New Interview With Kristen, Taylor, Chris Wietz And Melissa Rosenberg

Melissa Rosenberg Says She Loved Writing Rachelle Lefevre's Character

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New Interview With Twilight Saga Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg

HitFix sat with Melissa Rosenberg back in May on the Set Of New Moon

Q: Can you talk about how challenging it is, not just to write a follow-up so quickly to the first movie, but also know that you’ve got the prequel that has to be ready to go whether it’s the summer or this fall, like are you working 24 hours a day? Like do you…?

I’m working seven days a week for sure because I also write for 'Dexter' on Showtime.

Q: Oh, wow.

And that’s a very much a full-time job as well so when I was writing 'New Moon' pretty much after 'Twilight' wrapped so I was writing 'Dexter' as well, so from May of last year through to November I was doing five days a week on 'Dexter' and two days a week on 'New Moon.' My husband was thrilled, but he was a good sport and brought me snacks and things like that. And then after that I think I finished a first draft right around the time 'Twilight' opened.

Q: November, okay.

Maybe the second draft by then, so somewhere around November and then it was very shortly thereafter I was supposed to jump immediately to 'Eclipse' and as you can imagine I was pretty burnt, so I kind of dragged my feet a little bit but then finally got my juices going again and began 'Eclipse' right on the heels of all of it. And that’s well underway as well.

Q: So are you finished with 'Eclipse' or are you on a first draft or…?

Well, I’ve finished a first draft and we’re into the next re-write. David Slade just came on-board and so now we’ll begin working with him and just prepping in May I think. But yeah, it’s been a non-stop and part of it is hard for me. Energy levels is difficult but in other ways it’s a good thing to stay in the world and stay in the 'Twilight' consciousness, you know? It's a little bit like TV in that way. It becomes like you’re long term franchise because you have 'Twilight' as your pilot and the next couple episodes, you know, there’s one and two and so it’s not something that I’m unfamiliar with. I think it maybe…that kind of [inaudible] for a television writer than it is for someone who’s used to doing, you know, one script over the course of 2 years or something like that.

Q: What’s your working relationship with each of the directors for each movie?

It’s been different every time. In 'Twilight' Catherine was on-board before I came on. So, I had her input right from the start and because we were working on a very, very tight schedule. Over the course of about a month I wrote the outline and then they said 'Can you do a draft in five weeks?' And I said 'Sure.' (Laughing.) And then they said 'When do you want to get it made because of the writers strike?' We were fighting the October 31st date, and well, what should I do? And that was a 24/7 slam fest and Catherine was very, very important in that process because I was able to get her immediate feedback. So, I’d finish a draft or scene or act or whatever and shoot it to her and get her immediate feedback right there so I could really tailor it very clearly for her and what she wanted to make it -- what she wanted the movie to be. It was a very, very collaborative process. You know as you can imagine 'New Moon' we didn’t have a director on-board when I started writing that and so that was kind of me alone. Of course the Summit folks, you know the producers of Summit, they’re all the people who I then become collaborative with and get their notes and their feedback, but it was pretty much me until Chris came on and that was November, I think. So then Chris got involved and I start tailoring it to what he’s looking for and by then the project’s kind of done and then he goes off and he starts shooting it and Chris is a writer himself so he was really able, and by the way I don’t know if you’ve met him yet?

Q: Not yet.

He’s really a lovely guy and you’ll see. So I did like one or two drafts with him and then was really able to trust him to take it from there to make any changes that might need to be made for production or for whatever reason because I trust [him because he's a] wonderful writer. But basically the script is a script and he’s got that and I jumped from there and here you go and ran on to do 'Eclipse.' So that’s been a pretty wild ride.

Q: Does writing the sequels present a whole different set of challenges than writing the 'Twilight' script?

Yeah, because in 'Twilight' you’re setting up the world. You’re introducing the world and you’re introducing characters and I was also writing in a vacuum because I didn’t know who the actors were going to be. Now, you’re going to 'New Moon' and 'Eclipse,' I could write [the characters] in my mind so it becomes a more comfortable world, you know? So, 'New Moon' is not about setting up the world, but it’s about it’s own set of challenges because 'New Moon' is very internal. I mean all of those…there’s a lot of talk about how Edward and the Cullen’s are not a part of whole middle of 'New Moon' but actually they really are. Certainly Bella’s very much alive in…I’m sorry Edward’s very much alive in Bella’s mind throughout 'New Moon.' As a reader you feel his presence. You feel that helping drive that story. Harder to do in film, you know? You have to somehow find his presence and bring it there without having thought bubbles constantly. And I think the solution is going to satisfy fans. It’s going to be very much in keeping with the book and the tone of the book. So I think it would be interesting to see how I think fans will be feel pretty satisfied with what we’re doing. One, because it’s true to the book and two because we see more Edward. So that can’t be bad.

