Hit Fix got an exclusive with Melissa Rosenberg regarding the writing of the Twilight Saga movies and how involved the directors were/are in the process:
“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.”
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