Melissa Buttigieg, 23, saw "Twilight" 15 times in the theater. Hassina Ford, 19, watched it on the big screen 10 times, and Aimee Murphy, 22, watches the DVD every day.

They were among the throng of overwhelmingly female fans who gathered on a recent evening in London with the aim of catching a glimpse of the cast of "New Moon," the second film based on the the best-selling "Twilight" book series by Stephenie Meyer.

The crowd - representing factions of both Team Edward and Team Jacob, referring to the two male characters at the center of the vampire romance saga - shrieked and screamed as the teenage heart throbs walked down the red carpet at the event for UK fans.

"Twilighters," as fans of the franchise are known, can undoubtedly match fanboys for fervor. But can they redefine what makes a blockbuster in Hollywood?

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One movie, more than any other, has planted its flag in the sand as the movie industry gears up for the awards season.

"Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire," has emerged as this year's breakout indie hit to beat.

Critically-acclaimed on the international festival circuit, it is the only film to win the audience award at both Sundance Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival - the latter a steadily reliable predictor of Oscar.

Last weekend it broke indie film records at the domestic box office.

"Precious" tells the tale of an obese, illiterate teenager - played by 24-year-old newcomer Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe - struggling to survive in 1980s Harlem.

It boasts Oprah Winfrey among its producers and features the curious distinction of usually-glam pop diva Mariah Carey as a pale-faced and plain social worker.

And that's where "Precious" plays another classic awards card - Carey dressing down.

Read more of this article on CNN's The Screening Room here.

It may seem stranger than fiction, but George Clooney's latest film, paranormal comedy "The Men Who Stare at Goats," was inspired by real events.

"It's funny, there are things that are made up in this screenplay, but the wackiest things are actually the real ones," said Clooney

Like starring alongside a goat.

Clooney's role as Lyn Cassady, an operative of the New Earth Army, required him to play opposite the farmyard animal to demonstrate the army's psychic warfare strategies, among them the ability to kill goats by staring at them.

Known for his dry sense of humor, the actor said of his four-legged co-star: "This goat was a particularly nice goat. The goat was a great actor."

Read more of this article on CNN's The Screening Room here.

There has been a resurgence of interest in horror recently, with zombies and vampires in particular colonizing our cinema screens in ever greater numbers.

As if to feed our renewed appetite, some of the genre's living legends are once again back in the director's chair delivering terror at 24 frames per second.

Check out our interactive featuring Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, George Romero and John Landis, including exclusive video clips of these titans of terror talking about the genre.

Tanedra Howard in a spot of bother in the latest installment of the ultra-violent Saw franchise. IMAGE FROM LIONSGATE.

Are audiences finally getting tired of ultra-violent splatter flicks, typified by the "Saw" franchise?

First screened as a low-budget indie horror at Sundance Film Festival in 2004, "Saw" went on to become a global phenomenon. Are you sick of splatter? Is old-fashioned suspense making a comeback? Tell us below

"Saw VI" is the latest installment in the multi-million dollar franchise featuring modern horror icon the "Jigsaw Killer." It hit cinemas over the weekend hoping to pull in dollars from horror-hungry Halloween audiences.

And it probably would have done pretty well if it wasn't for another, rather newer, horror phenomenon: "Paranormal Activity."

The microbudget flick which is becoming a box office wonder pipped "Saw VI" to the top spot at the U.S. box office this weekend.

Does this mean audiences are tiring of the splatter horror genre revitalized by Eli Roth in 2005's "Hostel," and sometimes known by its detractors as "torture porn?"

Or, is it just that "Paranormal Activity's" huge success surprised everyone? Made for somewhere in the region of $15,000, "Paranormal Activity's" rise to the top is already legend in Hollywood.

It's worth noting that the "Saw" series remains one of the most profitable franchises in horror history.

Since the first installment bled onto screens in 2004, the first five movies have delivered a combined box office take approaching $700m worldwide, according to boxofficemojo.com, with international takings accounting for around half this haul.

DVD sales and TV are likely to easily surpass this total again - and all for a quintet whose combined production budget clocked in at less than $100m, the price of a middling summer blockbuster.

So, despite the competition, it's unlikely that this is the dying breath of torture porn.

