The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (commonly referred to as Breaking Dawn – Part 2) is an upcoming 2012 romantic fantasy film directed by Bill Condon and based on the novel Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. The two-part film forms the second part of Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and the fifth and final installment in the The Twilight Saga series. All three main cast members, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprise their roles, along with Mackenzie Foy who plays Bella and Edward’s Miracle child . Part 2 will be released on November 16, 2012,^[1] and will be released by Lionsgate in the US, in consequence of the merger between Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment.^[3]

Summary

After the birth of her daughter Renesmee (Foy) and now a vampire, Bella (Stewart) finds herself enjoying her new life and abilities , with the exception of her being angry at Jacob ( Lautner) for imprinting on Renesmee . But there is still more to come as the vampire Irina (Grace) misidentifies Renesmee as an “immortal child”, a child who has been turned into a vampire, and because immortal children are uncontrollable, creating them has been outlawed by the Volturi. After Irina presents her allegation to the Volturi, they plan to destroy Renesmee and the Cullens. In an attempt to survive, the Cullens gather other vampire clans from around the world, the Amazonian, Denali, Egyptian, Irish, Romanian covens to help them and stand as witnesses to prove to the Volturi that Renesmee is not an immortal child.

Cast

List of Twilight cast members

^[4]

• Kristen Stewart as Bella Cullen
• Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen
• Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black
• Mackenzie Foy as Renesmee Cullen
• Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen
• Maggie Grace as Irina
• Jamie Campbell Bower as Caius
• Michael Sheen as Aro
• Nikki Reed as Rosalie Hale
• Kellan Lutz as Emmett Cullen
• Dakota Fanning as Jane
• Jackson Rathbone as Jasper Hale
• Christopher Heyerdahl as Marcus
• Peter Facinelli as Carlisle Cullen
• Billy Burke as Charlie Swan
• Lee Pace as Garrett
• Christian Serratos as Angela Weber
• Elizabeth Reaser as Esme Cullen
• MyAnna Buring as Tanya
• Noel Fisher as Vladimir
• Joe Anderson as Alistair
• Cameron Bright as Alec
• Angela Sarafyan as Tia
• Aldo Quintino as Amazon Vampire
• Rami Malek as Benjamin
• Booboo Stewart as Seth Clearwater
• Daniel Cudmore as Felix
• Christian Camargo as Eleazar
• Mía Maestro as Carmen
• Ty Olsson as Phil
• Alex Meraz as Paul
• Judith Shekoni as Zafrina
• Charlie Bewley as Demetri
• JD Pardo as Nahuel
• Julia Jones as Leah Clearwater
• Lateef Crowder as Santiago
• Andrea Powell as Sasha
• Toni Trucks as Mary
• MyAnna Buring as Tanya
• Casey LaBow as Kate
• Andrea Gabriel as Kebi
• Austin Naulty as Werewolf
• Kiowa Gordon as Embry Call
• Chaske Spencer as Sam Uley
• Bronson Pelletier as Jared
• Marisa Quinn as Huilen
• Omar Metwally as Amun
• Valorie Curry as Charlotte
• Tracey Heggins as Senna
• Marlane Barnes as Maggie
• Guri Weinberg as Stefan
• Erik Odom as Peter
• Lisa Howard as Siobhan
• Bill Tangradi as Randall
• Patrick Brennan as Liam
• Amadou Ly as Henri
• Janelle Froehlich as Yvette
• Masami Kosaka as Toshiro

Production

Development

After confirming one film, Summit had been keeping their eye on a fifth installment. In May 2010, Billy Burke and Peter Facinelli were the only cast actors who were confirmed for both parts of Breaking Dawn, while other cast members such as Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz were still in negotiations for a second part. If the actors holding Summit back from making an official announcement did not reach an agreement with them, the studio would not have minded recasting their roles, as was done in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse with Bryce Dallas Howard’s character, Victoria. However, in June 2010, Summit officially confirmed that a two-part adaptation of the fourth book would start production and it was made clear that all major actors, including the three lead roles, the Cullen family, and Charlie Swan, would return for both parts. Actresses Christie Burke, Rachel St. Gelais, Sierra Pitkin, and Eliza Faria will play Renesmee at her various ages in Breaking Dawn.^[5]

Pre-production

By August 2009, Rosenberg said that the scripts for Part 1 and 2 were 75 to 85 percent completed. She found the greatest challenge in writing the scripts to be the final sequence of Part 2: “The final battle sequence is a big challenge because it lasts 25 pages”, she said. “It’s almost an entire three-act story in and of itself. You have to track [keep it all in one setting] hundreds of characters. It’s an enormous challenge to choreograph on the page and for Bill [Condon] to choreograph on the stage.” She had written various drafts of the scene but, at that, hadn’t revised or discussed them with Condon yet. She said, “That’s the next big hurdle to sit down with the stunt coordinator and create the ballet. It’s a lot of work. I’m exhausted, but we’re intent on making them the best scripts yet.” Godfrey called Part 2 “an action film in terms of life-and-death stakes” and said that in Part 1 “there are the pangs of newlywed tension that occur that are relatable even in a fantasy film. Marriage is not quite the experience that they thought it was.” Condon thought of Part 1 “as a real companion piece to Catherine Hardwicke’s movie”. Condon explains, “Like, everything that got set up there gets resolved here. I think you’ll find that there are stylistic and other nods to that film.”

Godfrey considered releasing the second film in 3D to differentiate between the time before and after Bella becomes a vampire, an idea originally proposed for Eclipse, but said that the decision is up to Condon. However, he said that if the second film were to be released in 3D, he would like to shoot it with the proper equipment in “real” 3D as was done with Avatar (2009), not convert it into 3D in post-production as was done with Clash of the Titans (2010).^[6] However, it was confirmed on February 12, 2012 that Part 2 would not be filmed in 3D.^[7]

Filming

Filming started on November 1, 2010 and wrapped, for most of the cast, on March 15, 2011, ending the franchise’s three years of production since March 2008. Filming was shot on location in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Vancouver, British Columbia; and at the Raleigh Studios in Baton Rouge.

On the subject of the final day and her final moment as Bella, Stewart stated, “After that scene, my true final scene, I felt like I could shoot up into the night sky and every pore of my body would shoot light. I felt lighter than I’ve ever felt in my life.”^[8] Pattinson thought the day was “amazing” and commented, “I then asked myself why we didn’t do this in those four years. Every difficult moment just vanished.”

In April 2012, the crew and cast, including Pattinson and Stewart, returned for re-shoots to pick up some additional shots for technical work with some of the cast and stunt actors. However, these re-shoots won’t include any new scenes or dialogue.^[9]