'Twilight' Countdown: Melissa Rosenberg defends 'Breaking Dawn'

7 more days ...

There's no question that “Twilight” fans were divided on Stephenie Meyer’s series-ending finale, “Breaking Dawn.” But the author can take comfort in knowing that should the remaining books be turned into movies, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg is in her corner.

In my interview with Rosenberg, one of the driving forces behind Showtime's darkly comic "Dexter," she goes to bat for Meyer, reveals which actor came closest to the character she had envisioned while adapting "Twilight" and talks up Robert Pattinson’s take on the brooding Edward.

As a writer yourself, what did you think of “Breaking Dawn”? Fans were pretty divided.

I was utterly compelled by it, first of all. I understand why there's uproar, but I respect Stephenie for having made the choices she did. She easily could have played it very safe. She could have had the series go on for another eight novels, but she took a risk. And she blew it out! She just completely went wild. I just think that that's such bold storytelling. She turns the series upside down.

Here's the thing: If you're playing it safe, you're not going to offend any of the fans. If you take a risk, you risk losing your entire audience, you risk destroying your entire series. We deal with that on "Dexter" all the time. Every time you take a risk, you have a 50-50 chance of choosing wrong. We've all seen series take that risk and fall flat on their asses and everyone cries, "What have you done to my series?" And then you're the most hated person. But I think Stephenie was true to herself and her story and that's what is important.

Tell me how you got involved with the movie.

I had written "Step Up" for Summit Entertainment. They gave me a call and told me about the book and told me it had quite the fan following. But it was the characters that compelled me to take the job. And actually, more than that, it was what Stephenie did with the vampire genre, which is one of the most well-trodden genres we have. She reinvented the mythology in a fresh way, and that's really quite the feat. I'm a big fan of the genre. Plus, I was really intrigued by Bella, who is really the everygirl brought into this new world. She was someone I wanted to see more of and develop.

Did you know how big that fan following was at the time?

When I signed on, I had gotten a little bit of a sense of it. I researched it online and realized it was pretty extensive, then I stopped looking. I didn't want to know! I knew it would get overwhelming.

I’d heard that Stephanie sent you a “manifesto” of things that had to be in your adaptation of “Twilight.” Can you talk about what it said?

She did send one, yes. It's understandable after what happened the first time around.

But there was nothing on that manifesto that I disagreed with. It was very much like, "You can't kill characters who don't die in the book"; "if you kill Jacob, you don't have the sequel." It said the characters had to have the same powers and gifts they do in the book. Basically the manifesto said to adapt the book. Since that was my intention, to adapt it as opposed to use it as a jumping-off place, it was easy to adhere to.

'Twilight' Countdown: Peter Facinelli says he's on Team Edward

9 more days...

I sat down with Peter Facinelli at the tail end of Saturday's "Twilight" smorgasbord. Needless to say, he was a lot more relaxed than his co-stars, who were being hounded from all sides.

The actor, who plays the magnanimous Dr. Carlisle, revealed why "New Moon" bothered him, why it's important for him to interact with "Twilight" fans, and, yes, what he thinks of the new "90210," starring his wife, Jennie Garth.

Have you had any crazy fan experience yet?

I’ve had really nice experiences. A group of TwilightMOMs came to the set and were so sweet, always bringing presents. They brought this big basket of food and cookies -- they are the best fans to have. They’re feeding me, I’m happy!

How are you all handling the pressure?

I feel for Robert. He didn’t sign up for this knowing what it would become. The fan base has grown even since when we filmed it. There were underground fans when we started. I remember we’d all go to their web sites and they all said, ‘All these actors are wrong for the roles. Facinelli doesn’t have blonde hair -- what are they thinking?’

For Rob, he just signed up thinking it’d be a cool little movie. All of a sudden he’s like the James Dean of today. That’s a lot put on a guy’s shoulders, but hopefully he’ll be OK. He’s kind of nerve racked. He doesn’t like to leave his apartment a lot. But I think it’ll be good. This will bring good things to him.

Talk about how you got cast in the movie.