Q: You did sort of change things slightly to tailor it to be more cinematic.

There are many things that change but as long as we hit the emotional experience I think it will resonate the same way and really 'Twilight' was that same thing. There were a lot of things that were in the book that weren’t in the movie. But because we hit the emotional stepping stones all they way throughout, you took the same journey with the characters that you took in the book and that’s what’s really most important about an adaptation is you have to take your audience in the same emotional journey and your characters in the same emotional journey as they do in the book and then everyone will have the same experience. It’ll be as it is in the book.

Q: So then could we surmise it that we’ll see more of the Cullen’s and for example Victoria throughout 'New Moon'?

I think you could surmise that, yes. Yes, you will.

Q: I’m one of the only people here that haven’t read the second book and for people who haven’t would you say when you were approaching it, is it sort of like a kin to like an 'Empire Strikes Back' in that it's sort of a middle part of the story or does it have a resolution that moviegoers will be satisfied with?

Um, both because a movie has to stand on its own. It’s always a trick with trilogies is that middle episode is always like eww, you know? And sometimes it works brilliantly and sometimes it’s like 'Okay, this movie is just treading water to get to the third one.' And so I was really conscious of that and not wanting it to have that feel of treading water and yet to leave the sort of cliffhanger aspect that makes you wait for the next one. So I think, and I think the book, provided a lot of that. There is a resolution by the end of the book and the story has advanced. It hasn’t just been staying in the same place. It’s fairly significantly set up what’s going to ultimately play out in the 3rd episode of the movie. But I think that by the time I got to the end of it that it was it’s own complete story. And that was very important to me and I hope everyone has that experience as well. It was important to Chris obviously, the director, because he knew going in that he [wouldn't] be directing the 3rd movie. So he’s approaching it as a stand-alone as well.

Q: Even though there’s been a 4th book, does that make writing the 3rd one easier since so many things get resolved from the 2nd?

You know ['Eclipse'] was hard. The 3rd one was actually one of the hardest of the three for me to write. You read the book it’s got a good deal of action and stuff and you think 'Oh this is going to be the easy one' and it turns out it’s not the easy one. It’s actually the hardest of all, and I was really tired, you know? So, I had to just gear up again. But once I got into it, it founded. Finding it was the hardest part—just finding how to tell that story. As it turns out, a lot of the action is the last chunk. There’s not actually as much that goes on in the front. The front is the setup for that and in a book you can keep the forward momentum going because you’re inside a character’s head. So the book never makes you feel that way. What was fun about doing 'Eclipse' is that Stephenie [or] any writer when they’re creating a world as Stephenie has created, she has to know where all the parts are going. The book is entirely from Bella’s point of view, but she has to know, as a writer, what all these other characters are doing so that when they land in Bella’s world where they come from, you know? So she has a very, very complex detailed mythology, which anyone who knows the 'Twilight' world knows [is] very detailed which is why this is such a great world to play around in. With any Sci-Fi fantasy storytelling you must have the rules be very clear otherwise you lose people. 'O.K., like they can fly but then they can’t fly' or they do this, but not that. But her rules are very, very distinct [and] within that there are just miles of playground, you know? So in knowing that I needed to bring some of that stuff from the back end up forward and track what the other characters are doing, it was just like I I guess what in DVD they call Easter Eggs, you know? I think it’s going to be some Easter Eggs in 'Eclipse' for fans [in that] some of the mythology that Stephanie has written about in other places might show up here. Because you get to do that in a movie, you know? You can’t do that in a book when it’s all one person’s point of view. And yet it’s still very much the book. I mean, that is something that was something from the very beginning with “Twilight” it was about. Stephanie’s one thing was 'do the book. Adapt the book.' And that was the only thing I wanted to do anyway.

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New Moon Set Visit, Day One: Volturi Scenes

Rotten Tomatoes visited the Vancouver set of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, where they observed filming on crucial scenes of the romantic fantasy sequel, including the very first appearance of the Volturi, the franchise's Italian vampire coven.

