Taylor Swift, Taylor Lautner top movie poll

Teen heartthrob Taylor Lautner and "Fearless" singer Taylor Swift on Tuesday landed atop online movie ticket seller Fandango.com's annual "Hot List" as the new on-screen couple film fans can't wait to see together on movie screens.

'New Moon' Pulls In Big Box-Office Numbers

#1 "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" ($140.7 million)

#2 "The Blind Side" ($34.5 million)

#3 "2012" ($26.5 million)

#4 "Planet 51" ($12.6 million)

#5 "A Christmas Carol" ($12.2 million)

The full extent of the "Twilight" phenomenon made itself known this weekend with the debut of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," the second installment in the supernatural romance franchise starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. There was little to no doubt that "New Moon" would emerge as this weekend's box-office champion, but perhaps no one was prepared for just how successful Summit Entertainment's "Twilight" sequel would be.

On Friday alone, "New Moon" managed to earn $72.7 million, surpassing "The Dark Knight" as the single best opening day in cinema history. A hefty $26.3 million chunk of that Friday change came purely from midnight showings, propelling "New Moon" past "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" with the highest-grossing midnight opening of all time. "New Moon" also debuted with the biggest November opening ever and the third-best opening weekend of all time, taking that distinction away from "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

To put the success of "New Moon" in perspective, the first "Twilight" film — which opened almost a year ago to the day — earned only $69.6 million in its debut weekend, demonstrating just how widespread the "Twilight" craze has become in only 12 months.

The audience for the "Twilight" films isn't just made of young women pining for shirtless screen time from Pattinson and Lautner, either — the movie's audience, while mostly female, was divided evenly between viewers under and over the age of 21. Apparently, there is no age restriction when it comes to falling in love with vampire and werewolf heartthrobs.

The success of "Twilight" won't end with "New Moon" either, as "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" launches on June 30, 2010.

Despite the unprecedented victory for "New Moon," credit must be given to some of the film's other competitors this weekend. "The Blind Side," starring Sandra Bullock, managed a second-place finish with an impressive $34.5 million intake. "Planet 51," another newcomer, earned fourth place with $12.6 million. Holdovers "2012" and "A Christmas Carol" also performed adequately under the pressure of "New Moon," winding up with $26.5 million and $12.2 million apiece.

Upcoming Releases

Warner Bros. unleashes "Ninja Assassin" next weekend to combat the formidable vampires and werewolves of "New Moon," while Buena Vista hopes to corner the comedy market with John Travolta and Robin Williams' "Old Dogs."

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1626826/story.jhtml

Taylor Lautner Never Had A Dream Like 'Twilight'

On "Oprah" last week, Stephenie Meyer repeated the story about how she got the whole idea for "Twilight" in a dream. That brings up the possibility that there's the potential for such great ideas lurking in the subconscious minds of people everywhere. And we wondered if the stars of "New Moon" also had some budding franchises coming to them in their sleep.

Taylor Lautner said that's not the case for him. "I'm not the best at remembering my dreams," he told MTV News on the red carpet of the "New Moon" premiere in Los Angeles on Monday night. "Or, I'll remember them in the morning when I wake up, but then I completely forget about them."

Regrettably, even the ones he does remember aren't anything like "Twilight." "Definitely not anything close to this," Lautner said.

Last Friday, Meyer told Oprah all about her dream, which eventually became chapter 13 of the first novel. "In the dream it was two people in a circular meadow, and one of them was a sparkly boy and one was just a girl who was human and normal and the boy was a vampire, which was bizarre," she explained.

Meyer also addressed the question of whether she'll continue the "Twilight" saga beyond "Breaking Dawn," which came out last year. "I might do something completely different — I've got to cleanse the palette," she said in bonus footage that didn't air on Friday's show. "I might come back to it. I did envision it as a longer series, but I wrapped up 'Breaking Dawn' in a way that I felt satisfied with."

By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Larry Carroll

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1626432/story.jhtml

Thousands cheer stars of 'Twilight' sequel in LA

Exactly 12 months ago, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were surprised to be greeted by throngs of eager fans of the novel "Twilight" at the premiere of the big-screen adaptation.

What a difference a year makes.

The actors unveiled the sequel — "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" — at the same location Monday night in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. But this time they knew what was coming.

"I'm not as scared as I was last year," said Stewart, despite a brief touch-and-go moment as she signed autographs. "At some point, the security guy said, 'This is very unsafe.' And I was like, 'Uh.' Other than that, everything was cool."

