English Translation:

Robert Pattinson and the elephants.

In Water for Elephants, Robert Pattinson plays opposite Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz. The film is the adaptation of the novel of the same title, which was written by Sara Gruen and tells the story of Jacob Jankowski (Robert Pattinson), a student in veterinary medicine whose parents are brutally killed. He abandons his studies and will engage in a circus, where he will cure the animals.

5 Production Secrets
Sean Penn was to play in the film, but he withdrew. He was replaced by Christoph Waltz, who won an Oscar for his performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

The production takes place entirely in Los Angeles. Rumor is that Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart rented a house near the set.

During the breaks, Robert Pattinson plays with Ava, Reese Witherspoon’s 10 years old daughter.

Rob has cut his hair for his role and he fully intends to convince the team to Twilight: Breaking Dawn to allow him to keep his new haircut.

The story is set in the 30s, during the Great Depression. Water for Elephants should be in theaters in 2011, but the studios have not yet given a specified release date.

At 9 p.m. on June 29, I walked past hundreds if not thousands of mostly teenaged girls in line for the first midnight showing of Eclipse in Times Square, and wondered what it was about the slow, old-fashioned, remarkably chaste Twilight Saga that has mesmerized a generation of kids — among them my 12-year-old daughter — whose one-word catchphrase is “What-ever.”

You have Bella, a remarkably inexpressive teenage virgin; a gentlemanly vampire, Edward, who’s afraid to touch her for fear his bloodlust will take over and he’ll gobble her up; and a Native American werewolf, Jacob, who doesn’t have a prayer of landing Bella but hovers protectively, showing off his six-pack abs and deltoids like a human muscle chart. In part it’s the trendy vampire fetish and the usual blockbuster hysteria. But most blockbusters don’t move so glacially and withhold so much. Could it be that kids are actually thrilled for once to defer their gratification?

Speculation aside, Eclipse is, on its own terms, quite good. Now, I’m grading on a curve — the last one, New Moon, almost put me in a coma. But the new director, David Slade, has more of a handle on the measured tempo, and the screenplay blends those long, lovelorn dialogues with nifty historical flashbacks and lots of hissing vampire villains.

We’re back in the town of Forks, on the coast of Washington State, where Kristen Stewart’s Bella and Robert Pattinson’s Edward are stretched out in a meadow of soft-focus violets. Edward asks her once again to be his bride; Bella stares at her lap and twists her wide mouth on her long jaw and refuses to give him a firm yes (or no) until he promises to kill and resurrect her as a vampire so they can be together forever.

She also wants to make love before she’s a vampire, so she’ll know what it’s like, “while I’m still me.” Edward, however, is old-fashioned, having come of age a century earlier; he believes they must wait until they’re married before they have sex and he kills her. As you can guess, his pure-mindedness puts a strain on the relationship, especially with that werewolf always at the door.

Also, there’s this redheaded vampire woman — played in this film by Bryce Dallas Howard — who wants Bella’s scalp. (Or neck, or something.) Taylor Lautner’s Jacob is only too happy to point this out when he runs into the twosome in front of their high school. “She has a right to know,” he says, portentously. “She is the one the redhead wants.”

Sexual tension, pregnant pauses — that’s Eclipse, except I hasten to add that the actors are very good-looking. And there are maybe 500 lengthy, monumental, screen-filling close-ups of them. Around the 200th, I became hypnotized by their flawless complexions: Was their skin tone evened out in post-production? Did computers squeegee out their zits?

Pattinson comes off worse than Lautner in this one: His Edward hangs back, looking clingy and vaguely antiseptic. But the two have one good, tense, cards-on-the-table dialogue that had me thinking, “Oh, why don’t you macho men kiss already?”

Stewart can seem sullen, a little dull, but I like her. She seems temperamentally averse to emoting; she’s an anti-drama queen. Given how florid this material is, I think she’s smart to hold something back, to let the audience project their own feelings onto her face.

The principal threat driving Eclipse’s plot is an army of vicious “newborn” vampires, which means the upright vampires and righteous werewolves — normally antagonists — have to team up against their common enemy. The big rumble is a hash of smash-cuts and computer-generated imagery, but it’s surprisingly cathartic after all those tortured silences. My ideal battle scene would have more splatter, but these vampires apparently don’t bleed. As my 12-year-old daughter explained, “Vampires don’t have any blood, that’s why they need to keep drinking it.”

I said I’d been watching vampire movies for 45 years, and that they sure as hell had had plenty of blood until now. And she said what I already knew in my bones: “Dad, these are not your vampires.”

Popsugar Australia: Do you have any celebrity crushes?
Ed Westwick: Yeah, but they’re all married! Scarlett Johansson is always one. Miranda Kerr is kind of one, but somebody told me she just got engaged. I like the older ones, the ones around my age, the Kristen Stewarts of the world don’t really do it for me. I’m a man with the eye on the older girl, I’m afraid.
PS Australia: Who has the best American accent—you or Robert Pattinson?
EW: Me.

It’s a question for the ages, and teen girls don’t take it lightly. If there could be only one, which would you choose: Justin Bieber or “Twilight”? Days before vampire frenzy spread on Wednesday (June 30) with the opening of “Eclipse,” MTV News traveled to Hartford, Connecticut, to catch the teen singer’s My World Tour kickoff, where we asked fans there to weigh in on the epic battle of Bieber vs. “Twilight.”

One of the two pop-culture phenomena had to come out a winner, and Justin Bieber’s fans made their case, with the pop star coming out the clear champ.

“He is amazing,” Britney told MTV News, arguing that Bieber’s famous head of hair is so much better than Pattinson’s equally famous coif. “It’s just gorgeous.”

In addition to having that sugary-sweet voice, the girls had other important reasons for loving Bieber over the “Twilight Saga,” one of them being 24-year-old Pattinson’s age. “[Justin's] amazing! He’s just amazing. Yes [he wins]. He’s more our age and Robert Pattinson is just older, so obviously, Justin Bieber,” Amanda said. Her pal, Nicky, agreed saying, “He’s our age.”

Another fan, Rihanna, said, “He sings better. He’s a lot cuter … and he’s our age.”

Apart from the age factor, the girls decided that Bieber wins hands-down because of his pop-star status.

“He’s the one that I worship,” Christina gushed. “His music is amazing — it would save the world.” Micaela added, “He’s freakin’ amazing! Taylor Lautner does not sing, neither does Edward, and they’re not even that hot as Justin Bieber.”

Oh yeah, did they mention he’s hot? Or, as Lexi put it: “He’s really hot!” Ashley said it was “because he’s a singer. He has a really good voice.” And, of course, she said, he’s “cute!”