Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) and based on the iconic novel by Jack Kerouac, On the Road tells the provocative story of Sal Paradise (Sam Riley), a young writer whose life is shaken and ultimately redefined by the arrival of the free-spirited and fearless Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund) and his girl, Marylou (Kristen Stewart). As they travel across the country on a personal quest for freedom from the conformity and conservatism that engulfed many during that time, the duo encounter a mix of eclectic individuals who forever change them. The film also stars Viggo Mortensen, Kristen Dunst, Amy Adams, Tom Sturridge, Elisabeth Moss and Alice Braga.  Click here for all our previous coverage.

At the film’s press day, co-stars Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart talked about why they were so passionate about this project, how challenging it was to stay attached over the years, how they broke the nudity in the film to their parents, the ideals of the time period that they can most relate to, their favorite locations on the shoot, what the younger fans of Twilight might think of this film, and what can make a great road trip. Check out what they had to say after the jump.

This week on The Collision, we’ll be talking about the end of The Twilight Saga, its appeal, and its legacy.  We then move from talking about the franchise as a whole to its final installment, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.  As always, we finish up with our recommendations.

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for the previous episode (“Spy Movies and Skyfall“), click here to add the podcast to your RSS, and click here to find us on iTunes. To keep up to date with The Collision, you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg, @AdamChitwood, and @DrClawMD (Dave Trumbore). Hit the jump to check out the trailers for this week’s recommendations.

I try and heed the wise words of Conan O’Brien and resist the urge to be cynical. I really do. But while digging through our The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 coverage in anticipation of this week’s post I stumbled across this poster for the film and all of my best laid plans went to waste. There is just no excuse for a franchise of its stature to have a poster that terrible. I’m far from an expert in graphic design, but mercy…I re-read Adam’s original post several times hoping to find the sentence where he points out that the poster was the Grand Prize winner of Summit’s “Design the Worst Damn Movie Poster Possible” contest. Sadly, there was no mention of such a contest. This was real and it made my heart hurt.

All cynicism aside, in this week’s Top 5, The Twilight Saga comes to a merciful end with interviews and things of the like, Damon Lindelof‘s draft of the Prometheus script becomes available for your reading pleasure, news regarding the debuts of Star Trek Into Darkness‘ first trailer and first 9 minutes of the film surfaces, a handful of images and a video from the set of Thor: The Dark World make their way onto the Interwebs, and believe it or not, more news regarding Star Wars: Episode VII gets discussed. I trust you know where to find a brief recap and link to each.

It’s no surprise that The Twilight Saga will finish with a bang at the box office.  With screenings that began at 10:00pm Thursday to the early morning, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 raked in $30.4 million.  While this isn’t the biggest opening night for the series (Eclipse garnered $30 million from midnight screenings alone), the film is reportedly on track to gross $150 million over the weekend, according to the L.A. Times.  This would give Breaking Dawn – Part 2 the largest weekend opening of the franchise.  We’ll be back with you on Sunday to see how the numbers turned out on this pre-Thanksgiving weekend.

It would be a gross understatement to say I haven’t been an ardent supporter of the Twilight franchise.  But I have tried to take each film on its own merits.  Nothing can change the fact that it has a despicable core message of how young women should relate to men, but there was always the potential for change.  Bella Swan could become a proactive character.  Edward Cullen and Jacob Black could be more than just brooding, softly smiling eye candy.  Somewhere, in the dreamy clouds of wish fulfillment, there may be something real instead of the silliest, most forced conflicts.  At the series’ conclusion, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 shows us what the Twilight movies could be at their best, but ultimately reminds us about the true nature of this series.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 opens Friday here in the States, but the fifth entry in the series is already off to a rollicking start in four overseas markets.  Here are the Day 1 highlights (all totals converted to U.S. dollars):

• France – 219,000 admissions, $1.8 million.  The marathon of Part 1 and Part 2 of Breaking Dawn sold 25,000 of those tickets.
• Netherlands – 21,000 admissions, $392,000.  That’s on just 50 screens.
• Sweden – 20,000 admissions, $362,000.  This only counts the marathon and midnight showings.
• Belgium – 27,000 admissions, $531,000.  This more than doubles the comparable 13,000 tickets sold for the first night of Breaking Dawn – Part 1.

According to Deadline, the final sequel achieved series best totals in Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium.  Clearly, Part 2 will be a box office juggernaut—I am eager to see where it will land among the last three sequels, each of which earned about $700 million worldwide.  Come back on the weekend for the domestic results, and make sure to check out these recent interviews with Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Michael Sheen, and Stephenie Meyer.  Click here for all our Twilight coverage.

Since the release of the first film, the Twilight phenomenon has just continued to grow exponentially. With the highly anticipated final installment, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, hitting theaters on November 16^th, fans will finally get to see the conclusion of the romantic epic that has entranced millions worldwide.

At the film’s L.A. press junket, author/producer Stephenie Meyer, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg and producer Wyck Godfrey talked about their reaction to Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) vampire effects, the changes made that deviate from the book, balancing the humor with the serious nature of what’s going on in the story, how they felt about the effects for Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy), what the last day of shooting was like, and how Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson handled playing parents. Stephenie Meyer also talked about what she’ll be focused on next, whether she’d ever consider doing more stories about other characters in the Twilight universe, and if she’d ever be willing to let other people give their take on the characters, in some form. Check out what they had to say after the jump.

