For me, coming out of television, it’s standard operating procedure for the writers to be the constant and the directors to rotate in and out. It’s actually sort of like an extended television experience, so it feels very natural to me. I’m being absolutely honest here: I’ve had really good luck with these directors. I think Summit just chooses directors really well, at least from a writer’s standpoint. They’re very different, but the one constant has been that they all respect my process and the writing. They’re all very different.
How was Catherine Hardwicke different than Chris Weitz?
With Catherine, we had a very short period to write, so there was a lot of interaction. I was hot off the presses — she’d give me notes and I’d give her pages right back. There was a lot of collaboration. With Chris, the scripts were done when he came on, so I basically handed them off and ran off to the next script while he went off and shot it and did all the production rewrites since he’s a writer as well.
And David Slade?
David is probably the most traditional collaboration in that I finished the script before he came on, and then it was about tailoring it to him. He does a lot of storyboarding, so he would have something completely boarded out — like, I would write the action sequences, he goes and storyboards what he wants to do with it, he comes back, and I adjust. There was a lot of that really fun collaboration. By the time he gets on set, the script is what he’s going to shoot. He has what he needs to shoot.
How much have you been privy to the directors that Summit wants to hire?
I get a few inside tracks, but I’m mostly out of that process. There’s a couple where I was like, “Oh no. God. Don’t choose them.”
"Really? For [movies] 4 and 5, we’re going to get people of that level?"
What did you think when you heard they were looking at Gus Van Sant and Sofia Coppola for Breaking Dawn?
Summit’s a really creative place. They reach out — I mean, they found me. Not that I’m not creative or anything, but they found me in television. They don’t have to get that guy who wrote Iron Man. They had Catherine, they had Anne Fletcher on Step Up… they’ll break new directors or writers according to their own creative tastes. But honestly, when they were talking about Sofia Coppola and Gus Van Sant, I was like, “Really? For [movies] 4 and 5, we’re going to get people of that level?” And then they got Bill Condon, and I was like, “Man, this isn’t going to be just blowing off the last two in the series. They want these to be good. Oh my gosh, I’d better step up!” [Laughs]
And Bill Condon is a writer as well. What kind of situation is it for you as a screenwriter when you’re working with a director who also writes — do they want ownership of the script, too?
You know, it could go either way. I’ve certainly worked in both situations, but the fact that Bill’s a writer, and I think a writer first…his notes have been the kind of notes you get from another writer, which are the best kind of notes. Character, theme, depth, complexity…it’s not just, “Let’s get that action set piece!” He’s really talking about the core of the story. He’s like, “I want you to write these movies.” He doesn’t want to write these movies. Rather than just taking them and doing what he would do, I think he’s really more sensitive than most would be to what I need to do to make these great. He knows exactly how to give that to me. It’s sort of like an actor directing actors — sometimes, they make the best directors. A writer directing a writer could be a disaster — “Oh my God, they took the movie from me” — or it could be absolutely perfect, and so far, it’s been perfect.
You’re in such a unique position as the steward of this series. Have you ever gotten to meet or commiserate with Steve Kloves, who does the same thing for the Harry Potter films?
I would love to meet Steve Kloves!
Send him an email, Melissa!
I keep hoping that I’ll run into him at some Writers Guild thing. To even be considered in the same category…yeah, he’s amazing.
When the first film was coming out, I read an interview with you where you said Eclipse was your favorite of the books, but it would be hard to adapt since Bella was the most passive in it. How do you crack that while still remaining faithful enough that the fans won’t come after you?
They’re coming after me a little bit already! [Laughs]
Do you keep track of that?
I tried. I can’t.
"My husband tries to protect me from it. It doesn’t always work."
So how do you hear about it?
Every once in a while, it seeps through. My husband tries to protect me from it. It doesn’t always work. But you know, it’s subtle changes [in the Eclipse adaptation]. It’s taking scenes where she’s reactive and making her the one who’s driving it. One of the scenes that’s controversial a little bit because it’s in the trailer is this scene in the book where Jacob almost taunts Bella to play hooky and get on his bike and blow off Edward. It’s really Jacob who’s driving that scene in the book, and for me in the movie, the character that the movies have created and that Kristen has embodied, that girl is not going to be taunted into doing something. That girl is driving that scene. If she wants to talk to Jacob and she’s pissed off at Edward, that girl is getting on the back of that bike by her own choosing. That’s a subtle change, but it shifts things. You make these choices throughout and have her be the one driving things, and it doesn’t take much. It doesn’t violate the story.
You’re working now on Breaking Dawn, which will be split into two movies. Do you treat each of those parts like they’re their own film, or like it’s one film split in two?
There’s absolutely a difference. Each one has to be approached as a separate movie, and each story has to stand alone.
How do they feel different to you?
Well, one is Bella as a human — first a newlywed, and then pregnant. It’s about Bella surviving that, but also staying true to her choices. The other one is completely different. The world has totally changed from her. She’s now this strong, unbreakable vampire who finds out that she has some extraordinary gifts. They’re actually really different stories in a lot of ways.
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