Wyck Godfrey talks about ‘Breaking Dawn’

*SPOILERS*

Speak­ing from the Baton Rouge set where both install­ments of Break­ing Dawn are shoot­ing simul­ta­ne­ously, Wyck answered some of the Twi-faithful’s more press­ing questions.
Q: Where does the story split in half?
A: “We basi­cally want to take the audi­ence through the emo­tional part of Bella’s jour­ney as she becomes a vam­pire. The first part will cover the wed­ding, the hon­ey­moon and the birth.” The film ends just before she embarks on her super­nat­ural transformation.
Q: The book has three seg­ments, two of which present Bella’s point of view and a mid­dle that’s devoted to the per­spec­tive of her rejected were­wolf suitor, Jacob (Tay­lor Laut­ner). How is that handled?
A: “The story will break from her and fol­low Jacob through­out the course of the movie as he strug­gles with his own dilemma. There is a sense that as Bella and the Cul­lens (Edward’s makeshift vam­pire clan) deal with her preg­nancy, the world is still turn­ing out­side with Jacob.”
Q: Why was Bill Con­don, the Oscar-winning film­maker best known for his musi­cals as the screen­writer of 2002’s Chicagoand the direc­tor of 2006’s Dream­girls, selected as the direc­tor of the finale?
A: “These films have the most dif­fi­cult stuff from a per­for­mance stand­point. With his his­tory of direct­ing, I can’t think of any­one who would be bet­ter at bring­ing out the best in an actor.” Plus, the direc­tor, who did the 1995 sequel to Can­dy­man, is a fright-fare enthu­si­ast. “He has an appetite for the genre and a pas­sion for the Twi­light books and movies.”
Q: Con­sid­er­ing what goes on dur­ing the tor­tur­ous birth process, how can the rat­ing be PG-13?
A: With Twilight’s core of under-18 fans, “it would be a crime against our audi­ence to go R-rated.” How­ever, “this is based on a much more mature book. We need to progress and be more sophisticated.” A com­pro­mise: Hav­ing the bloody, bone-crushing deliv­ery be seen only through Bella’s eyes. “She is look­ing through the haze, expe­ri­enc­ing pain and every­thing rush­ing around her. We only see what she sees.”
Q: How is the long-awaited con­sum­ma­tion of Edward and Bella’s love portrayed?
A: Even though their phys­i­cal rela­tion­ship goes way beyond what was shown in the first three films, “it does not become soft porn. It is a legit­i­mate and impor­tant part of the movie, roman­tic and sensual.”
Q: At the end of Break­ing Dawn, about 70 or so vam­pires from around the world gather to face off with the Cul­lens and their allies plus Jacob’s wolf pack. How can you keep both por­tions of the sto­ry­telling equally compelling?
A: “The sec­ond half is more of an action film in terms of life-and-death stakes.” But the domes­tic moments of the first film pos­sess an emo­tional punch. “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.”
Q: Is there any chance that Con­don could sneak in a musi­cal number?
A: There might be tra­di­tional danc­ing at the wed­ding. But don’t expect any of the wolf pack to sud­denly howl a tune or do a soft-shoe shuffle.
Although, as God­frey jokes, “We just had a whole line of actors march­ing toward the cam­era. We could have them prac­tice a cho­rus line with vam­pires doing kicks.”
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photo: Collider.com