My agent called me up and asked if I wanted to do a vampire movie. I was thinking blood and guts, something in the horror genre, so I said no. Then they said that Catherine Hardwicke was directing and that it was based on a really good novel. So I read the book and I loved it. I loved the love story set in this world of vampires, but more than that, I liked that it's about vampires exploring humanity rather than just being a vampire.

So I went and auditioned for Catherine and thought I did great -- but I didn’t get it. They wanted an older actor. Carlisle is young in the book, but visually I was told they wanted his character to look a lot older than the kids. But that fell through and they came back to me.

Which of the books is your favorite?

I’m still in the middle of ‘Breaking Dawn.’ [My wife] Jennie stole it from me. She kept lugging it everywhere. I finally told her to just finish it and then give it back. So I ended up moving on to ‘The Host,’ which I completely enjoyed and loved.

I like ‘Eclipse’ a lot. It felt like it got into a lot of different storylines and there was a lot of action. The second one, ‘New Moon,’ was hard for me because I’m so Team Edward that it kind of bothered me that she was off with Jacob. I felt cheated on, which was weird. (Laughs)

'Twilight' Countdown: Check out Kellan Lutz in Hinder's music video

Still 10 more days...

But today brings a bonus post. Hinder just released a music video for the band's new single, "Without You." It features Kellan Lutz, who plays "Twilight" tough guy Emmett, a hot-headed, bad-for-you boyfriend. Click the image below to watch the video:

Kind of scary, isn't he? He also plays an equally dispicable jock on "90210." Does the bad boy thing suit him? Or do you prefer him as the Cullens' lovable enforcer Emmett? Leave your thoughts about his performance -- and the song -- in the comments below.

And don't forget to check out our exclusive "Twilight" Countdown interviews:

Robert Pattinson (Part 1, 2 and 3)
Kristen Stewart
Catherine Hardwicke (Part 1 and 2)
Edi Gathegi
Taylor Lautner

Stay tuned for more!

-- Denise Martin

'Twilight' Countdown: Kristen Stewart talks about becoming Bella

10 days left ...

While Robert Pattinson has been the focus of the media frenzy surrounding "Twilight," it's Kristen Stewart, the actress playing 17-year-old Bella, who truly is carrying the film. Bella not only narrates the love story, she also awakens Edward out of his 107-year stupor.

In our one-on-one interview with the actress, she talks about her first impressions of Stephenie Meyer's teen love story, answers for calling some of movie's dialogue corny, and talks about whether she's game to do the sequels.

As the movie’s premiere nears, are you starting to feel pressure from the fans? Are you nervous about what they'll think of your take on Bella?

I’m just as passionate about the book as the fans are, so it’s sort of weird to be addressed like, "Don’t mess this up for us!" Like, wow, I don’t want to mess it up for myself either.

What was your first impression of "Twilight"?

I read a synopsis of the story before I read the script or the book -- and I hated it. I didn't want to be a part of something that presents this really ideological idea of love to so many young people. The synopsis made Bella so weak, as though the only reason she wanted to be with Edward was because he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, because he could take care of her, because she didn’t have to be brave because he could be brave for her.

I don’t know who wrote that synopsis, but that is not the story. Once I read the script, I begged for an audition. The script showed completely different sides to the characters. It fleshed them out. You see that the power balance between Edward and Bella is actually really skewed and more interesting. We have a girl who is insanely naive and has no idea what she’s getting into, yet she trusts herself enough to put stock in what she feels and gives up the power to him. And he’s afraid and tortured and entirely conflicted, whereas she’s not. She becomes the assertive force in the relationship. It's an ambitious thing to try to portray the ultimate love story, and I thought it would be a good project.

You begged for the audition, but in Entertainment Weekly, you said that you had to say some of the “corniest” dialogue you've ever had in a movie. Director Catherine Hardwicke also said if you didn’t feel comfortable saying something, you wouldn’t. She encouraged you to improvise. How much did you change?

We changed everything. There wasn’t one scene we didn’t touch. There were many occasions, really quiet parts of the movie when it’s just Edward and Bella together, where I was like, "Alright, we’re not saying any of the lines. We’re just going to do the whole scene with no lines."

