses instead of fights for the camera.


Paul Walker strolls down the carpet instead of burning rubber.

Sean Faris Never Backs Down

Yesterday I had the pleasure of interviewing Sean Faris for his upcoming first featuring starring role as Jake in "Never Back Down." The weirdest thing was his uncanny resemblance to Tom Cruise and his demeanor seemed a bit the same also. This upcoming young actor is definitely a firecracker to reckon with especially with his interview skills. He had so much to say that I only had to ask him a few questions without trying to pull teeth. A great 1:1. We talked about his first reaction to when he got the part to the reality of the training of MMA (mixed martial arts) he would go through for "Never Back Down."



I'll have the full interview for you in the next few days. In the mean time, check out the trailer to "Never Back Down."

Highmore watches out for Spiderwick

From "Finding Neverland" to "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory," Freddie Highmore has grown as an actor. Not just physically but also mentally as child actor. In his new film, "The Spiderwick Chronicles," Highmore plays twins Jared and Simon Grace who move into their great uncle Arthur Spiderwick. While living in the home, unexplained disappearances and accidents happen without any explanation in which Jared is blamed for. Trying to figure out what is causing these events, Jared, Simon and their sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger) are about to find the enchanting secrets that the Spiderwick estate holds.

There's no secret that Freddie is growing taller as demonstrated in last Thursday's premiere of film at the Paramount Theater on The Paramount Studio Lot in Hollywood. Mr. Highmore is as tall as his parents. But he can still play the dubious and lovable youthful characters in his movies.

Along for the support of the movie, Hayden Panettiere and brother Jansen made their appearance at the premiere. Looking strikingly beautiful in a red dress, Hayden's eyes had that sparkle that just makes anyone want to get to know her. Other guests included various child actors from Nickelodeon and a few from the Disney Channel.



"The Spiderwick Chronicles" opens at theaters nationwide on February 15.

That Thursday night was a busy night for me, so I sent my good friend Alex Sanchez to capture the excitement of "The Spiderwick Chronicles" Premiere for you to see.


"Disturbia" star Justin Chon braves "The Spiderwick Chronicles."



Jansen Panettiere attends premiere with sister Hayden.


Hayden Panettiere does an over the shoulder pose.


Sean Faris shows his kid side by watching "The Spiderwick Chronicles."


Nick Nolte and son Brawley illustrate father and son bonding.


Martin Short is definitely not short on support for the film.


Film star Freddie Highmore flashes a smile for the cameras.


David Henri takes a detour from Waverly Place to Paramount lot.


Victoria Justice does the red carpet justice a cute leather jacket.


"The Ring 2 and 3" star David Dorfman feels at home with a cowboy hat.


Brad Rowe doesn't have to worry about treasures at this premiere.