Breaking Dawn – Part 2 Director Dishes On Effects, Endings And, Er, Eurythmics

With 79 days left until The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 hits theaters, a new MTV Fall Movie Preview interview with director Bill Condon reveals interesting deets and what happens during downtime on a Twilight Saga shoot.

As most know by now, Part 2 picks up exactly where Part 1 ends. Bella (Kristen Stewart) now transformed into a vampire is also mom to the supernaturally fast-growing Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy) and, of course, wife to Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson.)

Understanding and adjusting to her new life and new powers, however, is only part of what Bella will have to face in this more action focused and (for now) final installment. Wyck Godfrey, one of the producers of the Twilight Saga series explains:

“Bella has finally achieved everything that she has hoped for in her relationship with Edward, only to discover that it may be her undoing.”

That “undoing” is the Volturi’s (ruling coven of the vampire world) intention to destroy Renesmee on the say so of Irina Denali, something of a major thorn in the side of the Denalis’ — and, later — everyone else. More on that here.

So, what did Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls, Chicago) actually say? Well, quite a lot. As well as revealing that Breaking Dawn – Part 2 was “at the stage of mixing and doing color timing and adding that last big bunch of visual effects shots,” Condon also talked special effects.

In the past there have been complaints about a lack of state of the art FX in the Twilight Saga films compared to other big budget movies, so this part of MTV’s interview was especially interesting.

“Oh man, there are so many [FX] that are so beautiful,” enthuses the director.

“But I love the way that Alec’s [new cast member Cameron Bright who plays one of the Volturi] mist looks. He has that mist that can make you blind, deaf and dumb, so that’s looking really good. It feels like the best Hammer [horror] movie you’ve ever seen. It’s a little different [type of mist] and sort of has tentacles that can get inside you and all that stuff.”

Sounds like Breaking Dawn – Part could give Sam Raimi a run for his money. Elaborating on Renesmee’s ‘power’ Condon says:

“There are some visual things, but a lot of that is done through Carter Burwell’s score, but then just recently in the mixing Dane Davis, who is a brilliant sound designer … had her just speak and read poetry and things like that, and he’s turned it into hundreds of tracks.”

“You don’t actually hear words but it becomes the chattering of her [voice], it’s a very abstract effect that I’ve never heard before. It’s really cool.”

The film’s run time is “one hour and 56 minutes, one minute shorter than the first one and as such, I think the shortest of all of them,” says Condon. There was more. When MTV asked the director to recall the “biggest, busiest, and most fun day on set,” he paints a fantastic picture of the end-of-term vibe the crew and cast experienced when principal shooting ended:

“The biggest and most fun, just because of the surprise they pulled off, we went to the top, top, top as far as you can get in this arena to get the widest shot of the [battle]field with the Volturi on one side and the Cullen group on the other,” says Condon.

“On the last take suddenly you hear the Eurythmics and they all start to do this intimately choreographed dance that they’d worked out. It was a huge day and the biggest party ever.”

First thoughts, which Eurythmics track was it? Possibilities: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), Here Comes The Rain Again, (it is terminally wet in Forks after all), There Must Be An Angel Playing With My Heart, Who’s That Girl?

Next, what did the dance-off look like? Fortunately, audiences will get a chance to see for themselves. Asked if the Breaking Dawn flash mob made it onto the DVD, Condon utters the magical words:

“I think it is, yeah.”

Read MTV’s interview here. Full trailer for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 below.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Michael Sheen, Peter Facinelli, Dakota Fanning, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Elizabeth Reaser, Billy Burke, Mackenzie Foy and Jackson Rathbone and hits theaters November 16.