To celebrate this release, we caught up with screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who has penned all five of the Twilight movies for the big scren. She takes us behind-the-scenes, and offers a look at the process behind bringing Stephenie Meyer's popular novel series to life.
Here is our conversation.
What sort of challenges did you face in adapting this particular chapter of the Twilight Saga? It contains some pretty crazy stuff...Or did you just leave all of that in there, and let director Bill Condon sort it out?
Melissa Rosenberg: The crazy stuff wasn't the hard part. This is a very different story than the first three. This is a very grown up story. It is dealing with very complex emotions and themes. You really have to dig deeper when you are dealing with that particular world. The crazy stuff came as a relief. I was like, "Oh, good! Now I get to do some whacked out birthing scene!" It's the human part, the character part, that I worked really hard on. How I approach it was...How I approach every action scene, or wild scene like the birth...Once you get to actually shooting it, they are going to be relying on the stunt coordinator and the EFX team. All of that. What was important to me, and why I will choreograph certain things on the page...I understand specific choreography won't wind up on film...Probably not...The reason I do that is so that the story of the action is clear. What the character action of the drama is supposed to be. The action of the scene. In this particular case, let's say, with the birth...I approached that the way the book does. From Bella's point of view. Then, from there, it is up to Bill Condon to deliver that scene on screen. He, of course, was involved in every aspect of everything. He has to deliver on what is in the script. "Here you go, Bill! Go have fun!"
As a forty year old man, I'm not going to yell in the isles the moment Jacob rips off his shirt. But I might shout a quiet "Yah!" When Charlie pops the top on one of those tasty Rainier beers. That is perfect casting. And Rainier has been there since day one. It's survived so many directorial changes as this franchise has gone on. Was Rainier written into the script? Or was that just good casting on Catherine Hardwicke's part?
Melissa Rosenberg: In the book, Charlie is quite the beer drinker. That element goes way back. But the Rainier is a direct production choice. And that probably came from Billy Burke saying, "Hey, I need a beer, here!" I didn't write that into the script.
Going back to Jacob ripping off his shirt. In the theater, this one scene is deafening. How choreographed are those moments. How calculated is that moment where one of the characters goes topless, eliciting this loud response from, not just the young women in the audience, but also the moms and the gay men?
Melissa Rosenberg: The shirt removal is something that I do write into the script. A steamy look from Edward? Not necessarily. For me, it's not about playing to the audience. It's about bringing the characters to a certain apex. It's about following the emotional journey. Its not, to me, about these moments where the audience is going to scream. I know they're going to scream. But it's not about achieving that reaction. It's about the feelings this story is delivering.
Was it more or less challenging for you to take this one book and turn it into two movies, as to what you've previously done in making just one movie per book?
Melissa Rosenberg: Definitely more challenging. Particularly with this first movie. Part 1. It is such a small movie. It is more akin to the first Twilight, than the other two. The second half has a lot more action. There is a lot more going on. This one posed a challenge in that it's about the internal workings of a marriage, really. It becomes, very much, a character drama that turns into a horror story. That was definitely a challenge.
How did you find the break in the two movies?
Melissa Rosenberg: It was a natural, organic break, that cam mid-section. When you read the book, it seems natural. The first part being where she's a newlywed, and we deal with the pregnancy. The second part is about her being a vampire and a parent. This is a natural breaking point, really. When you first read the book, you hit upon that. You can see that. I think we all felt that way. We played with it a little bit, we tried pushing it into the first act of the second movie. We wanted to see if that played. Ultimately, we didn't like it. So we did what we did.
As you wrote each new screenplay for the five films, did you take into consideration that the audience is growing up along with these characters?
Melissa Rosenberg: Honestly, I don't write to an audience. I have never tried that. The minute you write to an audience, you've lost them. Its as though you are pandering to them. Thinking that you are speaking to them. On all of these, for me, it has been about the characters and telling an authentic story. It is about a vampire. But it resonates, and it's a compelling story. I think that starts with Stephenie Meyer. She has hit a chord with people. Then we follow that. The books have been doing this long before there was a film audience. We have to follow that, too, you know what I mean?
When you sit down to write a Twilight screenplay, do you need to be in the rainy, cold mindset of the North West? To get in the mood? Or is it all sunshine and beaches as to where you actually sit down and write these movies?
Melissa Rosenberg: (Laughs) Hardly. I have a very strict regiment of showing up at my desk at a certain hour with my cup of green tea. It is very quite. I don't like having a lot of atmosphere around. But what I get into rather than the environment that the characters are in, is...I get into the character's minds. That is as easily as intense, to get into this mindsets, as well as this setting...
