Casting News: ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’
Summit Entertainment is casting The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, the third installment in the Twilight movie series, based on the best-selling books by Stephenie Meyer. Plot synopsis: “Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob—knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death.” David Slade, dir. Deadline for online audition submissions is June 30, 2009; shooting dates and locations TBD; premieres in theaters June 30, 2010 .
Seeking—Seth Clearwater: male, 14-19 (to play age 15), a Quileute Indian and the youngest member of the La Push Wolf Pack, tall, gangly, with a huge happy grin, the son of Harry and Sue Clearwater and the younger brother of Leah, idolizes Jacob, always eager to please; Leah Clearwater: female, 18-25 (to play 19), a Quileute Indian and the only female member of the La Push Wolf Pack, tall, slender, with beautiful skin, short-cropped black hair, would be considered gorgeous if not for the perpetual scowl she carries due to a broken heart and anger issues, daughter of Harry and Sue Clearwater and the protective older sister of Seth. The production notes: “This is an excellent opportunity for Native American and First Nations actors.”
It felt as if Edward and his family were barely in the movie, which is unfortunate since I realized that I had actually grown attached to them. Granted, Alice Cullen (Ashley Greene) still had a decent amount of screen time, which was awesome since she’s one of the few characters that I love seeing on screen, outside of Charlie Swan.
All of the vampire lore takes a backseat this time around to make room for the werewolf stuff, which I felt was handled far more poorly.
Werewolves are cool in general, the problem is that the movie does a poor job of introducing the audience into this specific part of the lore. Their world and rules didn’t land as well as the vampire stuff did for me.
Then of course, there’s Jacob, who’s honestly one of the worst characters in the series, which isn’t saying much to be fair. He’s just this really shallow and mean-spirited character, and that doesn’t improve as the movies progress.
One highlight of the movie though, is Michael Sheen in the role of Aro, the leader of a powerful vampire cult known as the Volturi. His performance in these movies can be a little over the top at times, but it’s still great.
New Moon made me realize what I like and dislike about the Twilight saga. Sometimes, you need to watch something really bad in order to put things in perspective.
