STEPHENIE Meyer was excited to see her work translated to film but only if the filmmakers remained true to the books. “All of us have seen books ruined as movies, and I had a lot of things that I wanted to protect. My stipulations were pretty basic: You can’t kill anyone who doesn’t die in the book. The Cullens have to all exist by their right names and in their right characters. Things like that. I wanted the groundwork to be there.”
The original script changed the passage, “And so the lion fell in love with the lamb,” but according to Producer Greg Mooradian, Stephanie suggested that they stick to the original because many girls have tattooed that line on their ankles.
Producer Greg Mooradian of Maverick Films read “Twilight” not just before it became a best-seller but before it was published. “I read a lot of manuscripts prior to their being published. When this one came across my desk, I just couldn’t put it down. The premise of a girl falling in love with a vampire just hit me like a ton of bricks. And the book delivered on every level.”
Greg also said that although they weren’t looking exclusively at female directors, they felt that Catherine Hardwicke, who directed films like “Vanilla Sky” and “Thirteen,” was the right choice. “The core readership is young females, and we wanted to get somebody who understood that perspective. Catherine has really embraced that age group. She connects well with teenagers, and given her filmography, it was a natural fit.”
Organic world
Executive producer Karen Rosenfelt agreed, saying, “What Catherine demonstrated with “Thirteen,” “Lords of Dogtown,” and “The Nativity Story”—all very different films—is that she can create a world that feels organic and not manufactured. That was really important in bringing ‘Twilight’ to the screen.”
Hardwicke said that “Twilight” moved her. “When I read the book, I was swept away with the whole obsession—that ecstasy. Stephenie writes with such an authentic voice. ‘Twilight’ had the potential to be so visual and cinematic and to capture that feeling: how it feels to be in love for the first time, and loving somebody so much that you’d literally be willing to turn into a vampire.”
Screen writer Melissa Rosenberg, who wrote the screenplay for “Step Up” and who has written for the TV shows “Party of Five” and “The O.C.” and is currently a writer for “Dexter,” said, “When they called me, all they had to say was teens and vampires and I was there. Knowing how important the story is to millions of fans, and how personally they take it, I knew we had to stay very close to the book to win them over. It is a gift to be given such rich source material. I had no intention of ever going anywhere other than the world of the book.”
Producer Greg Mooradian said casting the movie was very tricky, considering “Twilight’s” devoted following all over the world. “If you go on the fan websites, every single person who read the book has already cast the film for you 20 times over. We did take a look at their ideas and we decided we were never going to please everybody, so what we had to do was go with our guts. The actors we cast are the actors we feel best embodied these characters.”
Meyer was impressed with Kristen Stewart who was chosen to play Bella. “Kristen has an amazing number of movies already under her belt. Bella has a lot of drama going on. Kristen’s experience came into play there. She has a devastating vulnerability about her that’s so perfect for Bella.”
Kristen wasn’t familiar with the series until she auditioned for the movie. She said, “Suddenly, everywhere I looked, there was something about ‘Twilight.’ I was, like, how did I miss this? Everybody I knew had read it.”
If Kristen is worried about playing Bella, she’s not showing it. She said, “I want everybody to be happy. Everybody’s going to see things differently. So many girls are obsessed with the books and want to be Bella, which does make it difficult. I hope, really, really sincerely, that everybody likes it.”
Harder to cast
Even harder to cast than Bella was Edward. Stephenie said, “He has to be everything. He has to be beautiful and dangerous and angst-ridden and intelligent. A lot of guys were pretty, but they weren’t dangerous. Other guys were dangerous but not pretty enough. Rob Pattinson has both sides.”
Robert Pattinson, who played Cedric Diggory in two “Harry Potter” films, tried not to be affected by his big role. “It’s always an added pressure when you’ve got a lot of people with their own opinions of something, and everyone who’s read the book is going to have an idea of what they expect the film to be like. It kind of makes you a little bit more cautious about maintaining your own take on a character.”
Nikki Reed, who plays Rosalie, says even her parents have read the ‘Twilight’ series. “It’s very rare that my father and I find ourselves living in the same book world. I think it has a lot of adult themes and ideas like unconditional love that human beings in general long for.”
Rachelle Lefevre, who plays Victoria. didn’t just audition. “I sat down and wrote Catherine a three-page handwritten letter about why I needed to play this part. I talked about how I loved the book, and why I loved vampires so much. I told her that I thought our desire to live forever devalues existence. It’s the ultimate ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ because what gets traded is that everything that had value then has no value. Time doesn’t matter; the fragility of your life doesn’t matter. You get to live forever, but then you lose the value of life.”
When you watch the movie, take note of Bella’s clothes. Costume designer Wendy Chuck said, “Bella’s style was evolutionary. As she becomes more entwined with Edward and the Cullens, she starts to wear more blue.”
To allow the actors to appear to be running at super-human speed, second unit director and stunt coordinator Andy Cheng used what he calls the Magic Carpet Ride. “The Magic Carpet Ride is a stunt rig that is pulled along the ground and when you’re shooting people long-lens or beside them, even if they’re running or walking, all you’re seeing is their relationship to the background. So, when you’re watching the characters walking on it, it looks like they are flying across screen, which gives it a supernatural feel.”
“Twilight” opens nationwide on Nov. 26.
