The moon may be new, and the director may be different (Chris Weitz takes over the reins from Catherine Hardwicke), but otherwise, the second installment of the “Twilight” saga remains, for better or worse, exceptionally faithful to its 2008 beginnings.

Understandably not wanting to mess with that $350 million worldwide success, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” is content to stay within those tonal parameters rather than venture out in potentially more intriguing or substantial directions, which should suit its ferocious adolescent female fan base just fine.

The uninitiated, meanwhile, might find that the film’s deliberately unhurried 130-minute running time feels like a Cullen clan eternity.

Anticipation is sufficiently high that opening weekend box office for the Summit Entertainment release is guaranteed to be anything but anemic, most likely eclipsing the $70 million taken by “Twilight” this time last year. The film bows Friday (November 20).

Alluding more obviously to the “Romeo & Juliet” vibe of author Stephenie Meyer’s books, “New Moon” finds heroine Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) caught in a tricky triangular relationship with Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner).

Read the rest of the review, here.

Bloomberg reports,

As Summit Entertainment LLC releases the sequel to “Twilight” in theaters today, the studio is searching for a follow-up to the vampire series that has so far made $384 million in global ticket sales.

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” based on the second of Stephenie Meyer’s four best-selling novels, may bring in $600 million worldwide, said David Davis, founder of Arpeggio Partners LLC, a consulting firm to movie studios and film investors based in Santa Monica, California.

The success of “Twilight” has allowed Summit to expand its film slate at a time when other studios are retrenching. The challenge for the studio is to find new properties to replace “Twilight” once the series ends, Davis said.

Read more, here.

New Moon director, Chris Weitz is a very popular man. We got another interview this one from New York Magazineto share.

How did you convince Stephenie Meyer to pick you as the director?
Her first reservation was that I’m a man. She had liked About a Boy [which Weitz helped adapt], so that helped a lot. It also helped to talk about the book and Bella’s feelings, and how I would see it realized. We became thick as thieves. I could always e-mail her and ask if it was okay to do something. She’s the pope and I’m the cardinal.
Had you always had a thing for vampires?
A week before [I was offered the Twilight job] — I’m friends with David Benioff, and he had said you should see this movie, Let the Right One In. And I said, “I don’t understand why everybody’s doing so many movies and TV shows about vampires. I just don’t get it. You have Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you’re through.” Then I got offered Twilight and became the world’s biggest hypocrite. But I don’t think it’s about vampires at all. Part of the appeal for adults is it’s a guilty pleasure going back to your teenage emotions, like your first love and first heartbreak and obsession.
But as a 39-year-old married man, how do you relate to the emotional state of a teenage girl?
I’m a teenage girl at heart, really. I could show you the doctor’s report. I have a very high estrogen count. My wife is here to confirm it. But I never thought the story was gender specific. It’s just the degree to which everyone wants to be seen letting [their emotions] all hang out watching it; guys don’t want to do that necessarily, and girls are willing to go there. But it’s in all of us.

Read the rest of the interview with Chris, here.

“This is the last time you’ll ever see me,” Edward Cullen says to Bella Swan. As if.

Spoken early on in “New Moon,” that promise is one of the least likely to be kept in movie history. With most of that film still to unfold, and two more adaptations of Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series in the works, the next due out as soon as next summer, the world is going to see as much of Kristen Stewart’s melancholy Bella and Robert Pattinson’s undead Edward as it can take. Maybe more.

In the short term, however, Edward is as good as his word and “New Moon” suffers as a result. Constrained by the plot of the novel, the film keeps the two lovers apart for quite a spell, robbing the project of the crazy-in-love energy that made “Twilight,” the first entry in the series, such a guilty pleasure.

“New Moon,” which has been grandly titled “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” in honor of that first episode’s huge success, marks the franchise’s entrance into the self-protective, don’t rock the boat phase of its existence, which is inevitable but a bit of a shame.

Read the rest of the review,here.

Empire Online sat down with the stars of New Moon recently for the inside scoop from the set and more.

Robert Pattinson’s Interview:

Kristen Stewart’s Interview:

Taylor Lautner’s Interview:

Rolling Stone Magazine recently sat down with New Moon’s director, Chris Weitz.

RS: You said everyone’s been asking you about the pressures of taking on such a successful franchise, and they also want to know why vampires are so popular.

Chris: Honestly, there weren’t really any pressures for me because there was a guaranteed audience which meant that even if I made a terrible movie people would still watch it. So once you got that reassurance [laughs], you just set out to make the best movie possible, which is what we aimed to do. And I’ve felt nothing but support from the fans since day one — actually day one there was a little doubt because I have a Y chromosome, but ever since then I’ve felt a lot of love from the fans.

RS: And why vampires?

Chris: I’ve actually realized that Stephenie Meyer’s vampires aren’t really vampires — you really don’t see many crosses, there’s not much garlic, they don’t sleep in coffins, they can go out in the day time — they just look more beautiful. It’s just more like Greek gods. So, in some ways it’s about this girl who falls in love with this demi-god. I think that symbolizes your first love — the person you’ve fallen for who you think will never never possibly return your affections.

Read the rest of the interview, here.

Continuing their New Moon countdown, J-14 gives us another interview. This time with Nikki Reed.

J-14: Rosalie Cullen is all about beauty — is that a lot of pressure to play?

Nikki: I feel incredible insecure. I feel embarrassed. At times flattered and at times, I just want to apologize to everybody. You know, I’m really appreciative to have that role, but in order for me to not just like fall apart because of the pressure of playing that character with that description is just sort of unbearable at times.

J-14: Do you try to turn the focus away from her looks?

Nikki: I just tried to look at her as every other aspect aside from her being the most beautiful. When you have like 30 million people reading a book, everyone’s going to picture in their minds who the most beautiful person in the world is — it’s not me and I know that. But I’m really grateful to all those people that think that I fit that — thank you.

Read the rest of the interview, J-14.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon” demonstrates that werewolves, while also belonging to the dangerous-when-biting class, are a lot more fun than vampires. They favor knee-length shorts, sneakers and seem most comfortable when shirtless, probably because their abs are so hot they require constant airing out. Instead of lamenting the eternal state of their being, they romp in the forest or go cliff diving. They maintain a core temperature of 108, enjoy snacks of muffins the size of small cats, and have decent senses of humor.

Ultimately, this makes Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), despite the furriness, far more suitable boyfriend material for any teenage girl than vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), although don’t bother telling Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) that. The heroine of the “Twilight Saga” turns 18 on the day our story begins, but she still doesn’t listen to reason. That’s not her thing, as we learned in “Twilight,” Catherine Hardwicke’s dark and emotionally stormy introduction to the cinematic versions of Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling four-part series, in which Bella fell in love with Edward, a noble vampire who sparkles like diamonds (rather than ignites, as is traditional in the vampire mythology) in sunlight and can only kiss her for a few seconds before his animal instincts are awakened. Paging Vampire Bill, who has figured out how to satisfy himself and his woman.

Read the rest of the review, here.

So, what do you guys think?