Actors went wild in Twilight

TWILIGHT producers studied footage of wild animals to make the vampires' battles more scarily realistic.

In the official guide to the movie, Twilight - The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion, crew members reveal some of the secrets behind the filming of the blockbuster.

And director Catherine Hardwicke says: "When vampires run it's five times human speed - they jump and run like a super athlete.

"We studied videos of mountain lions and cougars in their hunting mode."

For one terrifying scene, a battle between Edward (Robert Pattinson) and his arch rival James (Cam Gigandet) over Bella (Kristen Stewart) the crew again studied animal footage to bring out the primitive nature of the vampires.

Stunt director Andy Cheng, who worked with movie legend Jackie Chan for ten years, explains: "The idea was that the good vampire, Edward, is not violent. He doesn't want to fight, until James threatens Bella - that turns him crazy.

"We watched videotapes of tigers, how they lunge and attack, how a panther runs."

The violent scene sees James, played by Cam Gigandet, bite Bella and draw blood, but despite the film being a vampire movie, it's one of the rare sights of gore in the whole movie.

And Hardwicke hopes the film will be seen as much more than a vampire gore fest.

She said: "It's a coming of age story. It's got dark humour. I hope the film appeals to romantics but it's a scary movie too.

"It's pretty bad-ass at the end - the fight scenes are pretty terrifying. So, hopefully, an audience will feel a lot of emotions."

*The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion by Mark Cotta Vaz published in the UK by Atom @ £9.99. Unless otherwise credited, all photographs copyright © 2008 by Summit Entertainment, LCC. Twilight the film is in cinemas from 19 December

This article has 7 comments