'Twihards' get a preview of the upcoming Twilight flick

'Twihards' get a preview of the upcoming Twilight flick

Italian "Twihards" were treated with a peek into the new Twilight movie, "Breaking Dawn Part 1" on Sunday at a special Rome Film Festival event.

Actors Nikki Reed and Jackson Rathbone, who play Cullen vampires Rosalie and Jasper, were on hand to promote the latest installment in the series, attracting a large crowd of fans outside the film festival venue.

Many of the young fans, who have bonded over the books and films, had traveled from far and waited hours to catch a glimpse of the stars.

Although excited about the new movie, Lucia, a fan from Pesaro in central Italy, said the nearing end of the series cast a shadow over the anticipation.

"We are a bit down because next year will mark the end of the films and perhaps this friendship that has been built between all of us may not continue either and we're very sad about that. And also because the wait (for the next film) is always beautiful too," she said.

In the penultimate installment of the popular franchise heroine Bella Swan and her vampire lover Edward Cullen finally get intimate, after a lavish wedding.

For Reed, the theme hits close to home.

The actress married American Idol finalist Paul McDonald just two weeks earlier, on October 16.

"It's been great actually, we've been sort of like on a press tour slash honeymoon and incorporating work with a little bit of fun, it's been really wonderful and he is so supported, he is somewhere around here I think, oh, he's right back there actually," she told Reuters on the red carpet.

"My wedding was different from Bella and Edward's but I mean Bella and Edward had like a really beautiful wedding, I think theirs was a bit more traditional and it felt like sort of classic and timeless and ours was a bit more like festival-y and funky, it was all like with Christmas lights and hay bales," she added.

The upcoming fourth film in the series focuses on the wedding of the previously chaste Bella and Edward, their steamy honeymoon and Bella's difficult pregnancy with a half-human, half-vampire baby.

While those closest to Bella express their disapproval over her decision to go on with the life-threatening pregnancy, Reed's character Rosalie changes her attitude towards the young woman and the two become close for the first time.

Reed said the bigger part marked an important change both for Rosalie and her as an actress, giving them a sense of purpose and making them feel needed.

"Kristen is a wonderful actress and so any moment you get to have with her is wonderful and we've been working with these people for so long and you don't, you forget what it's like to actually act and do scenes with some of these actors that are really great, like Michael Sheen is awesome and you don't actually act with them so this time around it was really nice," she said.

The "Twilight" franchise became an instant hit when the first movie came out in 2008, appealing to an audience of mainly teenage girls and young women.

The series tells of the love between young Bella and Edward, but until this latest chapter the pair had not consummated their relationship.

Rathbone said the cast members were aware of the expectations of the large fan base and wanted to ensure the culmination of the series would please them.

"Well you know, you always want to make a piece of art directly for the fans because they are the ones who make this all possible, if it wasn't for their love and devotion we wouldn't be here talking right now about the film. And this film is the culmination of the series, it's the, finally we get to see the consummation of the relationship between Edward and Bella and I do mean, yes, vampire sex," he said.

The films based on the books by Stephenie Meyer and produced by independent studio Summit Entertainment have made a total of $790 million at U.S. and Canada box offices, according to tracking firm Box Office Mojo.

Summit decided to break the last book in the series into two films from director Bill Condon, with "Part 1" slated for release on November 18 and "Part 2" coming out next year.

Source => City News Toronto / Via => JRathboneFB