‘New Moon’ rises with world premier in LOS ANGELES

New Moon updates, LOS ANGELES: Thousands of excited fans welcomed the stars of the ‘Twilight’ series at the world premiere of ‘New Moon‘ in Los Angeles, Monday.

Just 12 months ago and in the exact same spot, actors Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were surprised to be greeted by throngs of screaming fans of the novel ‘Twilight’. Those fans were eagerly anticipating – to say the least – the release of the big-screen adaptation of the first book in author Stephenie Meyer’s popular vampire romance series.

As the stars unveiled the sequel, ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’, they knew what was coming.

“I’m not as scared as I was last year,” noted Stewart, despite a brief touch-and-go moment as she was signing autographs. “At some point, the security guy said, ‘This is very unsafe.’ And I was like, ‘Uh.’ Other than that, everything was cool,” continued the actress, who portrays “Twilight” heroine Bella Swan.

One of the film’s producers estimated between 5,000 and 7,000 fans were lining the area surrounding the “New Moon” premiere, in the Westwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles.

“It seems a bit bigger (than the 2008 premiere),” said Pattinson, who plays vampire Edward Cullen. “And it seems different to me because we have done this world tour in the last week and it has just been unbelievable in every single city. It’s about 10 times bigger in every other city in the world.”

“I mean, basically we’ve seen everything, but we continue to be surprised,” observed actor Taylor Lautner, who rises to headliner status in ‘New Moon’ as Bella’s best friend Jacob, a werewolf. “It’s the amount of passion, it’s not normal,” Lautner continued. “And it’s amazing. It continues to blow my mind.”

Some “twi-hards” – as they call themselves – arrived as early as Thursday afternoon to secure a place in line for tickets allowing them to watch the stars’ arrivals on the red carpet. The 800 available tickets were all distributed by Monday morning.

“I do feel like there is more people expecting this to be wonderful,” said Meyer. “There is more of a sense like people are into the franchise now. They are really excited for tonight.”

Some of the cheering fans – mostly young women – were wearing T-shirts proclaiming their allegiance to either Robert Pattinson or Taylor Lautner, the bloodsucking stars of ‘New Moon’. One woman held a homemade sign saying, “We love Robert and Taylor they rock our socks.”

“Yeah, I feel very much like it was in the ‘Frost/Nixon’ premiere, and ‘The Queen’ obviously, as well,” joked “New Moon” actor Michael Sheen, best known for those weighty dramas. “That audience was slightly younger than this one,” Sheen continued, smiling.

Like Sheen, another familiar actor, Dakota Fanning, joins the ‘Twilight’ series in ‘New Moon’ as one of the wicked Volturi vampires.

“It is definitely among the loudest (premieres I’ve ever attended),” Fanning said. “It is really crazy to see people that are such big fans, and I love that, and I love feeding off their energy because they are so excited to be here, so it is great.”

Since ‘Twilight”s premiere, Pattinson and Stewart have become big-name stars, tabloid favourites, and have also been working around the clock — hopping the globe on promotional tours and filming both ‘New Moon’ and its sequel, ‘Eclipse’.

When she finally gets a day off? “I’d like to just do nothing for a while,” Stewart said.