But, at the same time, some of those "corny lines," it was just me being self-conscious. Those wrenching fundamental emotions, I mean how else do you express them? How else do you say, "I love you"? How else do you say, "I want to die for you"? I mean, those are really dramatic lines, but when expressed in that context, there really is no other way to say it. Catherine really helped me with that. She put me in the right position and sort of forced me to go there. You have to be so exposed, so entirely cracked open and vulnerable to able to give like that. So on the page it was really corny, but we worked it out.

Edward and Bella are pretty intense the way you describe them. Was it an intense set?

(Laughs) I take myself way too seriously. Rob and I got in a lot of trouble every day because the studio would say we weren’t smiling enough and we weren’t happy enough and we weren’t having enough fun. But you have to keep in mind what Edward and Bella are going through.

How did the two of you prepare?

Everybody’s talking about the prep like we had so much research to do and so much work to do (laughs). We just wanted to understand the story the best we could because a lot of it is really hard to wrap your head around. There were a lot of things to justify. There was also a lot of vampire mythology to get straight: Our vampires have superpowers. Our vampires don’t breathe, but they can smell.

We wanted to keep the responsiveness between the two of us acute and specific, not just like he could be some guy and I could be some girl. This is excruciating, painful stuff. When Edward touches Bella, it hurts him, it burns him. For her, it’s the opposite, like she vies for it, and when he walks in a room it’s literally magnetic. The physicality of it is entirely different, so getting all of that stuff straight was a lot of our prep time.

We just read the story a lot and sat up nights talking about "Last Tango in Paris" (laughs). We talked about how to find similar dynamics.

'Twilight' Countdown: What you didn't know about Robert Pattinson

11 days left...

At Saturday's "Twilight" extravaganza -- otherwise known as a press junket -- I was able to glean a few more tidbits about Robert Pattinson. Cheers!

Asked what he misses most about his pre-fame life, Rob said he already misses getting to play his music live: "I used to love playing live at open mic nights. It'd be cathartic. I mean it was really key for me," he explained. Now that a few of his performances have been captured on YouTube, however, he's a lot less keen to take the stage. In fact, he's pretty sad about it. "I think, 'Wow, I just lost a huge chunk of my life.' "

How did a once aspiring political speech writer get involved with acting? His dad saw some good-looking girls going to drama club and encouraged his son to sign up.

After having been described as an actor with the agility of "a mountain goat," the actor revealed that shooting the baseball scenes didn't go very well: "I'm not athletic. I just thought, 'I don't want to hit a ball with a stick anyway!' "

He's not sure how, after he had refused to write music for "Twilight," director Catherine Hardwicke got ahold of his songs. But he suspects co-star Nikki Reed snuck it off his laptop, where he keeps some of his music. (Hardwicke later told reporters that she was eventually able to convince him to record the songs and it was only after she showed them to him together with footage from the movie that he agreed to let them be used.)

Vampires are supposed to have perfect teeth; apparently producers didn't think Rob's were good enough. He was asked to use Invisaligns, but, you know, chose not to: "I lied to them for about two months. They were like, 'Wow, That's amazing. You can't even see them!' " Also, it took him 20 minutes to get the vampire contacts in. "My eyes are super sensitive. I was always holding things up because it took forever to get them in."

As part of his tortured take on Edward, Rob "never wanted Edward and Bella to touch." That would be too painful for his character, he said. (Luckily, "Twilight" fans, he didn't get his way.)

Come back tomorrow to read my extensive interview with Kristen Stewart, who reveals why she called her "Twilight" dialogue "corny" in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, whether or not she wants to continue playing Bella in the sequels and why she's passionate about acting.

-- Denise Martin

Related:
Complete 'Twilight' Countdown coverage
Complete 'Twilight' coverage on Hero Complex

Photo: WireImage

'Twilight' Countdown: What do the Cullens talk about?

12 days left...

