The Cullen Clan, to which Edward belongs, and which is headed by Carlisle (Peter Facinelli in the films) have sworn not to kill humans like many of their fellow vampires.

Facinelli initially resisted the idea of playing a vampire - even a sparkly one. "When I first heard of the project I was not interested in it, because my mind automatically went to fangs, gore, and zombies, which, as an actor I'm just not interested in doing.

"But when I read the books and saw that it was an anti vampire tale in that it dealt more with vampires trying to be human, and steered away from stereotypes I became intrigued and as I read more, obsessed."