January 25

New Moon DVD - Release Date
According to Summit Entertainment themselves, the DVD and Blu-Ray are set to be released on Saturday, March 20th (if you remember, the Twilight DVD was released on a Saturday last year as well, so as to encourage DVD release parties). As of now, we know there will be a 2-disc special edition, but more details are set to come.

New Moon DVD - Special Features
Special features include Director Chris Weitz’s commentary and over 3 hours of exclusive extras:

• The Journey Continues: A 6-part making-of documentary:
- Life after Twilight
- Chris Weitz takes the helm
- The subtle details
- A look at production
- It’s not magic
- Ready for the World

• Music Videos:
- Death Cab for Cutie: Meet me on the Equinox
- Anya Marina: Satellite Heart
- Muse: I Belong to You behind the scenes rehearsal footage
- Mutemath: Spotlight

• Fan Event Q&A with Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and Chris Weitz – Content Exclusive for the UK
• Fandimonium: A look at the die-hard fans
• Team Jacob vs Team Edward: The ultimate love triangle
• Deleted scenes
• Edward goes to Italy
• Edward Fast Forward
• Jacob Fast Forward
• Interview with the Volturi
• Introducing the Wolfpack
• Becoming Jacob
• Edward goes to Italy
• Jacob fast forward
• Edward fast forward
• The Beat Goes On: The music of The Twilight Saga: New Moon
• Frame by Frame: Storyboards to screen

New Moon DVD and Blu - ray......That's it??
Home Media Magazine is reporting on Summit’s marketing plan for the upcoming DVD release of New Moon. Instead of the millions of options that Twilight had, it sounds like the 2-disc DVD and the Blu-ray edition of New Moon will be it. Read more below:

Although Twilight was the top-selling title of 2009, Summit Entertainment is changing its distribution formula for the March 20 disc release of sequel New Moon.

Summit’s launch strategy for Twilight, which has sold 9.2 million DVD and Blu-ray copies in the United States, according to the studio, was considered out-of-the-box last year. Wal-Mart exclusively sold the single-disc standard-definition configuration for most of 2009, and Best Buy and Target scored an exclusive sales window on the Blu-ray version of the film. The idea was to play to retail strengths, offering versions that best fit each chain’s customer tastes.

However, Summit is broadening its approach to The Twilight Saga: New Moon, widely rolling out the Blu-ray version to all retailers to match the expanding high-definition consumer base. As far as standard-definition DVD goes, the studio is solely selling a two-disc configuration of the title. That decision came after learning that the overwhelming majority of fans bought the similar extras-packed two-DVD version of Twilight.

The studio will bow a single-DVD version of New Moon that will include few bonus features, but just into the rental channel.

“We are continuing to create products for retailers based on who the customers are,” said Steve Nickerson, Summit’s president of home entertainment. “But we are doing some different things. We aren’t having exclusive windows this year.”

Last year, just 3% of Twilight sales were Blu-ray, noted Nickerson. That is well below the 12% to 15% average Blu-ray sales portion for many 2009 new releases. But Summit projects that interest will rise in 2010 for New Moon in high-def.

“Because of the female-driven nature of the franchise, the amount of Blu-ray sales was less significant on Twilight than it was for other films of other genres,” Nickerson said. “And that will still be the case this year [for New Moon]. But Blu-ray has really grown in the last year. It’s big enough that all retailers want to be able to sell the product. Look at all the circulars, every title cover shot now shows the Blu-ray version.”

Regarding the two-disc New Moon configuration, Summit is trying best to accommodate the franchise’s fans. About 75% of Twilight sales were comprised of its two-disc and Blu-ray premium versions. Typically, less than half of a title’s sales come from the relatively pricier versions.

“This is what the fans are looking for,” Nickerson said. “The true fans of the franchise have already seen New Moon in theaters — maybe two or three times. We need to give them more than just the film on DVD.”

Read more here.

Twilight News
EW.com has the very first peek for us of Twilight The Graphic Novel, which will be published by Yen Press and available on March 16th. This week’s Entertainment Weekly will have ten pages from the novel along with the full question and answer session with Stephenie Meyer. Read more below: I’m delighted to announce, exclusively, that Yen Press will publish Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1 on March 16, with a first printing of 350,000 copies. Here’s a first glimpse at the book’s cover, as well as an exclusive peek at one of its panels (for a full ten-page excerpt, and the entire Q&A with Stephenie Meyer, see the issue of EW that goes on sale this Friday).

What strikes me, looking at the book, is how faithfully, and how beautifully, artist Young Kim has translated Meyer’s original vision. Kim, who has a fine arts background—in fact, this is her first foray into graphic novels—didn’t just read the book; she absorbed it. Her Bella is the Bella I had in my mind’s eye the first time I read Twilight; her Edward is the Edward I always imagined. It took me back to reading Twilight pre-movie: Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson faded into the background.

Meyer talked to us about all this, and more. Here are a few snippets from our conversation:

The text of your original novel is boiled down so carefully that it doesn’t feel like anything is missing. Were you the one who did that?

I was definitely involved. I didn’t do the original “script” for the book, so to speak. But when I got the dialogue with the images, I did a lot of tinkering. In a couple of places, I asked for missing scenes to be inserted. For example, the conversation in the car that Bella and Edward have after she faints in Biology.

How does the feeling of reading the graphic novel compare to that of reading the original? Does it bring something new to the experience for you?

For me, it takes me back to the days when I was writing Twilight. It’s been a while since I was really able to read Twilight; there is so much baggage attached to that book for me now. It seems like all I can see are the mistakes in the writing. Reading Young’s version brought me back to the feeling I had when I was writing and it was just me and the characters again. I love that. I thank her for it.

Read more with Stephenie and check out a couple of pages of Twilight the Graphic Novel here.