Yesterday in Los Angeles, the Billboard Film and TV Music Conference featured a huge presence of New Moon heavy hitters in relation to the score and soundtrack of the movie.

Moon from Letters to Twilight graciously served as our guest reporter to bring you this amazing information from the conference–including a very brief exclusive interview with New Moon director Chris Weitz himself!

The conference featured two Twilight New Moon themed panels. One discussing the soundtrack success featuring New Moon soundtrack music supervisor Alex Patsavas, a VP from Atlantic Records and Paul Katz, music consultant and uppity up at Summit Entertainment.

The other New Moon themed panel was “A Conversation with a Director and Composer” featuring Chris Weitz and Alexandre Desplat who discussed New Moon and its score and music for a hour. Now, this was some hardcore discussion regarding the composition of the score, influences how they began the process, etc. It was NOT a panel where they discussed Robsten or anything about the actors other than what pertained to the topic of the New Moon score.

I’ll be writing a more in depth post in the next few days reviewing both panels in more depth but for today I’ll give you a quick overview of some juicy tidbits from Chris’s panel and what WE, yes WE I met the man himself talked about after the panel. Hang on kiddies, we’ll get there but first some of what Chris and Alexandre discussed:

• There were themes (musical) created for for each character. IE one for Bella, one for Bella and Edward, one for Jacob
• To reflect the confusion in Bella’s mind after Edward leaves, at times the “Edward” and “Jacob” themes are “blurred” together to help created “subliminal confusion” in her mind
• Jacob’s “theme” features electric guitar. Alexandre used a guitar that sounded very similar to an Indian sitar and Chris jokingly reminded him that Jacob is Native (Indian) American not Indian from India
• The score will not featuring any of Carter Burwell’s score. (I’ll expound more on this decision in a later post)
• And the most important info: Chris wore a lot of olive and tan. He was in full on DILF mode with cargo pants, striped socks (i love a good sock!), some sort of olive sweater and a leather man purse. Work it Chris, WORK IT!

Also, Moon had the chance to meet Chris Weitz face-to-face for a few brief moments, where she reveals:

After I explained who I was I thanked him for being part of the panel and proceeded to tell him that we as a fandom wanted to thank him for doing such an outstanding job with New Moon and that from the looks of things on November 2oth we were going to love the final film. Then I asked what he was most excited for fans to see in the movie. He answered that he wanted us to hear the rest of the score (yea, yea panel’s over pal, give us the real answers!) since we hadn’t gotten to hear much and I said that we heard “The Meadow” and that I thought Alexandre’s song “The Meadow” was beautiful and that some of the fans had expressed that they thought “Bella’s Lullaby” should have been more like “The Meadow” that the song was that great. His eyes lit up and pretty much said “really!? I’ve heard some good things from the fans” and I asked him if he went online and read what the fans were saying or if he watched any reaction videos and he said that he did and that everything he’d heard was positive and that he was really excited about our reactions and then went on to say most of all he really couldn’t wait for us to see the ENTIRE movie and not just clips and leaks. I jumped in and asked him what he thought about all the leaks and spoiler clips that people were seeing online and on TV shows and if he liked them. Chris told me that “Ya know what, I really believe less is more” and that he wished there weren’t so many clips out for people to see until the big day. I told him I felt the same way and couldn’t wait to enjoy the full film.

For Moon’s full report, be sure to visit Letters to Twilight for the rest of today’s report, and stay tuned as we both bring you more detailed info in the days to come!

Also, be sure to read Billboard’s own cover story on the New Moon phenomenom!

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Yup, this was all they showed on ET tonight. A very brief glimpse of the New Moon logo. Better than nothing I guess? We’ll update with higher quality as it arrives.

UPDATE: Here’s the video:

Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight is now an international phenomenon. We’ve collected 20 different versions of the New Moon book cover from around the world to give you a taste of how other culture see the series. Which one is your favorite?

