att Harrower and Kyle Harvey came with friends and their own couch. Picture: KELLIE CAMERON

THOUSANDS of Twilight fans descended on Werribee Park last week for Australia’s largest single screening of teen vampire movie New Moon.

The screening launched Regent Cinemas Werribee and Parks Victoria’s season of outdoor movie screenings at the park.

The long-awaited New Moon was adapted from a novel by US author Stephanie Meyer. It is the second instalment in her Twilight series of four books, which follow a mortal teenager who unwittingly falls in love with a vampire.

New Moon premiered in Australia at midnight last Thursday, and to a crowd of 2000 at Werribee Park.

>A sign near the park’s entrance flashed “sell-out”. The line of people waiting to enter stretched back more than 200m.

As well as the premiere, a special encore performance of the first movie in the series, Twilight, screened from 9pm last Wednesday, on a giant blow-up screen in front of Werribee Mansion.

Werribee’s Ashleigh Buckley and Alex Nuske, both 16, queued for four hours outside the park for a prime position on the lawn.

“It’ll be worth it,” Ashleigh said.

Kyle Harvey, of Hoppers Crossing, and Matt Harrower, of Werribee, came prepared for the marathon screenings, bringing a couch.

“We were forced by the girlfriends to come and didn’t want to sit in a deck chair for eight hours,” Mr Harvey said.

It was a late night for Wyndham Vale student Nicole, 12.

She was so excited about the screening that she hardly slept the night before it.

John Taylor, of Altona, was with his wife, Debbie, 47, who said she had read the books “three times over”.

Maggie Cunningham, 24, who travelled from Ferntree Gully, said Twilight appealed to all ages.

“I think it’s because it’s a love story, they just transcend age,” she said.

Alicia Taylor, 21, of Hoppers Crossing, said unlike another movie phenomenon, Harry Potter, Twilight was more realistic.

“Harry Potter was more fantasy and magic but with Twilight you’re like, ‘that guy could be the guy sitting next to me in class’,” she said.

Alicia said the outdoor screenings were great. “It’s like the movies in the Botanic Gardens,” she said.

“I don’t know why they haven’t done it before.”

Parks Victoria said it received no major complaints. It said the 2.15am finish was a one-off, and that future screenings would end about 11.30pm.

Upcoming outdoor screenings include Fame on December 5, and in 2010, Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 on January 16, The Notebook on February 13, Bourne Supremacy on March 13 and Armageddon on March 27.

Kellie Cameron

source-http://wyndham-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/screens-of-delight-at-twilight-premiere/

Werribee Park is preparing for The Twilight Saga: New Moon

TWILIGHT cinema is coming to Werribee, starting with the largest screening in Australia of teen vampire movie The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Regent Cinemas Werribee and Parks Victoria will this month launch a season of outdoor movie screenings at Werribee Park.

The first, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, will be beamed onto a big screen for 2000 people in the park’s formal gardens, in front of the mansion, at 12.01am on November 19.

Regent Cinemas Werribee general manager Andrew Taylor said it would be the largest single screening of the movie in Australia.

Ticket sales had been unprecedented, he said.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon has been adapted from the novel New Moon, by US author Stephanie Meyer.

The novel is part of Meyer’s Twilight series of four books, which follow a teenager who unwittingly falls in love with a handsome and mysterious vampire.

As part of New Moon’s world wide launch, a special encore performance of the first movie in the series, Twilight, will screen from 9pm (November 18) at the park.

Tickets are $5 for Twilight and $15 for the new movie. Gates open from 7.30pm. Bring your own chairs and picnic blankets. Food and drinks (non-alcoholic), as well as Twilight merchandise, will be on sale.

Other movies to be screened at the park this year are Michael Jackson’s This is it, on November 21, and Fame, on December 5.

It is the first time Regent has screened movies at the Parks Victoria site.

source-http://leader-news.whereilive.com.au/news/story/twilight-cinema-coming-to-werribee-with-new-moon/