Pattinson, who plays vampire Edward Cullen in this latest adaptation of author Stephenie Meyer's popular series, said this year's crowd of thousands of screaming fans was larger than the 2008 turnout.

"And it seems different to me because we have done this world tour in the last week and it has just been unbelievable in every single city," he said. "It is about 10 times bigger than any other city in the world."

Some "twi-hards" __ as they call themselves __ arrived as early as Thursday afternoon to secure a place in line for tickets allowing them to watch the stars' arrivals on the red carpet. The 800 available tickets were all distributed by Monday morning, but the line still stretched for blocks well after lunchtime.

Nicole Zamora, 36, was sixth in line after getting to Westwood on Thursday afternoon. She and her three sisters wore "New Moon" T-shirts they'd made for the occasion and said they spent the weekend "reading, listening to the iPod and trying to sleep — anything to pass the time."

Christina Fuentes and four of her friends traveled from New Jersey for the "New Moon" premiere. The 24-year-old wore vampire teeth ("They just clip on," she said) and carried a homemade sign that read, "We flew in from NJ! We've been camping out for three days just to see you!" She pasted her airline boarding pass to the poster as proof.

Scores of other fans — mostly young women — crowded onto street corners near the Mann Village and Bruin theaters, site of the premiere. They sat on beach chairs, displayed homemade signs and wore T-shirts proclaiming their allegiance to either the handsome vampire played by Pattinson or his werewolf rival, Taylor Lautner.

Lautner, who rises to headliner status in "New Moon," said he was also amazed by Monday's fan response.

"It's the amount of passion," he said. "It's not normal."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikMct4xzSJKE058n8CUlrHHx1SlAD9C16Q381

Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner To Present 'New Moon' Clip At MTV Movie Awards

Are you ready for a sneak peek at tomorrow's blockbusters today? Check out our new series "Behind the Screen" Sunday night at 11 p.m. on MTV for the broadcast premiere of the "Brüno" trailer, the very first visit to the set of Russell Brand's "Get Him to the Greek" and much more!

The star-gazing, OMG-generating, anything-might-happen madness that is the 2009 MTV Movie Awards has just shot into the celebrity stratosphere: "Twilight" stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner will be presenting an exclusive, never-before-seen clip from their upcoming vampire sequel "New Moon" during the live broadcast.

Joining the "Twilight" trio will be a group of newly announced Hollywood presenters: Sandra Bullock, Dwayne Johnson, Sienna Miller, Channing Tatum, Danny McBride, Abigail Breslin, Bradley Cooper, Thomas Lennon and Sofia Vassilieva.

This high-powered crew will hook up with previously announced presenters Denzel Washington, Cameron Diaz, Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, Vanessa Hudgens, Leighton Meester, Jonah Hill and Lil Wayne. Eminem is set to take the stage, where he'll perform music from his new album, Relapse, and Kings of Leon will perform live on MTV for the first time ever, rocking out with their hit song, "Use Somebody."

Heading into the Andy Samberg-hosted event on May 31 at 9 p.m. ET, "Twilight" leads all movies with seven nominations, including nods for Pattinson (Breakthrough Performance Male), Stewart (Best Female Performance) and Lautner (Breakthrough Performance Male).

Several of the new presenters are also up for awards. "Get Smart" star Johnson will vie for Best Villain, McBride will battle it out for Best Fight (based on his "Pineapple Express" throwdown with Seth Rogen and James Franco), and Lennon will pucker up for Best Kiss (thanks to his lip-locking scene with Paul Rudd in "I Love You, Man").

For the first time in the 18-year history of the awards show, viewers chose the nominees for the Golden Popcorns. They can vote for the winners through May 27 by going to MovieAwards.MTV.com. Voting in the Best Movie category will stay open through the live telecast, so anything that takes place onstage has the chance to sway the eventual outcome.

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1611566/20090518/story.jhtml

Taylor Lautner back as Jacob Black in Twilight sequel

Taylor Lautner will be back to morph into the monstrous Jacob Black in the "Twilight" sequel "New Moon."
There had been talk that a bigger, buffer, more menacing actor might play the role when the second of Stephenie Meyer's hugely successful vampire novels hits movie screens come Nov. 20. Lautner, by comparison, appears lean and sweet-faced in part one. But distributor Summit Entertainment and director Chris Weitz confirmed Wednesday that Lautner would be returning.

Stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson will also be returning as the saga's doomed young lovers, high schooler Bella Swan and brooding vampire Edward Cullen.

Catherine Hardwicke's "Twilight" opened at No. 1 with a whopping $69.6 million at the box office in November, the biggest opening ever for a female director. It has since grossed about $177 million domestically. - AP