Korean New Moon Cover: 뉴문

UK New Moon Cover:

Austrian New Moon Cover: Biss zur Mittagsstunde

Czech New Moon Cover: Nový Měsíc

Finland New Moon Cover: Uusikuu

French New Moon Cover: Tentation

German New Moon Cover: Biss Zur Mittagsstunde

Italian New Moon Cover:

Indonesia New Moon Cover: Dua Cinta

Portugese New Moon Cover: Lua Nova

Swedish New Moon Cover: När jag hör din röst

Thailand New Moon Cover: นวจันทรา

Netherlands New Moon Cover: Nieuwe Maan

Polish New Moon Cover: Księżyc w Nowiu

Russian New Moon Cover: новолуние

Greek New Moon Cover: νέο φεγγάρι

Hungarian New Moon Cover: újhold

LIthuaninan New Moon Cover: Jaunatis

Romanian New Moon Cover: Lună Nouă

Japanese New Moon Covers: 新月

UPDATE: Helpful commenter Nastya from Russia shares these sultry covers for New Moon and Eclipse!:

New Moon Russian Cover: новолуние

Eclipse Russian Cover: Затмение

Sources: Book websites from around the world, With You and Stephenie Meyer’s Website

So, we’ve gotten a look at the wolves from the Twilight universe, but there’s going to be a lot more to see in New Moon. Transformations–particularly that of Jacob to big brute–are fun to speculate about. In fact, director Catherine Hardwicke recently noted that:

“The wolves will be tricky, because they are supposed to be these giant wolves,” she continued. “Is it going to be CGI, real wolves or a combination? There are five standard industry ways of doing it. Which will be most effective. When you read the book, you see how quickly they transform, and you see the shredding clothes and the popping collars, so that’s a challenge. How does that read on film? How does that translate to film? What you normally do is you do tests. You figure out some things that are working better, and things that are not working better. You try them out, hopefully, on real people.”

Obviously, a lot of thought is being put into how to make the werewolves look amazing. So let’s take a look at past monsters from Hollywood to see which direction New Moon might go with for the packs of werewolves that will appear in New Moon.

In Skinwalkers (2007), two ancient orders of werewolves heed the moon’s call to fulfill a long-standing prophecy.

Michael Jackson’s 1983 Thriller music video proved that humanoid werewolves could funk, too.

The 1956 Werewolf movie was one of the first of its kind, and featured a man with no memory that shows up in a town with no idea where he is.

An American Werewolf in London from 1981 mixed comedy and action, with two college kids being attacked in the Moors of Yorkshire.

Underworld’s wall-racing wolves from 2003 set that bar for a new style of superhuman werewolves.

Big Fish from Tim Burton proved in 2003 that werewolves could be quite scary–even if they just looked like wolves.

Van Helsing had traditional looking wolves with VERY BIG FANGS. I’m scared, how about you?

The Brothers Grimm by Terry Gilliam was a bit of a flop, but the CGI werewolf looks like it could give a pretty mean bite.

Underworld Evolution raised the ick-factor on the Lycans in 2006, giving them an almost slimy, ghoulish appearance.

Teen Wolf gave werewolves a friendly face in 1985 with Michael J. Fox’s portrayal of a high school student that exceeds at basketball.

Bad Moon from 1996 promised “Half man. Half wolf. Total terror. “

1997’s An American Werewolf in Paris picked up where the 1981 “…London” left off, and featured a drastically improved wolf.

So, which of these is your favorite? Any suggestions for what the transformations in New Moon should look like?

With confirmation that filming will occur in Italy, let’s take a picture tour of the real-life sites of Volterra that we may see in the movie.

Check the jump for 16 high-res images of Volterra, Italy!

Roman Ruins in Volterra [Source]

Roman Ruins in Volterra [Source]

A Quiet Trail in Volterra, Italy [Source]

Palazzo del Priori, Volterra, Italy [Source]

Interesting Marble-Striped Building [Source]

Roman Amphitheatre in Volterra [Source]

Roman Amphitheatre in Volterra [Source]

The Narrow Streets of Volterra, Italy [Source]

The Narrow Streets of Volterra, Italy [Source]

The Expansive View from Volterra [Source]

Interesting Light Fixture in Volterra [Source]

Rooftops of Volterra [Source]

San Michele Church - Built in the 13th Century [Source]

Countryside Surrounding Volterra [Source]

The Rooftops of Voltera [Source]

Volterra Fields in the Summer [Source]

House in Volterra, Italy [Source]

So what do you think? Is this what you imagined when you read New Moon? I think it looks beautiful, and I can’t wait to see what it looks like in the movie!

If you liked this article, be sure to it!

If you liked this article, be sure to it!