Before Bella arrived, what did the Cullen teens talk about all day and night? (No sleeping, just endless chatter.) It's the third week of our Caption This! "Twilight" contest -- and it's the most challenging one yet! Tell me what's going on in this picture. Jasper looks miffed. Rosalie's got that apple -- why is she the only one pretending to eat? Who is Emmett checking out? Does Alice smell something funny? Create some fictional dialogue and come back next Saturday to see who comes up with the best scene.

As for last week's winners, both made me laugh out loud ...

"Can i haz sexie vampire, noz?" and "Noz, Alice! Notz the pink satinz! Me no wanz!" -- Kelly

OK, I am biased. Kelly took me literally when I linked to some LOLcats sites last week and told you all to use it as inspiration. What can I say? Once you get into it, there's no going back. Congrats, Kelly.

The runners-up were just as great:

"Dammit. Ed just Rick Rolled me." -- Skyler (Because who don't love a good Rick Roll?)

"I get pregnant with a half-vampire baby in book four?! What the HELL?" -- Niki (Because I admit that I probably looked just like Kristen Stewart above when I got to that part of "Breaking Dawn.")

Once again, nicely done! The rest of the entries are here. The coming days will bring you interviews with Kristen Stewart, Stephenie Meyer, Peter Facinelli and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg.

Also, look for my Q&A with MTV's "Twilight" dude Larry Carroll (who is just the sweetest), a piece about the Twilight Music Girls and a review of the movie's soundtrack.

-- Denise Martin

Related:
Complete 'Twilight' Countdown coverage
Complete 'Twilight' coverage on Hero Complex

Photo: Summit Entertainment

'Twilight' countdown: Robert Pattinson answers even more of your questions

13 days left ...

In the second part of our fan-powered Robert Pattinson interview (Part I is here), Rob talks -- and giggles -- about reading his fan mail (yup, he reads a lot of it), that crazy trip to Mexico, playing Salvador Dali in "Little Ashes" and what he likes best about himself.

Again, if your question didn't make it this time, I'll be talking to the cast Saturday, and I'll make a final attempt to get some in. I'll also be speaking with Kristen Stewart at length, so any lingering questions for her should go in the comments section below.

Come back Saturday when the winner of this week's Caption This! contest is announced.

Do you read the fan mail?

Yeah. I do that quite a lot actually, because I get batches sent from London. I go through tons and tons of it at a time. I get sent some good stuff. I’ve gotten some really good books. I had this amazing thing made by a fan website, this really amazing bound book with all of these notes inside it. I mean, it must have taken ages to make. I remember thinking, "Why?" (laughs). But, no, it was amazing. Someone sent me a book I’m reading right now, a book of Charles Baudelaire poems. I thought, "Wow, I was going to buy that." That was nice.

Do you have a team that helps you wade through or do you go through it all yourself?

I go through it myself, but I think I might get them censored, because I’m always expecting to get the one thing that says, "I know where you live and I’m going to kill you!" I’m always expecting that to come, but it never seems to arrive. I never get any negative mail, so someone must be censoring them.

What is the scariest thing a fan has done to get your attention?

I haven’t really had any scary moments! I’m just scared of crowds (laughs). I just think people require things of me whenever there’s a screaming crowd, and I always think I won’t be able to provide what they want, so that’s why I look scared all the time (laughs). Mexico was quite scary -– but in a good way. I mean, it’s always kind of amusing because it’s all so new to me.

There was plenty of video of your trip on YouTube.

It’s just funny. Like, "What are you guys on?" It’s funny. We couldn’t get away in the car.

So what happens when you’re trapped? Catherine Hardwicke told me about fans getting up-close-and-personal with you in Italy during the book signing ...

When you’re in a situation that feels like it’s gotten out of control, I find that the more you stress out about it, the worse it would get. The whole thing is just funny. It’s like if you have a whole crowd of people running down the street at you, screaming, if you just stood there and didn’t make any attempt to move away, they’d probably get up to you and go "Ummmmmm." The whole excitement of it is the hunt, isn’t it? I don’t know.

Had you known how huge “Twilight” was going to become, would you still have taken the role?

Yeah, definitely. I think I would have done it differently though. When I went into “Harry Potter,” I knew what the deal was, so I had this level of acceptance in my brain. It’s nice to know the whole situation before you do a part. But I liked doing "Twilight." It’s been a very interesting and bizarre experience for me, the whole thing.

