‘Eclipse’ director on favorite deleted scene

From CNN:

After grossing more than $30 million from midnight shows alone, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” will make its way to DVD on Saturday, just in time for the holiday season.

Director David Slade told CNN that Twihards have a lot to look forward to on the two-disc special edition of “Eclipse.”

On top of audio commentary from Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, as well as author Stephenie Meyer and producer Wyck Godfrey, Slade says deleted scenes and special features for Team Edward and Team Jacob supporters won’t disappoint.


And despite the fact that Slade rarely commentates on his films - saying, “When it comes to the commentary, you kind of reduce [the film] down to a bunch of silly anecdotes” - he said it was important for him to tell viewers why certain scenes didn’t make it into the film.

“It’s good to love a specific passage in a book, but it’s in the book and it works because it’s in the book,” Slade said. “It might not work as well in the film, but you might be disappointed when you [don’t] see it.”

He added: “They’re lovely scenes that look like they would work wonderfully. But actually, when you put them in the context of the whole, they don’t. And so I felt it was the responsible thing to do as the director to speak up and talk about the things that were taken out. … It’s really for the fans who probably loved the scenes that we took out.”

Slade’s favorite deleted scene originally came after a spat between Bella and Edward early on in the film.

When Bella sets out to see Jacob one night, Edward catches her in her truck “and they have a bit of a row,” Slade says. In the final version of the film, Bella simply heads back into the house and slams the door, ending the scene.

“We actually shot a scene where the row continues for a little while and she goes upstairs and she looks at the open window and she closes it,” he said. “Then she kind of has a moment and then she unlocks it and opens it again. And it was really touching and emotional, but it’s like a speed bump every time you hit it. It kind of threw you out of the film.”

And when asked about the memorable tent scene, which baffled my coworker, who was confused as to why Bella wasn’t wearing a jacket in the midst of a blizzard, Slade simply responded:

“Poor planning on Bella’s behalf I would say. If you’re going to go up a mountain, you should wear a big coat. It’s just really silly to be honest. I wish she was wearing a hat though.”

Speaking of scenes where Jacob (Taylor Lautner) appears sans shirt, viewers can engage in special features called “Edward Fast-Forward” and “Jacob Fast-Forward,” which skip to “all your favorite” Edward and Jacob scenes, according to Amazon.com.

So Twihards, have you pre-ordered your “Eclipse” DVD yet or are you waiting for it to hit stores on Saturday?