What is almost guaranteed in the wake of  "Paranormal Activity" is a wave lo-fi horrors trading on bumps in the night, hoping for similar success.

If Spike Jonze's upcoming live-action adaptation of much-loved kids book  "Where the Wild Things Are" comes even close to its promise, it should be something pretty special.

Spike Jonze has adapted beloved kids' book 'Where the Wild Things Are.'

Early stills from the film look sublime and it would seem that Jonze, who is no slouch in the cool stakes himself, recruited a who's who of the indie world to work on the project.

Former gangster-in-therapy James Gandolfini of  "The Sopranos" fame adds his trademark growl to the voice of Carol,  one of the lumbering monsters,  alongside Forest Whitaker and a smattering of indie royalty  - Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo and Lauren Ambrose.

San Francisco-based Pulitzer-nominated writer Dave Eggers, best-known for his innovative memoir "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,"  worked with Jonze to adapt the script from Maurice Sendak's beloved childhood tale. It tells the story of  a boy sent to bed without his supper who creates an imaginary world inhabited by ferocious monsters who crown him their leader.

The film's soundtrack comes courtesy of long-time Coen Brothers collaborator Carter Burwell alongside NY art rocker Karen O of band Yeah Yeah Yeahs and features songs by Canadian band Arcade Fire.

The film's child star, Max Records, looks like he could really steal the show, though. He plays disobedient little Max and with his sulky face framed by the hood of his dirty-white monster suit, he looks looks not unlike a pre-pubescent Edward Furlong.

From the trailer, it looks like Jonze has made a magical film that captures the other-worldly aspect of childhood. Watch Max running around with the sun glinting through trees to the pound of "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire and just try not feeling nostalgic for a lost time in the past.

He's not the only one mining our collective nostalgia for kid's books: "The Royal Tennenbaums" director Wes Anderson has turned his eagle eye from the nuances of dysfunctional family life to an adaptation of Roald Dahl's "The Fantastic Mr Fox." He is filming it using stop-motion animation, a technique he first experimented with in underwater "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou."

George Clooney is voicing the heroic Mr Fox, who is persecuted by three dimwitted poultry farmers, but prevails in the end.  Anderson favorites Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman are voicing too. A trailer hasn't been released yet, but here are some images.

Then, of course, there is Tim Burton's disturbingly psychedelic take on "Alice in Wonderland," with (who else) Johnny Depp made up to the nines as The Mad Hatter and Helena Bonham-Carter as the homicidal Red Queen. Here are some images.

But there must be other children's books that need a makeover for the big-screen. How about "Heidi" adapted by Sofia Coppola - or maybe "The Jungle Book" by Guillermo del Toro? Let us know your thoughts below...

We all love hanging out, "poking" and stalking our friends online, but is it really a compelling topic for a movie?

David Fincher may direct a film about Facebook.

Some people think so. The news broke yesterday that "Seven" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" director David Fincher is in talks to direct a film about Facebook.

Yes, that's right: Facebook.

The film is being produced by Scott Rudin, the brains behind quality fare like Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men" (2007) and Stephen Frears' "The Queen," and actor Kevin Spacey and written by Aaron Sorkin.

It will apparently chart the evolution of social networking site Facebook from a inter-collegiate social site started by Harvard sophomore to a global phenomenon with more than 200 million users.

How could a movie on Facebook work? And more importantly, why would anyone pay to watch it? Bloggers have been speculating just that since Sorkin, the writer of political dramas like "A Few Good Men" and "Charlie Wilson's War," started his own Facebook group about writing the film with the opening gambit:"I honestly don't know how this works ..."

I can't help but wonder if the story of Facebook really have the dramatic edge required to keep cinema audiences awake, let alone engaged ...

But, as with many of the most satisfying stories, there's a twist: Movie blog Slash Film is speculating that the film's script will be based on Ben Mezrich's book "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal."

They say they have "joined the dots" and noted that producer Spacey starred in "21," a highly enjoyable college caper based on Mesrich's book, "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions," about the MIT blackjack team.

Can Mesrich's book, which comes out next month, and by extension a film, work the same dramatic magic on Zuckerman's Harvard story?

I wonder if Rudin and co. are already planning the sequel, "Twitter: Kutcher's Revenge"?