'Twilight' Countdown: Catherine Hardwicke says original script was more like 'Charlie's Angels'

14 days left…

Two weeks and counting. Today I've got Part II of the Countdown's Catherine Hardwicke interview. (Read Part I here if you missed it!)

The director talks about the original "Twilight" script, sets the record straight about Robert Pattinson's music and early reaction to the movie.

What were the major differences in the original “Twilight” script and the one eventually written by Melissa Rosenberg?

The very first thing in the script said that Bella was a track star. She’s obviously not a track star so the first moment you’re like whoa. And then she’s sitting in a diner with James and the bad vampires in the first couple pages. Wow, that doesn’t make sense. And there’s this whole FBI organization that’s tracking these bad vampires, the nomadic vampires, as they go down from Canada to Mexico. I mean, it’s pretty way out. And by the end the FBI is chasing them around on jet skis out in the ocean.

It kind of turned into ‘Charlie’s Angels.’ It was cool enough that when I read it I became curious. I went out and read the book and was like, ‘Whoa boy. Throw the script away and let’s start over.’ Out of fairness to the original writer, he’s a great writer, the book wasn’t out at the time the MTV and Paramount people were developing it. The idea of ‘Twilight’ was only a jumping off point and they did their own thing after that.

What specifically were you most interested in that compelled you to go ahead and get the book?

I was intrigued with the idea of this human girl falling in love with a vampire. And this vampire family seemed very fascinating. Vegetarian vampires –- what does that mean? They’re fighting their true nature and Edward is struggling with his nature and tortured by his feelings. And all the sexual tension was there where you just felt like the closer he got to her the greater chance he would kill her. That’s pretty exciting.

Talk about the love theme for the movie. There seems to be some confusion over Robert Pattinson’s role when it comes to that music ...

Maybe you can help me with that! People are very confused because they think that Rob wrote the love theme for the movie and that we chose not to use it and we used Carter Burwell, the composer, instead. That is actually not what happened. I’ve been wanting to tell someone this.

I asked Robert if he was interested in writing the love theme and he went, ‘Not really. No, that’s not my thing.’ I mean he’s not like an artist that you give an assignment to and he completes the assignment. For Rob, it flows out of him. He’s more of an organic artist. When he feels something that’s when he creates. You can’t tell him, ‘Do this. Do a love theme for Bella that will be used throughout the movie and translates to six different instruments.’ That’s not the way he creates. So, he never wrote a love theme for Bella.

What he did the day we shot the piano for the first time was he sat down and improvised for the hour we filmed. He improvised beautifully. I mean, he’s such a musician. Just beautiful things and melodies, but it wasn’t an intentional theme that could be used in different parts of the movie and developed and orchestrated with the violins and everything. He just let it flow. So the composer, Carter Burwell, did compose this beautiful love theme and that is developed in the early stages, in biology class, and then it keeps growing and goes through different instrumentations, and finally recorded with a full orchestra. When we re-shot the scene, Rob played that love theme on the piano.

What about the songs he recorded for the soundtrack?

We have two of Rob’s actual songs that he did create in the movie. He created them way before “Twilight.” “Never Think” is on the soundtrack. [The bonus song is available when you purchase the disc on iTunes.] They’re both haunting and just beautiful. Fantastic. The fans will not be disappointed for Rob, I don’t think.

'Twilight' Countdown: Robert Pattinson answers your questions

15 days left…

Or should I say: Only 15 days left. This is the home stretch, “Twilight” fans. In celebration, here's Part 1 of our Robert Pattinson fan special. I did my best to cram as many of the questions all of you submitted into the interview, and I must say, he was a pretty good sport....

You guys wanted to know what he put in his hair -- I asked him. You guys wanted to know about filming the love scenes with Kristen -- he revealed that Kristen's got one heck of a dark side!

Of course, I did not get to all of the questions. There were hundreds. But if you don't see it answered here, know that there's still Part 2 coming, and I'll have a chance to ask a few more at the press junket this Saturday, so do stay tuned!

