Little wonder then that Hollywood has quickly finished making the next book in the series, and is racing ahead with the last two titles.

The second film, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, rated M, opens today with predictions it will eclipse the first film's box office earnings, while the third film, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, due next year, will very likely eclipse New Moon.

The final film, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn is due out in 2011.

For readers who did not see the first film and/or have not read the books, it's a series about a love affair between a teenage mortal girl, Bella, played by Kristen Stewart and a handsome young vampire, Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson, whose previous claim to fame was playing Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2007, and who has now achieved worldwide superstardom.

That first film established that the Cullen family of vampires do not prey on humans, so Bella was safe when visiting Edward at his home. But early in New Moon, Bella accidentally cuts herself resulting in an attack from one of Edward's kin at the sight of fresh blood, and this in turn results in the whole Cullen family moving to a new town.

With Edward briefly out of her life, Bella turns to a teen friend from the first movie, Jacob, played by Taylor Lautner, a member of an Indian tribe with links to werewolves.

Trivia time: Did you know Stephanie Meyer has based all four Twilight books on literary classics? Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice for Twilight and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet for New Moon.

After winning an Academy Award for their 2007 film No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, have made a film set in the Jewish community of Minneapolis where they grew up and set in a time when they were growing up 1967.

A Serious Man, M, is a film that occasionally moves from English to Hebrew and Yiddish and features mostly unfamiliar actors. It is a wry comedy about a loser, a university professor whose many problems include: losing his wife to his best friend, a son who listens to rock'n'roll instead of studying Hebrew for his Bar Mitzvah, a daughter who is stealing money for a nose operation, a useless brother-in-law who sleeps on his couch, a glamorous nextdoor neighbour who sunbathes in the nude, and a student who is trying to both bribe and blackmail him.