Vancouver Sun has a new story. It's about the filming of New Moon at the fake house of Bella. Here's the article:Other film sets have sprung up in Surrey over the years, but maybe none with the magnetism of this one.
A small clearing of park land is the scene for the filming of New Moon, the latest flick in the Twilight series based on the hugely popular Stephanie Meyer books.
In recent weeks, a pre-fab "house" was built in Vancouver and trucked to the grassy site in South Surrey to serve as the abode of main character Bella Swan, played by Kristen Stewart. In the movie, Bella falls for a vampire named Edward, played by Rob Pattinson.
The structure is nothing but a shell meant for exterior shots, but it requires around-the-clock security to keep rabid fans from doing damage to it.
It has a chimney made of flimsy styrofoam, after all.
Imported trees and rearranged telephone poles help make things look authentic, too.
Filming at the site will begin tonight (Friday), the Now has learned. City-issued signs warn of road closures starting April 24.
Despite efforts by the film company to keep it all hush-hush, a small but steady stream of fans (known as "Twilight-ers" or "Twi-Hards") and curiosity seekers has caused a commotion in the rural setting in recent days. Barricades, sometimes staffed by police, have gone up and come down at two entry points on the otherwise quiet road, depending on the time of day and the level of on-set action.
To be sure, these are interesting times for the family that lives in the lone house across the street from all the hubbub.
At 'New Moon' film sets in Vancouver, Tofino and Burnaby since mid-March, dozens of fans from as far away as Tennessee tried to sneak a peak at the stars.
"I haven't seen this kind of interest in a film before," said Cloverdale resident Christine Kilpatrick, who covers the film biz as a contributing writer for People magazine.
For security crews, it's a cat-and-mouse game keeping zealous fans from storming 'New Moon' film sets. To the chagrin of protectors, someone blurted the movie-shoot address on The Beat radio station last week. When the Now visited the scene Wednesday evening, a small group of people - mostly teen girls and women - gawked at the two-storey "house" and chatted with two non-uniformed security personnel.
One woman drove from Burnaby to get a look.
"I don't like going to the film sets when they're shooting," she said, "because there are too many crazies hiding in the trees and everywhere."
When filming starts in South Surrey, huge black screens will serve to block views of the action.
For security reasons, the Now has decided to not reveal the exact location of the film set. Even so, plugged-in fans will have little trouble finding the site through postings on Twitter and other social-networking websites.
Kilpatrick said she's surprised that so many women - as opposed to teen girls - are following the 'New Moon' action from site to site. Many of them stay connected using Twitter names dedicated to actor Pattinson, the "vampire" guy.
"Some of them keep the information (of set locations) secret - not out of respect but because they don't want anyone else going there," Kilpatrick said.
"These people just get so caught up in it, a whirlpool of excitement, this hunt. I call it vampire hunting, because they're so desperate to see these sets to get a glimpse of the stars."
Nobody knows for sure exactly how many days of filming will be done at the South Surrey set in coming weeks.
"It could go on for quite some time, with crews coming in for a few days and then leaving and coming back," a source told the Now. "Delays happen, and things can change hourly in the film biz."
After film crews leave for good, the site will be returned to its natural state at a cost shouldered by the film company.
'New Moon' is due in theatres this fall, with scenes to be shot in Italy starting sometime in May.
