It’s like Beatlemania.
That’s the only thing I can think of, the Beatles. You see old footage of that type of thing. It happened in Montepulciano, when we were shooting there. It was like The Birds, but with young girls. You’d turn a corner and there would be one or two or three. And the next time you looked there would be 10, 20, 50, 100.
Then before you know it gas stations are exploding.
Exactly. I think basically the panel today would have worked perfectly for the fans if it had just been us sitting there, and they could just look at Rob and Taylor. Maybe Rob and Taylor would move a little.
Taylor seems the most comfortable with this level of scrutiny. He doesn’t squirm as much.
It’s funny. In a way he’s the least prepared for the intense scrutiny, but he’s very balanced about it. Whereas I think Rob and Kristen are very sheepish about it. Not that they don’t appreciate it. But they’re thrown a bit by it.
I guess I should ask you about the actual movie. How done is it?
It’s pretty done. It has to be done. It has to come out on November 20. Which means we sort of have to hand it over October 30. Which means the picture has to lock August 30. And so in a few weeks it’ll be locked, the visual effects are in good shape, all the R&D on the more complicated, more ephemeral effects is being completed.How weird was it, stepping into somebody else’s franchise?
It was a bit odd at first. But then again it’s pretty amazing to have a huge fan base just dropped into your lap. And it was a pleasure to be able to deliver faithfully on a book. With Golden Compass I felt that by being faithful to the book I was working at odds with the studio. But Summit understands that it’s Stephenie Meyer’s world, and really it’s about recreating the experience the reader has, in some kind of faithful manner. Creating a picture that doesn’t violate too badly the picture they have in their minds.
I hope there’s sparkling in this one.
There will be lots of sparkling.
Did you read that? LOTS of sparkling. Hopefully they can get it as realistic as a Vampire sparkling in the sun could be!!