Twilight

Seventeen-year-old Isabella "Bella" Swan moves to the small town of Forks, Washington, to live with her father, Charlie. There, she finds herself drawn to a mysterious classmate, Edward Cullen, who is revealed to be a 108-year-old vampire who is physically seventeen. Although Edward discourages the romance at first, they soon fall deeply in love. When the arrival of three nomadic vampires, James, Laurent, and Victoria, puts Bella's life in danger, Edward and his family, Alice, Carlisle, Esme, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie, put their lives at stake to save her.

On a March day in Oregon, the sun's as bright as a California morning. That's great news for the locals, but it sucks if you're a vampire. For two weeks, Twilight, the $37 million film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's best-selling novel, has been shooting outside Portland — a location chosen, in part, because the skies are often overcast. Vampires, in Meyer's universe, can go out during the day but have to stay out of direct sunlight. Hence, today's problem. Director Catherine Hardwicke (Lords of Dogtown) has had to scrap an exterior shoot, and, because tomorrow's weather looks annoyingly cheery too, she's been forced to rush into an intense romantic scene between her two young stars. ''We were building a bedroom in 24 hours,'' Hardwicke says later. ''We were just sweating it.''

Fans have been sweating it too. Not since Harry Potter has a book-to-film journey inspired so much enthusiasm — or so much anxiety. The movie will follow the novel closely: Pretty but awkward 17-year-old Bella (Kristen Stewart) moves to a small town in the Pacific Northwest and falls in love with Edward (Robert Pattinson), a heartbreakingly beautiful vampire. Edward also falls for Bella, but his desire for her barely controls his instinct to devour her. It's this combination of passion and danger, of course, that surrounds this teen romance with a halo of epic, doomed love. The girls who have gone crazy for the book have been vivisecting the film's development online. Two girls from the Make-A-Wish Foundation even requested roles as extras. ''You can't make this up,'' Hardwicke says. With a fan base like that, all of Hollywood should have been jousting for the film rights. In fact, the movie almost didn't happen.

In April 2004, Paramount's MTV Films optioned Twilight, but then developed a script that bore little resemblance to it. (It featured night-vision goggles and transformed Bella into a hip track star.) ''They could have put that movie out, called it something else, and no one would have known it was Twilight,'' Meyer says. Fortunately for devout fans of the book, Paramount put the project into turnaround. Then, in 2006, Erik Feig, president of production at Summit Entertainment, tried to make a deal with Meyer. The author had been burned before and resisted. Feig drew up a contract, guaranteeing the writer that the film would be true to her vision, including a promise that ''no vampire character will be depicted with canine or incisor teeth longer or more pronounced than may be found in human beings.'' That did the trick.

Twilight, which will hit theaters on Dec. 12, is no garlic-and-fangs monster tale. It's more Buffy than Nosferatu. Hardwicke, who made her directorial debut with the raw indie hit Thirteen, seemed an ideal match for the material. ''When I read the book, I could almost feel Bella breathing,'' Hardwicke says. She hammered out a script with screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg (Step Up) in six weeks, then faced the daunting task of casting. The wrong choice would throw Twilighters into a tizzy. Hardwicke also wanted to cast an actual teenager to play Bella, which meant finding a teen who could convey Bella's emotional depth and carry an entire film.

Based on the best-selling book series by Stephenie Meyer. BELLA SWAN has always been a little bit different. Never one to run with the crowd, Bella never cared about fitting in with the trendy, plastic girls at her Phoenix, Arizona high... Based on the best-selling book series by Stephenie Meyer.

BELLA SWAN has always been a little bit different. Never one to run with the crowd, Bella never cared about fitting in with the trendy, plastic girls at her Phoenix, Arizona high school. When her mother remarried and sent Bella to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she didn't expect much of anything to change. But things do change when she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful EDWARD CULLEN. For Edward is nothing like any boy she's ever met. He's nothing like anyone she's ever met, period. He's intelligent and witty, and he seems to see straight into her soul. In no time at all, they are swept up in a passionate and decidedly unorthodox romance — unorthodox because Edward really isn't like the other boys. He can run faster than a mountain lion. He can stop a moving car with his bare hands. Oh, and he hasn't aged since 1918. Like all vampires, he's immortal. That's right — VAMPIRE. But he doesn't have fangs — that's just in the movies. And he doesn't drink human blood, though Edward and his family are unique among vampires in that lifestyle choice.

To Edward, Bella is that thing he has waited 90 years for — a soul mate.

But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy.

Somehow or other, they will have to manage their unmanageable love. But what will they do when LAURENT and JAMES, the Cullens' mortal vampire enemies, come to town, looking for Bella?

Based on the #1 New York Times Bestselling series by Stephenie Meyer, Twilight is a cultural phenomenon, with a fanatic fanbase that eagerly awaits this movie. Critically acclaimed director Catherine Hardwicke brings to life this modern, visual, and visceral Romeo and Juliet story of the ultimate forbidden love affair — between vampire and mortal.