'New Moon' trailer compared to the book (VIDEO)

June 1, 2:57 AMBooks on Film ExaminerConnie Ann Kirk

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How does the newly released first trailer for The Twilight Saga: New Moon compare to the novel?  Now that interested viewers have seen the first trailer from the highly anticipated film, based on the popular novel by Stephenie Meyer, it is possible to compare scenes, characters, and other features depicted in the trailer with their corresponding elements in the novel.

The first snippet of Bella and Edward in the movie trailer is of them standing next to Bella's truck outside Charlie's house.  It is Bella's birthday, and she asks Edward for a kiss.  This scene outside does not appear to be taken directly from the novel. 

Perhaps it is a replacement for a similar scene at the end of Chapter 2 where, in Bella's bedroom, Bella asks Edward for a second kiss, since it is her birthday.  They are still testing out his restraint, but he kisses her with more fervor, in a way that reminds her of when he kissed when he left her to lead James off her trail. "Edward had kissed me goodbye, not knowing when--or if--we would see each other again" (52). It is, of course, a foreshadowing of what Edward will do soon.

In the trailer, Bella's voice with no picture tells Edward that she loves him.  Without a picture, it is difficult to know for sure where this will appear in the film.

In the next snippet, Edward tells Bella that she is his only reason to stay alive.  It appears that he may tell her this upstairs at the Cullen house, perhaps before the birthday party.  This scene does not appear to be in novel.

The birthday party scene where Jasper runs at Bella when she gets a paper cut plays out just about the way it does in the first chapter, "Party," of the original story. 

The small portion of the break-up scene in the trailer shows Bella and Edward in the woods, as they are in the novel. Edward says she will never see him again and kisses her on the head.  Both the line and the gesture come from Chapter 3, "The End."

There is a shot of Bella lying in the bracken, shaken from the break-up.  Readers see this reaction of Bella's on pages 73 and 74. 

When Bella is in the meadow and Laurent finds her, but she is rescued in time, presumably by a wolf, this is taken from Chapter 10, "The Meadow."  The scene where Jacob runs out of his house and "phases" into a werewolf may come from Chapter 13, "Killer," when Bella is threatened by Victoria and Jacob rushes out to the woods.  In that chapter, Bella yells, "Jacob!" (p. 316). In the clip, she yells, "Jake."

From this very preliminary assessment of the trailer of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, it appears that, like with Twilight, the filmmakers are sticking pretty close to the book.

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