( My Twilight Review (Yay!)
Harry Potter under threat from Bella Swan in new vampire film TwilightKristen Stewart [left] plays Bella Swan a High School student who moves to the sleepy town of Forks. She becomes drawn to Edward Cullen, played by British actor Robert Pattison
Bella discovers that Edward and his family are vampires. The pair then embark on an unorthodox romance and battle the forces of evil
But Bella Swan is set to challenge Harry Potter in the battle for teenage hearts.
Swan is the fictional heroine of Twilight, a new Hollywood blockbuster set in the shadowy world of vampires.
The film is based on a series of best-selling fantasy novels by Stephanie Meyer, a Mormon housewife-turned-publishing phenomenon.
Meyer, 34, has been hailed as the new JK Rowling and her last book knocked Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from the top of the best-seller list in the US, where the release of each new novel is greeted with near hysteria by her army of teenage fans.
The rivalry is set to deepen after movie giant Warner Bros announced it is delaying the November release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and showing Twilight in its place.
The film comes out in the US on November 21 and in the UK on January 9.
While Potter fans are bereft - some even threatening to boycott the film when it is eventually released next July - the move will stoke further interest in the Twilight franchise and make a star of its young lead, Kristen Stewart.
The 18-year-old plays Bella, a High School student who moves to the sleepy town of Forks, Washington State, to live with her father. She becomes drawn to Edward Cullen, a pale and mysterious classmate, only to discover he and his family are vampires. The pair then embark on an unorthodox romance and battle the forces of evil.
In a further Harry Potter link, Edward is played by British actor Robert Pattison, a 22-year-old best known as Harry's fellow Hogwarts pupil Cedric Diggory.
Stewart made her debut as a 12-year-old in Jodie Foster film Panic Room and has since appeared in the Sean Penn-directed Into The Wild and sci-fi thriller Jumper, but this is her first starring role.
If Twilight proves a box office hit - and Meyer's fans should make sure it does - a sequel will swing into production next year and all four books in the series will be set for the big screen treatment.
The Twilight series has sold close to 14 million copies worldwide - 10 million of those in the US - and have been published in 37 countries.
When the fourth instalment was published last month, launch parties across the US played hosted to thousands of screaming teenage girls and book stores held Potter-style midnight openings. There are over 100 internet fansites devoted to the books, Twilight-themed rock bands and clothing. Fans refer to themselves as 'Twilighters'.
In the UK, 20,000 copies were sold in the first 24 hours of sale - no match for Harry Potter, but still an impressive figure. Borders book chain described it as "phenomenally exciting... the closest thing we've had to Harry in recent times".
A spokesman for Meyer's UK publisher, Little, Brown, said the word-of-mouth had turned the novels into a hit: "The first book had no marketing attached to it so we had few expectations. We have been taken aback by how fast the books have jumped up the best-seller lists."
The books may revolve around the romance between the two lead characters, but parents can rest assured that the relationship is a chaste one. The author, a married mother-of-three from Arizona, says her Mormon beliefs inform her work, and she refuses to write about pre-marital sex.
Bella discovers that Edward and his family are vampires. The pair then embark on an unorthodox romance and battle the forces of evil
But Bella Swan is set to challenge Harry Potter in the battle for teenage hearts.
Swan is the fictional heroine of Twilight, a new Hollywood blockbuster set in the shadowy world of vampires.
The film is based on a series of best-selling fantasy novels by Stephanie Meyer, a Mormon housewife-turned-publishing phenomenon.
Meyer, 34, has been hailed as the new JK Rowling and her last book knocked Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from the top of the best-seller list in the US, where the release of each new novel is greeted with near hysteria by her army of teenage fans.
The rivalry is set to deepen after movie giant Warner Bros announced it is delaying the November release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and showing Twilight in its place.
The film comes out in the US on November 21 and in the UK on January 9.
While Potter fans are bereft - some even threatening to boycott the film when it is eventually released next July - the move will stoke further interest in the Twilight franchise and make a star of its young lead, Kristen Stewart.
The 18-year-old plays Bella, a High School student who moves to the sleepy town of Forks, Washington State, to live with her father. She becomes drawn to Edward Cullen, a pale and mysterious classmate, only to discover he and his family are vampires. The pair then embark on an unorthodox romance and battle the forces of evil.
In a further Harry Potter link, Edward is played by British actor Robert Pattison, a 22-year-old best known as Harry's fellow Hogwarts pupil Cedric Diggory.
Stewart made her debut as a 12-year-old in Jodie Foster film Panic Room and has since appeared in the Sean Penn-directed Into The Wild and sci-fi thriller Jumper, but this is her first starring role.
If Twilight proves a box office hit - and Meyer's fans should make sure it does - a sequel will swing into production next year and all four books in the series will be set for the big screen treatment.
The Twilight series has sold close to 14 million copies worldwide - 10 million of those in the US - and have been published in 37 countries.
When the fourth instalment was published last month, launch parties across the US played hosted to thousands of screaming teenage girls and book stores held Potter-style midnight openings. There are over 100 internet fansites devoted to the books, Twilight-themed rock bands and clothing. Fans refer to themselves as 'Twilighters'.
In the UK, 20,000 copies were sold in the first 24 hours of sale - no match for Harry Potter, but still an impressive figure. Borders book chain described it as "phenomenally exciting... the closest thing we've had to Harry in recent times".
A spokesman for Meyer's UK publisher, Little, Brown, said the word-of-mouth had turned the novels into a hit: "The first book had no marketing attached to it so we had few expectations. We have been taken aback by how fast the books have jumped up the best-seller lists."
The books may revolve around the romance between the two lead characters, but parents can rest assured that the relationship is a chaste one. The author, a married mother-of-three from Arizona, says her Mormon beliefs inform her work, and she refuses to write about pre-marital sex.
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