Melissa Rosenberg Talks New Moon Screenplay
Posted on November 17, 2009
Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who has adapted Stephenie Meyer's bestselling novels Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse into screenplays, talked to The L.A. Times about working with author Stephenie Meyer so closely to make sure the author's vision was translated into film, while still having her own stamp on the script.
In the first book, with "Twilight," I don�t think I even met her until I was well into a draft and I was worried about meeting her because she was the 500-pound gorilla, she was the heavyweight. I was really protective of my process. I was afraid. I didn�t know her from Adam, and I was afraid of getting run over and of not being able to create what I wanted to create or in some way have my voice stifled. When I met her, I realized, "Oh, that's not going to happen at all." But she was cautious too. She was looking at me going, "Are you going to butcher my child?" By the time I finished "Twilight," her reaction to it, it was still one of the great moments of my career, having the author say such wonderful things about the script. From that moment she relaxed about can I deliver and I relaxed about inviting her into my process.In case you've been hiding in a cave somewhere, New Moon will be released in every theater on the planet on Friday, November 20.I didn't have a director of "New Moon" until I was finished, so on "New Moon" I became much more involved with her, and with "Eclipse" I was getting her notes on the outline. With "Eclipse," because I was taking some liberties with the storytelling, it was really important to me that I stay true to her mythology, her voice. She gave me notes as far back as the outline and on every draft since. We�re very tight and very much in each other's world.