Kristen Stewart ‘Breaking Dawn’ pic was 3-D candidate

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“Breaking Dawn” fans probably would be eager to see the Twilight exploits of Kristen Stewart’s Bella and Robert Pattinson’s Edward even if they were shown in a shoebox. But one film installment in Stephenie Meyer’s vampire series almost lured fans with a much splashier look: 3-D.

A person familiar with the discussions who was not authorized to talk about them publicly told 24 Frames several days ago that ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2’ came close to being shot with the z-axis. And in an interview Tuesday, director Bill Condon confirmed that he and Summit Entertainment executives discussed making the fifth and final installment in the series, which comes out next November, in 3-D.

That movie is, of course, the one in which (spoiler alert, for the three people who know “Twilight” but don’t know this) Bella lives as a vampire. The idea would have been to convey that shift in a heightened 3-D world, using the format as a kind of storytelling device (and, oh, yes, collecting ticket premiums to boot).

As Condon explained: “You’ve stepped through the looking glass and you’re seeing the world through Bella’s point of view, as a vampire. To know what it feels like to see the way they do, to hunt, all that stuff. It was a good reason to do it.”

But according to both Condon and the person familiar with the discussions, cost proved too much of a deterrent. Among the rationales for shooting the two ‘Breaking Dawn’ movies simultaneously was to save some cash, and toggling between 2-D and 3-D cameras would have undermined that goal.

Plus, Condon added, it could have become really overwhelming for everyone on set. “It was hard enough to keep the two movies straight between the morning and the afternoon, but then to have these two huge camera packages and approaches, it seemed like too much to take on,” he said. (Instead, filmmakers used high-definition cameras and other sophisticated lenses for the second “Breaking Dawn” film; the first, of course, comes out this weekend. A 3-D conversion has not been discussed as a serious option.)

Shooting in 3-D remains one of the more polarizing moves around, with the battle lines drawn in unexpected ways. Despite its reputation as a commercial gimmick, high-end auteurs such as Martin Scorsese (this month’s “Hugo”) have begun to embrace it. But some commercial franchises -- particularly those that, like “Twilight” and the upcoming “The Dark Knight Rises,” have built up a strong amount of goodwill in 2-D — have stayed away. When you’re raking in hundreds of millions, that added 3 can seem like a small number.

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