Oh baby … Chuckesmee was 'a giant misfire on all fronts'

The cast and crew of the Twilight films have revealed the horrifying animatronic puppet that was once considered for the role of vampire-human baby Renesmee.

Producers wanted the offspring of Kristen Stewart's Bella Swan and her undead lover Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) to appear preternaturally intelligent, in line with the description in Stephenie Meyer's bestselling source novels. But the doll, dubbed "Chuckesmee" after the creepy doll used for the Child's Play horror movies, was ultimately deemed just too weird to use. Footage has now emerged for the first time online with the release of the DVD box set Twilight Forever: The Complete Saga, which features a number of outtakes and deleted scenes.

In the final film, Chuckesmee was replaced by a real baby with CGI-enhanced features

"Chuckesmee was a giant misfire on all fronts," director Bill Condon told Entertainment Weekly last year during promotion for final instalment Breaking Dawn: part two. "Truly, it was one of the most grotesque things I've ever seen. It was a horror show! There was one shot where I call, 'Cut!' and suddenly she turns her head and mechanically stares right into the camera. It was incredibly disturbing."

Commenting on the new clip for the box set, producer Wyck Godfrey added: "You're trying to create something that's otherworldly with Renesmee in the movie that has to be preternaturally intelligent yet still look like a baby but actually look a little bit more mature than one would be at one-day-old.

"So we ended up pulling the thing out on the day and shooting it. The second you're holding it up you realise this is never going to work. No fake thing is ever going to do the trick. If you're Bella, you're looking at it going, 'I don't want that thing. Put it back!'"

In the final cut, "Chuckesmee" was replaced by a real baby with CGI-enhanced features. Breaking Dawn part two went on to take $829m globally, the saga's highest overall gross.

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