Day One: Production had just passed the halfway point when we arrived on set at the Vancouver Film Studios in May, where The Twilight Saga: New Moon -- or rather, the Untitled Sports Movie, its secret working title -- was weeks away from completion. Scenes featuring Jacob Black and the Wolf Pack had for the most part been filmed. Production was packing up the next week to do the last leg of shooting in Montepulciano, Italy, where Bella would make her fateful run across the town square to stop Edward from committing the ultimate sacrifice. Finicky weather had forced last-minute changes to the shooting schedule, but we'd be given a glimpse that few outsiders had yet seen: the unveiling of New Moon's Volturi.

Inside, a large stage was dressed in meticulous detail as the inner chamber of the Volturi, the ancient Italian vampires who rule the vampire world who appear in the second, third, and fourth Twilight books. The gold-accented central room in this "underground" lair, hidden, according to the book, in tunnels under the town of Volterra, Italy, is an ornate and refined circular room with 30 foot-high ceilings that give it a stark airiness, punctuated by beautiful marble tiled floors and Latin inscriptions.

A sample passage, commemorating the "history" of the vampire race in Latin, reads, "liberte te ex inferis" -- translated, "Save yourself from Hell." (Coincidentally, the same phrase is also inscribed on the blast door in Lost.) Details like these lent a believable sense that history -- even the fictional, vampire kind --is written into the very architecture of the Volturi headquarters.

The centerpiece of the chamber held three throne-like chairs, belonging to the Volturi leaders Aro (Michael Sheen), Marcus (Christopher Heyerdahl), and Caius (Jamie Campbell-Bower). Standing at attention were all of the Volturi guards, all dressed in vaguely European-style finery -- dark hues, sharp lines, and in a range of period styles.

In the midst of it all, cast newcomers Cameron Bright (who plays the psychically-powered Alec), and Dakota Fanning (portraying Alec's sadistic twin, Jane), were playing out reaction shots (to scenes that hadn't yet been shot!) before their days ended early, ostensibly due to child labor laws.

Focus fell particularly on Fanning, dressed in a soft, vintage-style white dress, a dark velvet cape, and Mary Janes. Her blonde hair swept into a bun, with pale skin and scarlet lips and dark eye makeup, she had the look of a textbook Little Red Riding Hood -- albeit one with blood-red eyes and a steely eeriness about her. "She's immune to all of us," Michael Sheen as Aro mused, directing his warrior to turn her pain-inducing powers on Bella. "Shall we, Jane?"

With nary a peep, Fanning's eyes lit up. She turned her head towards Bella/Kristen Stewart, and gave a slight, cruel smile. Well, the hint of a smile, really. The tension was palpable; in that miniscule movement I was sold on Fanning -- at 15 years of age, one of New Moon's seasoned veterans -- and her ability to convey unadulterated malice. On film, you'll see her bring poor Robert Pattinson to his knees, and you might even enjoy it.

That Fanning made such an impression with so little was, well, impressive. In contrast, Cameron Bright, another seasoned child actor whose credits include X-Men 3, Thank You for Smoking, and the creepy-kid flicks Godsend and Birth, had next to nothing to do as Jane's twin and fellow Volturi guard, Alec. (Sadly, this probably comes from Alec's presence, or lack thereof, in the book.) But Bright is already growing out of his kid roles, so by the time a Breaking Dawn film becomes reality, we hope his part gets juicier.

Then again, the real star of the Volturi is Aro. Michael Sheen, who ironically played the vampire-hating werewolf Lucien in the Underworld series (below right), is a terrific addition to the cast. Dressed in a fine Italian suit, circa 1980, Aro wears his hear in a slick ponytail and wears gold necklaces. His Aro is a sinister villain; welcoming on the surface, but clearly calculating, unpredictable, and off-putting.

"I love the thing in the books that Stephenie wrote about how these vampires are all really beautiful, and that's what lures people into their web," Sheen explained between scenes. "And yet, Aro is not like that; she describes Aro as being not the same sort of thing. I like the idea that it's his voice that lulls people in, or his sort of demeanor, rather than the way he looks -- because he looks quite weird and scary."

"I've tried to go down that route, make him very mesmerizing to people, that his voice is gentle and soft -- and yet, there's something kind of unhinged about him."

It was a single word that gave Sheen the inspiration for his take on Aro. "I read it over and over again, that particular bit in the book, because there are all kinds of things that she says -- like, she describes his voice as being quite feathery -- that's what gave me the idea of making it very soft, and light."

That deceptive lightness is what makes Sheen's Aro so effective. We watched New Moon's pivotal "meeting" scene unfold, as Edward and Alice are forced to bring Bella into the Volturi's nest to meet Aro and the others for the first time.

