The Deadbolt Feature - Taking a Twilight Bite Out of the New Moon Rumors

Taking a Twilight Bite Out of the New Moon Rumors
by Larson Hill

New Moon Twilight Now that a lot of rumors surrounding the Twilight sequel New Moon have been proven false, it's kind of funny to traverse the web and look back at the apparent and so-called bogus New Moon craziness. The latest to come down the Twilight pike is the revelation by Ashley Tisdale that Vanessa Hudgens never auditioned for New Moon at all. Since we live in an online entertainment age where the gap between confirmation and speculation has been reduced to minutes, if not seconds, it's become increasingly difficult for larger, mainstream entertainment outlets to prevent from getting out-scooped by smaller websites that number in the thousands. In fact, it's easier than ever for fans to get Twilight hoodwinked and New Moon hornswaggled now that the web seems to be one big message board.

Given the massive popularity of the Stephenie Meyer based Twilight saga and its upcoming big screen adaptations of New Moon and Eclipse, there's such a groundswell of demand for New Moon that outlets, websites, blogs - you name it - are jumping on any shred of Twilight related information, true or false. The interesting thing is that when you strip away all of the rumors and gossip about New Moon, there's very little real or official "news" on a weekly basis from a headline to newsworthy information ratio.

Here's a deeper look inside some of the Twilight and New Moon rumors that we've seen in recent months and a few questions that came to mind before and after all of the apparent and alleged innuendo:

Twilight Fantasy:

For the fans of Twilight and New Moon, it's undoubtedly fun to see all of the rumors about their favorite franchise. On one level, if it weren't for all of the recent New Moon rumors, what would people have to talk about beyond the confines of Twilight fans sites and New Moon message boards? From the earlier rumors of Taylor Lautner not playing Jacob Black, Catherine Hardwicke supposedly being "fired" from New Moon to the alleged-but-false release of the official New Moon poster and how Madonna will - reportedly, allegedly and apparently - as insiders and anonymous sources say - be in the Twilight sequel, there's been a lot of Twilight to talk about in the past few months. And that's barely scratching the surface.

I mean, from a Twilight and New Moon fan standpoint, I get it. I'm a fan and it's fun to play fantasy Twilight football, so to speak. And who are these anonymous sources anyway? The local dog-catcher? The mailman who got chased down the street by a guy on a bike who looks like Taylor Lautner? For a film that had its own unique spirit and identity in its original line-up, the Twilight saga and New Moon was beginning to feel much bigger in star power than it needs to be given all of the rumors. Part of the magic of Twilight (from my point of view) is seeing stars spring to life from the franchise instead of inserting bigger stars into the saga.

Twilight Desire and New Moon Dreams:

But each fan interprets the various Twilight and New Moon rumors differently. Take the Hilary Duff story a while back about how the teen music queen turned actress spoke to Twilight actor Peter Facinelli during Fashion Week in New York City about her interest to be in New Moon. Was it really a rumor about New Moon or was it more about Hilary Duff wanting to be in the movie? When someone expresses his or her desire to be in a movie, what type of news do you see it as? Is it news at all? Didn't Lindsay Lohan say she wanted to be in New Moon? But I know hardcore Twilight fans want to be in New Moon, too.

Robert Pattinson Dates Everyone:

New Moon Twilight Then we have the Twilight and New Moon rumors that we see each day by the hundreds in the form of gossip swirling around the actors. You know, the "he said - she said," Kristen Stewart walking down the street, Robert Pattinson's love life type rumors. If I've got this straight, Robert Pattinson has (or is) apparently already dated (or is dating) Kristen Stewart, Nikki Reed, Camilla Belle, Natalie Portman, Megan Fox, Nina Schubert, Paris Hilton, model Annelyse Schoenberger, Katie Leung, Katy Perry, Australian actor Angus Mullane, and yes, Britney Spears. Trust me, all of them are out there on the web. And those are just the Pattinson rumors that have gotten the most play. On rumor alone, it's a miracle Summit Entertainment was able to pull Robert away from his busy dating schedule to fit in New Moon. And these Robert Pattinson rumors are still swirling even though he publicly admits to not dating anyone, among other rumors that the Edward Cullen actor has a hard time dating.

