The Twilight Saga: Eclipse has smashed the 2010 opening weekend record at the UK box office.

The vampire romance, starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, took in £13 million to best Alice In Wonderland‘s £10 million debut from March.

Eclipse‘s total is also ahead of the last Twilight film, New Moon, which earned £11 million in ticket sales last year on its first weekend on release.

Shrek Forever After falls to second place, the Adrien Brody-led Predators is a new entry at number three and comedies Get Him To The Greek and Killers round out the top five.

Elsewhere, two Bollywood films make appearances in the chart. I Hate Luv Stories falls to number eight and new release Milenge Milenge bows at ten.

The UK box office top ten in full:

1. (-) The Twilight Saga: Eclipse – £13,756,653
2. (1) Shrek Forever After – £4,591,105
3. (-) Predators – £2,203,193
4. (2) Get Him To The Greek – £610,705
5. (3) Killers – £157,615
6. (4) Sex And The City 2 – £107,884
7. (6) Heartbreaker – £84,417
8. (5) I Hate Luv Stories – £78,353
9. (7) Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time – £48,268
10. (-) Milenge Milenge – £48,172

SOURCE: Digital Spy.

Nikki Reed has revealed that Twilight co-star Peter Facinelli accidentally “clocked” her during filming.

The actress – who plays Rosalie Hale in the vampire series – told Digital Spy that it happened while the she was filming one of the movie’s action sequences with Facinelli (Carlisle Cullen).

“Peter was describing something to the director and because of those contact [lenses] we don’t have any peripheral vision and he swung his arms open and clocked me right in the forehead!” she explained.

“I was dizzy and went to sit down and he kept talking. He didn’t even realise he did it! Someone said, ‘Do you realise you just hit Nikki?’ He said, ‘Oh my God, I thought that was a tree!’ It just happens.”

Source: Digital Spy

The Twilight Saga has, to date, taken over $1 billion worldwide at the box office and turned actors like Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Peter Facinelli into global superstars. 36-year-old Facinelli plays Carlisle Cullen, who topped Forbes magazine’s 2009 list of the wealthiest fictional characters in the whole world ever, which is what accumulating interest for 370 years (he’s a vampire, obviously) will do for you. Now, a week before The Twilight Saga: Eclipse hits the cinema to break all box office records and delight vamp fans the world over, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to do a fashion shoot with Facinelli in which he looks sharper than a cactus in the best of Americana inspired fashion. The full shoot and an interview will appear in the August 2010 issue of FHM.

Source: FHM

A man reportedly died during a screening of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in New Zealand on Sunday night.

Police are investigating the 23-year-old’s death, which happened at the Reading Courtenay cinema complex in central Wellington.

The man’s body was discovered by a security guard after a 6pm screening of the movie, according to TVNZ.

Authorities have yet to determine his cause of death.

“There’s no obvious injuries… and the post-mortem tomorrow will help us establish his cause of death,” said detective senior sergeant Scott Miller.

Police are still to reach the man’s next of kin. He apparently attended the showing alone.

Source: Digital Spy

Twilight star Peter Facinelli hopes to increase awareness of paediatric cancer through fans of the film series.

The 36-year-old actor, who plays Carlisle Cullen in the saga, spoke to PopEater about the need for funding to combate the disease in children.

He said: “Paediatric cancer is the leading cause of death by disease of children under the age of 18. But half of the drugs used to treat children with cancer are 20 years old.

“They have new research technologies, but they don’t have the money for it. What we’re trying to do is just help raise awareness, help fund this research, so we can stamp out cancer in children.”

Facinelli also spoke of his campaign work, promoting a celebrity “bake off” between himself, Joan Cusack and Glee star Jayma Mays in November which will raise donations for the non-profit organisation Cookies for Cancer.

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Why has the “Twilight” series become such a phenomenon?

Facinelli: You have the vampire folklore, which is always interesting, and then you mix it with a love story. That’s a timeless tale: the “Romeo and Juliet” story. What I liked about it is that somewhere along the line, Hollywood made vampire movies horror movies. And so when my agents called me and said, “Do you want to do this vampire movie called ‘Twilight’?” I said, “No.” And then I read the books and I fell in love with them.

What do you think about the Cullen family being non-traditional family that isn’t related to each other?

Facinelli: Well, you were lying in the gutter. And you were pretty. It’s true, why he chose these people. It’s like forming this and this group of people he hand-picked to be his family. That means a lot to him. I think I struggle as Carlisle, in that in some ways I feel like I gave them a gift — and in some ways that wasn’t my gift to give. I know some of the characters struggle with that — that they didn’t have a choice in it. Rosalie didn’t have a choice. And Edward’s not that happy, because he didn’t have a choice.

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You have a teenage daughter; is she a Twi-hard? Or just like, ehhh, that’s my dad.

She’s more like ehhh, that’s my dad. I ruined it for her in that way. She can’t be a full-on die-hard Twi-hard, because it’s like, “My dad is in the movie and that would be weird.” She loves the movies, but it’s not like she can wear Twilight merchandise. Her friends would be like, “That’s kind of weird.”

But she could declare Team Edward or Team Jacob.

She has mentioned Team Edward before. But she wears Carlisle t-shirts. She’s a Carlisle supporter.

Is your wife (actress Jennie Garth) a big fan as well or does she keep her distance?

She’s excited for the movie; she’s read all the books. She really enjoyed the movie.

You have a family of supporters, but not fanatics.

Exactly

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“Eclipse” is an action-heavy chapter of the series, with near-constant fighting. There are torrential emotional moments as well, with some major revelations about the feelings Bella has for Edward Cullen and Jacob Black, played by the dreamy Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, respectively.

For six weeks, the cast of the movie participated in “fight training,” a combination of workouts and fighting choreography, in order to build enough strength to endure shooting the action-packed movie. That’s Fit caught up with Facinelli in New York City at a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity organized by Dockers and Esquire. Facinelli shared what it was like to put so many hours into training.

“That’s all we had to do for six weeks,” Facinelli said. “We did fight choreography mixed in with working with a personal trainer so that we’d have the stamina to be able to pull off the fight sequences.”

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Peter Facinelli may have a playful Twitter persona, but that doesn’t mean the actor who plays Eclipse‘s Dr. Carlisle Cullen is all funny business.

Recently, Facinelli, 36, had a particularly moving encounter with a fan, who approached him after her daughter’s death.

“A woman whose daughter I met when I did an autograph signing came to a different autograph signing a year later and she showed me a picture of me and her daughter,” the actor told PEOPLE at the Eclipse premiere in L.A. “She said, ‘My daughter met you last year, and she passed away in a car accident. I just wanted you to know how much you impacted her life before she passed away. This picture meant the world to her.’ “

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