"What a happy surprise! Bella is alive after all," Sheen exclaims, oblivious to the looks of trepidation on the faces of his new guests. He approaches the trio, arms open, reaching out to sniff Bella's "sweet" blood and to "read" Edward's thoughts. Sheen's eyes blink open with discovery.

"You can't read Bella's thoughts," he announces, abruptly. Sheen turns to Stewart, a gleam in his eye. "I'd like to see if you're an exception to my gifts as well. Would you do me the honor?"

Bella (Stewart) hesitates, looking nervously to Edward before offering her hand. After a moment, Sheen lets out an enormous cackle of amusement. Aro cannot "read" Bella, an anomaly that at once delights and perplexes him. "Interesting," he says. "I see nothing. I wonder...let's see if she's immune to all our powers, shall we Jane?"

Of course, "Jane" is not there. Fanning's already gone home for the day, her scenes shot out of sequence. Weitz plays out the "meeting" a few more times, before calling a wrap on the scene with a polite, "Cut. Thank you."

Behind the stage, huddled around a bank of playback screens, author Stephenie Meyer and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg have been watching dailies. They giggle at Sheen's maniacal Aro. They marvel at how gorgeous Fanning looks on the screen. Later, Rosenberg tells us what she thought of the footage.

"I've written a lot of hours of television," she began. "I'm almost always disappointed; not because I don't have great, great directors but because you get in your head what you see, you know? A director can't physically do what's in my head because it's not physically possible."

But when it came to the Volturi scenes we'd just observed, Rosenberg seemed almost surprised. "Oh my God, it's fantastic," she shouted. "The cast is phenomenal!" (Stay tuned for our full posting of our chat with Melissa Rosenberg.)

On set, I got the feeling that the New Moon production was moving along at a faster clip than normal. It made sense, given that Weitz had an unusually tight window in which to film and edit the film, after which the third adaptation, Eclipse, would itself rush into production under director David Slade. So accordingly, the shooting schedule jumped back and forth between entirely unrelated scenes, as we moved directly from the Volturi chamber to the darkened Port Angeles street, where Bella would see visions of Edward trying to save her from imminent danger.

Robert Pattinson stood patiently against a green screen as Weitz rehearsed camera movements to film Bella's hallucinations. A long camera track ran the length of the stage, perhaps to use film speed techniques to create Edward's disorienting "appearance." A remote-controlled camera set on a mini crane moved fluidly to capture Pattinson, murmuring lines of stern warning.

At a nearby computer station, techs called up a previously-filmed scene: Bella on a darkened street, hopping on the back of a motorcycle. The Edward apparition was transposed into the background of the shot; computer generated effects would be added later to enhance the scene. What exactly the effect will look like is still up in the air.

"We are still in the late R&D phases of what Edward looks like when he's hit by sunlight, what the vampires look like when they're hit with sunlight, the diamond effect," Weitz told us by phone. "And also the hallucinatory effect that Bella has when she hears Edward's voice and she imagines him there." (Read our full interview with Chris Weitz here.)

The Edward-as-hallucination is a particularly good solution to the severe (some might say, tragic) lack of Edward in Meyer's source novel. When a distraught Bella finds herself in jeopardy in the book, she merely hears Edward's voice. When it will happen in the film, we'll actually get to see Edward -- an almost necessary fix, considering how Pattinson-less New Moon might be otherwise.

"New Moon is very internal," Rosenberg explained. "There's been a lot of talk about how Edward and the Cullens are not a part of the middle of New Moon, but actually they really are. Certainly, Edward's very much alive in Bella's mind throughout New Moon. As a reader, you feel his presence; he's helping drive that story."

She continued: "It's harder to do on film; you have to somehow find his presence and bring it there without having thought bubbles, constantly. And I think the solution that we found is going to satisfy fans. It's very much in keeping with the tone of the book, so it will be interesting...I think fans will feel pretty satisfied with what we're doing. One, because it's true to the book, and two, because we'll see more Edward! Can't be bad."

As with the first film, certain changes are necessary to fit the medium of film. Rosenberg's philosophy is that as long as the viewer's experience is the same, Meyer's book has been faithfully adapted.

"Things have to move out of an internal place and into an external, visual reality," she began, "so there are many things I changed. But as long as we hit the emotional experience, I think, it will resonate the same way. Twilight was that same thing. There were a lot of things that were in the book that weren't in the movie, but because we hit the emotional stepping stone all the way throughout, you took the same journey that you took with the characters in the book, and that's what's really most important about an adaptation; you have to take your audience on the same emotional journey, take your characters on the same emotional journey, as they do in the book and then everyone will have the same experience."