So if we simply take rumor and speculation as fact - which we shouldn't be at all - that's 12 girls in under a year since the release of Twilight. From a guy's standpoint, that's one hell of an impressive track record on the speed dating circuit. And these aren't necessarily including any of the rumors leading up to Twilight either. Forget New Moon and the Twilight saga, Pattinson's rumored dating life is a movie all to its own ... at least a reality TV series. There's a funny title with Flava in there somewhere, but we don't need to go that far.

State of Summit vs Taylor Lautner and Jacob Black:

New Moon Twilight Like I mentioned above, we've also seen New Moon rumors speculating whether Taylor Lautner would return to the Twilight franchise as Jacob Black. When stories broke around the web in late 2008 that suggested Lautner may not return to the Twilight saga and New Moon as Jacob Black, this one left us scratching our heads (mine anyway). And not because there might have been some truth or spin to it either. It was more about the back story of Twilight production logic. Our first question was - Why would Taylor Lautner even be cast as Jacob Black in Twilight in the first place when Summit, Stephenie Meyer, Catherine Hardwicke, and most of all, Twilight fans, already knew Jacob Black would play a larger role in New Moon?

Sure, as insiders and sources said in December, Summit apparently had concerns over how Lautner would fill out the larger Black in New Moon. Fine, all well and good, but casting a different actor? If all unconfirmed rumors were true and taken completely as New Moon gospel, our next question would be - So no one even thought about this when casting the role of Jacob Black? With such a passionate Twilight fan base, the risk of not bringing an already established actor from the first film would be - to us anyway - unnecessary grief. The question of whether Taylor Lautner would return for New Moon was kind of like Facebook where you don't need to keep fixing, tinkering and changing something that isn't broken. So why do it?

When the buzz died down in January, New Moon director Chris Weitz made the best sense of it all, saying, "It was my first instinct that Taylor was, is, and should be Jacob, and that the books would be best served by the actor who is emotionally right for the part. I think that fans of Twilight the book and the movie will be surprised by the Jacob Black that Taylor will bring to the screen in New Moon."

The Beautiful New Moon Stranger?

New Moon Twilight First it was Madonna acting in New Moon and then the rumors turned to a possible song contribution. Since we haven't heard an official announcement about the artists, bands, and songs on the New Moon soundtrack, I'm still bracing for some type of confirmation about Madonna even though this is one of the most awkward rumors that just doesn't seem to fit with the Twilight franchise. Rumors surfaced that Madonna's business partner is working on New Moon as a producer, which then sent the Twilight world into a tizzy about Madonna's possible (and to some outlets, likely) involvement in New Moon. It's one of those rumors that feels so awkward that just when you think, "no way possible," it's confirmed the next day.

But rumors then surfaced of Madonna writing the songs for the New Moon soundtrack. Yet it's so far from the formula that worked for the Twilight soundtrack that all of the Madonna rumors beg the question, "Why?" And it doesn't jive with what Zync music broker Maria Baldi, who helped land two songs on the Twilight soundtrack, told E-Online about the indication she got about the direction Chris Weitz wants to take the music for New Moon. "I get the vibe that the guy [Weitz] is a little more into being surprised ... everything is really open, and he wants to hear a lot of cool music." Interestingly enough, if you do a Google search under "Madonna New Moon March 2009" two results pop out that reveal how crazy all of the New Moon rumors really are. One says Kristen Stewart is keen on Madonna for New Moon and the other says she's not. As far as the New Moon rumors on the web, these two search results punctuate the fact that when it comes to the twilight franchise and New Moon, we're not in Kansas anymore. Well, apparently and allegedly not ...

The Twilight Zone:

Over the past few months there have been an endless sea of New Moon rumors to keep up with. Since the buzz around the Twilight saga and the upcoming New Moon is picking up steam by the day, with hundreds of stories hitting the web filled with fact, fiction, speculation, and unconfirmed rumors, there's a lot of deep, swampy New Moon rumor water to wade through. On most days it's hard to find out which way is up when it comes to Twilight on the internet. Although the web is fun and fantastical when it comes to Twilight and New Moon, reading all of the rumors is like rooting through a trash can for a shred of truth in some sort of endless UBB message board from the ‘90s. But like the intro to the old Rod Serling TV series stated, "You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into... the Twilight Zone." In this case, some of the stories are (and will be) even more bizarre.

Let us know your take on all of the recent Twilight and New Moon rumors.

-- Larson Hill