May
8
Twilight MySpace Teaser Trailer Clicks Over 2 Million Views
Summit Entertainment is doing cartwheels. That's because they're already in production on a movie, Twilight, based on the first book in a trilogy vampire saga by book phenom Stephenie Meyer.
The 34-year-old Mormon author just landed a takeout in Time Magazine calling her the new queen of fantasy with the head: The Next J.K. Rowling? The article praises Meyer's books for being about the "erotics of abstinence." She "rewrites stock horror plots as love stories."
She's basically the young adult Anne Rice, because Twilight is a romantic 17-year-old Romeo and Juliet with vampires and humans. Rising star Kristen Stewart (discovered by Jon Favreau in Zathura, Panic Room) plays a girl who falls for a handsome guy (Robert Pattinson, of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) who turns out to be a vampire. But he's a good vampire who has renounced sucking human blood. He and his mother coven feed on animals. His virtue--his psychological struggle against his lust for blood--makes him interesting. The movie, directed by thirteen's Catherine Hardwicke, is due December 12.
Vampires have fed Hollywood since its infancy, from Bram Stoker's Dracula and Nosferatu to Rice's Interview with a Vampire, Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Underworld series. But this series has femme appeal.
When Summit slapped a teaser trailer up on MySpace on Monday at 11 AM, it pulled 1 million views in 36 hours and has now passed 2 million. The teaser will premiere on E.T. Friday, and will run in front of family-friendly Speed Racer (maybe that will boost its ticket sales). "I would have been happy with 500,000," says Summit chief Rob Friedman, who scooped up the rights to Twilight when it had sold 10,000 copies just after he started Summit's new production/distrib arm. Paramount had the option and let it go. Since then the first three Twilight books have sold over 6 million copies in the U.S. "I knew the book had a fan base but it's always good to see it's bigger than you think," says Friedman, who has a potential franchise on his hands. This is what any new company lusts after.
UPDATE: Wired is also tracking this. The trailer could break the current record of 4.1 million views in one week set in March by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The internet fan buzz on this is so intense that Summit marketing may want to consider pulling back a tad.
Here's the HD teaser trailer:
[Illustration for Time by Anita Kunz]
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I believe David Fincher discovered Kristen Stewart in Panic Room.
Posted by: tylerdurden | May 09, 2008 at 03:26 AM
Just FYI - Twilight is a saga, not a trilogy. The fourth book (Breaking Dawn) will be released on August 2nd.
Can you please post the video to the MySpace video? That's the one that is getting the counts - not someone else's YouTube account.
You can find it here:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=33429578
Thanks!
Shelly
Bellaandedward.com
Posted by: shelly bellaandedward.com | May 09, 2008 at 05:14 AM
" He and his mother feed on animals."
That is wrong. It's all his adopted family.
Posted by: Dee C | May 09, 2008 at 12:31 PM
Sorry I don't mean to bash, but could you please do some research of the book before putting an article out. The Twilight Lexicon, is a good website where you could find all the information you need.
http://www.twilightlexiconblog.com/
Thanks,
Linda.
Posted by: Linda Coral | May 09, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Summit has acquired the rights to three vampire books by Meyer. The fourth book of hers is not a vampire book. So it will be a vampire trilogy, yes? Please explain.
Posted by: anne thompson | May 09, 2008 at 01:38 PM
READ the TWILIGHT SAGA... You really need to..Can't wait for the movie!!!
Posted by: Joanne Maria TWILIGHT MOM | May 09, 2008 at 02:17 PM
Wow, that would be so funny if they outclicked Indiana Jones.
Posted by: nola | May 09, 2008 at 02:42 PM
Love Indiana Jones...but love Twilight more, lol. I think these books and the movie have a vast appeal to many audiences. Young and not so young, girls as well as boys. From what I have seen of the movie (beyond just the trailer..visit TwilightMoms for all the videos out there) it will reach a very large demographic and still more than satisfy the HUGE fanbase of the books.
Posted by: debbie-dub | May 09, 2008 at 02:55 PM
To Anne: Her fourth book for the Twilight Saga comes out in August, so it's not a trilogy. She had a book come out this past week, but it is not part of Twilight. It's called The Host.
Posted by: Jcking78 | May 09, 2008 at 03:23 PM
Thanks so much for being willing to fix your facts and cater to our little whims! You're getting a good reputation around the fandom for it. Lovely article.
Posted by: jen | May 09, 2008 at 04:34 PM
Anne, this is her basic bibliography:
Twilight Saga:
1 Twilight (published)
2 New Moon (published)
3 Eclipse (published)
4 Breaking Dawn (announced)
Host Series:
1 The Host (published)
2 The Seeker (announced)
3 The Soul (announced)
Posted by: april | May 09, 2008 at 04:59 PM
I forgot, there is a 5th book announced for the Twilight saga called "Midnight Sun" which is basically the same plot for Twilight but under the POV of Edward instead of Bella. The movie for this is will not be made as it involves the same plot as Twilight. The book is considered more of a Twilight companion than an actual part of the saga.
Posted by: April | May 09, 2008 at 05:12 PM
Thanks for the article. What did you mean by "The internet fan buzz on this is so intense that Summit marketing may want to consider pulling back a tad"? Also, as far as anyone knows, Twilight is the only book that has been optioned so far. The others are under discussion apparently and Ms. Meyer seems very happy with Summit et.al. but nothing has been settled yet. Of course the fan base is hoping for ALL the books to be made into films (asap, of course.)
Posted by: debbie-dub | May 09, 2008 at 07:17 PM
The fans of this project are clearly psyched. I'm saying that Summit may want to slow down on pushing the pic online, given that it's not opening until December.
Posted by: Anne Thompson | May 09, 2008 at 08:42 PM
is it just me or does the "femme appeal" of this film relate to the lack of erotica - booo girls enjoy their erotica and not so goody goody vampires as well!
Posted by: k | May 10, 2008 at 06:33 AM
We are all very educated fans... so yes you need to get facts straight.. it can be hard I know but well, is it no evident, but we really care. I've watched the trailer about ten times already and I just started clicking.
Posted by: dbert | May 14, 2008 at 06:20 PM