After the grueling production, Hardwicke now wants to make sure the studio shows her the money to properly tackle New Moon's tricky plotline — which includes location shooting in Rome and several characters who must realistically morph from teenage boys into werewolves. Summit's Feig has nothing but praise for Hardwicke, but he maintains that the sequel doesn't necessarily demand a bigger budget. ''I don't think there was anything excessively lavish about Twilight, and yet the world was fully realized,'' he says. ''We'll do exactly the same thing with New Moon.'' Still, the studio might want to throw more money at the universally trashed special effect that was supposed to make Pattinson sparkle magically in the sunlight but left him looking merely sweaty. ''People make realistic CGI dragons, so you wouldn't think making people sparkle would be that hard,'' says Meyer.
For now, only Pattinson and Stewart are sure to live on in Meyer's fantasy world. The two young stars, neither of whom banked on this sudden explosion of fame when they signed on for the movie, are currently limping through the last lap of their American promotional tour. (After a brief Thanksgiving rest, they'll gear up again to spread Twilight fever across Europe.) Stewart in particular seems ill-suited for the rigors of sound-bite TV, as she fidgeted and frowned her way through awkward appearances on Late Show With David Letterman and the Today show. ''I think she's had a lot of trouble,'' says Hardwicke. ''She knows it's important, but it's not her favorite part of the job.'' Pattinson seems to have a better game face, drowsily mystified when teenage girls throw themselves onto his moving car or when Tyra Banks asks him to bite her neck on her talk show. He did have one flash of rebellion, however: ''I cannot wait to cut my hair,'' he told EW in September. ''It's so annoying! I was at a photo shoot the other day, and people were saying, 'They say we can't touch your hair. You have trademarked hair!' No, I don't.'' And so, despite the studio's request that his ragged mop not be touched, he cut off his hair in between press junkets.
NEXT PAGE: ''People think that I'm insane because I'm so invested with this fandom. But they're all just jealous that the things they love aren't this big.''
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