As you can see, he had a serious case of the giggles Tuesday morning:

What goes through your mind when you’re greeted by crowds of screaming fans?

It’s kind of like being in some medieval battle (laughs). I mean I guess that’s the closest analogy, especially after yesterday. A ton of people ran down the street outside the Apple store. I felt like I was literally being charged by Celts (laughs).

How many bodyguards are around you when you do these events?

It depends. I don’t know how many there were yesterday, but there were like NYPD cops everywhere! It was completely crazy. There were four guys just literally carrying me out of the place (laughs). It was quite funny.

Have you seen yourself as “dazzling” Edward in the meadow yet?

No, I haven’t. I don’t watch my stuff. Ever.

Why?

Because it makes me feel like I’ll never want to do a job again (laughs).

Why did you audition for “Twilight”? What did you know about it going in?

I knew a bit about it. I didn’t know much about the book. I went into it thinking it was a vampire film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who does like gritty sort of realistic indie films. If you’re doing a vampire fantasy shot like “Thirteen,” then that would be interesting. That’s why I went into it really, and it ended up being something totally and utterly different.

How so?

It’s very intimate. In “Harry Potter,” there are entire worlds encompassed in it. “Twilight” is so claustrophobic in some ways. The little town of Forks is so small, and the way it’s written is so obsessive. But because it’s so lingering, it takes on this different power, and the whole story becomes this sort of opera, which I didn’t have any idea about when I went in to do it.

Did you and Kristen become friends, and if you did, was it awkward filming the love scenes together?

Yeah, definitely we’re friends. Those things are really, really awkward. Especially because [in the movie] it’s supposed to be so intensely sexual and everything (laughs). You’re like really putting yourself on the line. It’s very embarrassing.

How did you prepare to do it?

The big scene where they try and kiss and he goes crazy, it’s like the climax moment of their relationship. Well, not the climax, but it’s like a pivotal scene in the whole movie. And, actually, a lot of my preparation for the whole character was kind of leading up to that scene.

Kristen was really into Bella being a sadomasochist. ...

Really?!?!

Wait, not a sadomasochist! I mean a masochist (laughs). She was into that whole thing. She’d say, “Yeah, Bella just likes being hurt” (laughs). “Be really rough!”

'Twilight' Countdown: Catherine Hardwicke talks about the meadow and making Robert Pattinson 'dazzle'

16 more days left…

When I asked you guys which scene you were most excited to see, hundreds of your wrote in “The meadow!” -- and told me how lame it was that I didn’t even list it as a choice in the poll.

You were right. It was lame.

So when I spoke with "Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke on Monday, I got her to talk about what she went through to get that pivotal scene right, (in two words: a lot!), how she got Edward (Robert Pattinson) to dazzle in the sun of that meadow, and what moments in the book she had to chop from the movie. (This is the first of a two-part interview. Check back for the second half later this week.)

How did you find the perfect meadow?

That was my misery, I gotta tell you. You are just stabbing the knife into the weak point. That was really hard because on one logistic level, we didn’t have a “Harry Potter”/“Lord of the Rings” budget. On a normal movie you would have built a beautiful meadow on a soundstage, that way you could control the sunlight so that Edward can step into and out of it. But with under $37 million, that was impossible. So, oh my, picture me in the middle of January wearing snow shoes hiking up trails for miles trying to find the perfect meadow in the middle of Oregon, freezing. (It was my first time in snow shoes -- that part was pretty fun.) We finally, after hiking all over and getting stuck in chains and seeing zillions of potential spots, we found a beautiful place.

It wasn’t exactly a meadow. It was by a river. But it was just stunning. We moved the filming of the meadow scene to the end of the schedule so we would have the best possible weather, closest to spring time. And then about two weeks before shooting, we discovered that it was still covered in over 12 feet of snow -- my perfect meadow. You couldn’t even get there, there were fallen trees, logging trucks would have had to clear the place. So at the last minute, even in the middle of filming, we had to find a new location for the meadow. I was so stressed out as you can imagine. Running around shooting all week, freezing and trying to find another place.

Finally, we found an absolutely stunning location ...