Since the release of the first film, the Twilight phenomenon has just continued to grow exponentially. With the highly anticipated final installment, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, hitting theaters on November 16^th, fans will finally get to see the conclusion of the romantic epic that has entranced millions worldwide.

At the film’s L.A. press junket, actor Michael Sheen talked about what his 13-year-old daughter thinks of his portrayal of Aro, what led to him injecting some comedy into the chilling character, wearing the red contact lenses, what he thinks the franchises means to the fans, what it was like to stay in Vamp Camp (at the same hotel in Louisiana) with all of the new vampires, shooting the big battle scene, and the strangest fan encounter he’s had.  He also talked about his upcoming comedy feature Admission, with Tina Fey, and his Showtime drama series, Masters of Sex.  Hit the jump to watch the press conference or read the full transcript.

Since the release of the first film, the Twilight phenomenon has just continued to grow exponentially. With the highly anticipated final installment, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, hitting theaters on November 16^th, fans will finally get to see the conclusion of the romantic epic that has entranced millions worldwide.

At the film’s L.A. press junket, actor Taylor Lautner talked about soaking up every moment on set, finding the fine line between Jacob caring for Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy) without it being to creepy, his first impressions of co-stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, what he learned about both acting and himself from playing Jacob Black, how awkward it was to shoot the scene where Jacob strips and wolfs out in front of Charlie (Billy Burke), what exactly happened to that horrible Jacob wig after the first film, having Bella kick Jacob’s butt, the weirdest thing that’s happened with a fan, and where he’d like to take his career next. Hit the jump to watch the press conference or read the full transcript.

Since the release of the first film, the Twilight phenomenon has just continued to grow exponentially. With the highly anticipated final installment, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, hitting theaters on November 16^th, fans will finally get to see the conclusion of the romantic epic that has entranced millions worldwide.

At the film’s L.A. press junket, actress Kristen Stewart talked about playing both the human and vampire sides of Bella while shooting the last films, which props she kept, when she realized just how big this phenomenon was, embracing the stunt work in this last installment, what it was like to play a mom, how she feels about these films being finished, whether she’d be open to doing another film franchise, and whether or not she’d like to live forever. Hit the jump to watch the press conference or read the full transcript.

Since the release of the first film, the Twilight phenomenon has just continued to grow exponentially.  With the highly anticipated final installment, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, hitting theaters on November 16^th, fans will finally get to see the conclusion of the romantic epic that has entranced millions worldwide.

At the film’s L.A. press junket, actor Robert Pattinson talked about his perspective on what the franchise means to fans, what his last moment of being Edward Cullen was like, what it was like to let the character go, what moment in the entire Twilight experience he would like to relive, whether he’s concerned about maintaining this same level of success, stepping into the father role this time around, his favorite vampire movie, and what he remembers of his first impressions of co-stars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner.  Hit the jump to watch the press conference or read the full transcript.

Another day, another look at The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.  This time around, we have a new TV spot and poster for the epic finale of the fan-favorite franchise. It’s a quick, thirty-second commercial, but it crams in a ton of action sequences in the clash between the Cullens and their allies battling against the Volturi.

Directed by Bill Condon, the film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Mackenzie Foy, Kellan Lutz, Peter Facinelli, Ashley Greene, Elizabeth Reaser and Jackson Rathbone.  The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 opens November 16th.  Hit the jump to watch the new TV spot and check out the poster.

Well, today is the day for supernatural sequel clips it seems, because we have two to share with you. First up from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, this new clip features newly-turned vampire, Bella (Kristen Stewart) arm wrestling against Emmett (Kellan Lutz).  They amazingly assembled everything about this property that sets my teeth on edge (bad dialogue, terrible make-up, impromptu musical cues, etc) into one concise clip.  Directed by Bill Condon, the film also stars Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Mackenzie Foy, Peter Facinelli, Ashley Greene, Elizabeth Reaser and Jackson Rathbone.  The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 opens November 16th.

We’ve also got a clip from Michael J. Bassett’s Silent Hill: Revelation 3D.   This one centers on Heather Mason (Adelaide Clemens) calling her father (Sean Bean) in fear that someone is following her.  He gives her some sage fatherly advice and then OH NO LOOK OUT SEAN BEAN! The film opens on October 26th. Hit the jump to watch the clips

A new featurette and TV spot for the concluding chapter in the Twilight franchise, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, have been released.  The TV spot doesn’t look like it includes any new footage, but the featurette provides a pretty cool look at the film’s big action effects and stunt work.  A good deal of the featurette is also devoted to the cast trying to explain the ridiculous plot, which involves a governing group of vampires getting angry with Kristen Stewart’s Bella and Robert Pattinson’s Edward because they did the nasty and made a baby.

Hit the jump to check out the featurette and TV spot.  Directed by Bill Condon, the film also stars Taylor Lautner, Mackenzie Foy, Peter Facinelli, Ashley Greene, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz and Jackson Rathbone.  The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 opens November 16th.

Last week, Summit Entertainment revealed a new poster for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, and now they’ve unveiled a new banner.  The poster and banner make one thing abundantly clear about the final film: there will be running.  It will also be cold outside, so be sure to bring a jacket or a cloak or what have you.

Hit the jump to check out the full banner.  The film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Mackenzie Foy, Dakota Fanning, Michael Sheen, Tracey Heggins, Judith Shekoni, Casey LaBow, MyAnna Buring, Christian Camargo, Mia Maestro, Cameron Bright, Peter Facinelli, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Billy Burke, Rami Malek, and Maggie Grace.  The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 opens November 16th.