Would you watch a film about Facebook?

Move over Scarlett. The world's most famous bespectacled neurotic, Woody Allen, declared that the person he would most like to put in one of his movies is France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

France's glamorous First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is director Woody Allen's latest leading lady of choice.

"Without question, Carla Bruni!" declared the U.S. director on RTL radio in Paris Thursday.

"I'm sure she would be wonderful," Allen said through a translator. "She's got charisma, she's already acted so she's not unknown to an audience. There are a lot of ways I could use her though I don't have a story for her at the moment."

Of course, Bruni-Sarkozy is no stranger to the limelight: She was one of the world's highest paid supermodels in the 1990s, then reinvented herself as a musician and released three albums before wedding Sarkozy after a whirlwind three-month romance and becoming one of France's most well-known faces.

She made a brief film appearance in Robert Altman's 1994 fashion world black comedy, "Pret-a-Porter," as well as 1998 French comedy "Paparazzi" - but she has always appeared as herself.

The 73-year-old director is rumoured to be planning a visit to the Elysee presidential palace and to stay with President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife. I wonder if he will ask her then?

Which world leaders' wives would you most like to see on the big screen? U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama? Queen Rania of Jordan? Cameroon's First Lady Chantal Biya?

Whoops! "Indiana Jones" star Shia LaBeouf let slip at an interview with the BBC for his new movie, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" that the people behind last year's huge "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" are indeed planning a follow-up.

Harrison Ford cracks the whip as movie icon Indiana Jones.

Blink and you would have missed it, but here is what LeBeouf actually said during the BBC interview: "Steven [Spielberg] just said that he cracked the story on it, and I think they're gearing it up."

And why wouldn't Spielberg, Lucas et. al? After all the last Indy movie - which was released to salivating fans 19 years after the previous one, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" - made just under $800 million worldwide.

Even so,  some fans were disappointed by Indy's fourth outing and I wonder just how much appetite there is for another film - even from hardcore disciples of the franchise.

That said, the thought of sitting in a cinema hearing the theme tune trumpeting and seeing Indy's fedora silhouetted at the beginning of a new movie is an enticing one.

Does the prospect of Harrison Ford cracking the bullwhip for the fifth time make you salivate or wince?

Scorsese and The Auteurs put cinema classics online for free

Groundbreaking new website that combines social networking with movies on demand collaborates with U.S master filmmaker to show cinema masterpieces restored Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation online for free.

Haneke finally crowned King of Cannes

It was a case of fifth time lucky for Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke who took the Palme D'Or for "The White Ribbon," a depiction of the cruel punishments meted out at a rural German school before the First World War.

Have Tarantino and his 'Inglourious Basterds' got what it takes?

"Inglourious Basterds" received mixed reviews from the critics at Cannes but Austrian soap star Christoph Waltz took home the best actor prize for his portrayal of of a multilingual Nazi in the World War II film.

In pictures: Stars come out in Cannes for premiere of Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds'

Hollywood eyes $70 zombie movie wowing Cannes

A budding British director is enjoyed success on a shoestring at Cannes with "Colin," a zombie feature that cost a scarcely believable $70 to make.

'Ghandi' returns to India in Bollywood movie

In the most high-profile amalgamation of Indian and western talent yet, Academy Award-winning actor Ben Kingsley stars with Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan in a drama about a pair of maths geniuses.

In pictures: Blood, elephants and naked cyclists: 10 Cannes publicity stunts

In pictures: Star power on full wattage at Cannes

Iranian filmmaker's pain of fiancee's jail time

As award-winning Iranian film-maker Bahman Ghobadi walked down the Cannes red carpet for the premiere of his new feature, his fiancee American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi had just been released from jail in Iran.

Cannes 2009: The movies to watch out for

The Screening Room asked a blogger, a critic and a film buyer attending the festival what films they will be watching out for at this year's event.

All that glitters: five iconic Palme D'Or winners

Five of the most groundbreaking and iconic Palme d'Or winners from around the world since the award's inception in 1955.

Interactive: Cannes: the Palme D'Or contenders

A rundown of the 20 films in contention for the top prize at Cannes Film Festival 2009.

Ledger's final film to feature at Cannes

The film Heath Ledger was making when he died, "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," featured at this year's festival