Melissa Rosenberg Discusses Breaking Dawn at Emmy’s

MTV  was able catch up with Melissa Rosenberg on the red carpet at the 2010 Emmy Awards to talk about Breaking Dawn!

Melissa Rosenberg talks to MTV about the script:

“They’re coming along,” Rosenberg said. “I just flew in last night from working with ['Dawn' director] Bill Condon, prepping the scripts. It’s a lot of work, I’m exhausted,” she added. Rosenberg also revealed that she’s between 75 and 80 percent finished with the two screenplays. “But we’re intent on making them the best scripts yet.”

Regarding the biggest challenge she faces in finishing “Dawn,” parts 1 and 2, Rosenberg said it’s the climactic “battle scene” — in which the two opposing vampire groups face off in dramatic fashion at the end of the book — that’s proving to be her biggest obstacle, rather than the infamous “birth scene”.

“The final battle sequence is a big challenge because it lasts 25 pages,” Rosenberg told us. “It’s almost an entire three-act story in and of itself. You have to track (kept all in one setting) hundreds of characters. It’s an enormous challenge to choreograph on the page and for Bill to choreograph on the stage.”

Rosenberg went on to say that perfecting that scene is her “next big hurdle.”

Read more at MTV here.

MTV: Melissa Rosenberg Talks Breaking Dawn

Melissa Rosenberg talked to MTV about the challenge of getting all of the new vampires into Breaking Dawn and other issues.

“”I ask people to really weigh in with what are their favorite scenes in the books, what’s important to them,” Rosenberg said. “And there generally seems to be a consensus about one scene or another. It’s really helpful for me and I’ll interact with them sometimes.”

She added that the fan interaction has helped her to squash any out-of-control Internet-generated rumors about her “Dawn” scripts. “At one point, [the fans] were upset because they had gotten the impression that I was choosing not to put the birthing scene in the script, and I was able to go online and say, ‘I don’t know where that idea came from, but of course the birthing scene is going to be in.’ ” Another Net-generated rumor, according to Rosenberg, is that she won’t include the Book of Jacob in the final film. “I don’t know where that idea came from, but that is not true,” she confirmed. “We are going to see Jacob’s perspective equally, so don’t worry.”

See more at MTV

PopSugar Interviews Melissa Rosenberg

Check out this new interview with Melissa Rosenberg from Pop Sugar regarding her vision for Breaking Dawn.

PopSugar: How did you feel about the decision to split Breaking Dawn into two movies?
Melissa Rosenberg: Relief, actually, because it was going to be quite a challenge to condense such a large book into one movie. That’s always the challenge with all of these and, more so, Breaking Dawn. Having a little more room to breathe is nice . . . on the other hand, there’s also the challenge of making sure there’s enough to fill two movies.

PS: We’ve heard there are some scenes you want to avoid showing on screen in Breaking Dawn. For example, Bella giving birth. Can you tell us why?
MR: That was a misquote. The childbirth — all the scenes, I feel — should be on screen. I think perhaps what I was referring to was, would we actually see Edward’s teeth through the placenta? I don’t think so. I don’t think we need to see that, and if someone needs to see that, I think they should take a look at that. [Laughs.] I believe it will be implied, but I don’t think we’ll see teeth in the placenta.

To read the rest of the interview about her craziest fan experience, her favorite scenes to write, and more, just read more.

PS: What responsibility do you feel toward the fans? Are they on your mind during the writing process?
MR: The responsibility I feel to the fans? Well, there’s one: making them happy, of course. I want people to enjoy the movie and not feel that I killed their favorite novel! But what I’ve realized is, you can’t satisfy all the people. But the real weight that I feel is a very heavy responsibility, knowing that a lot of women and young girls are seeing this, and watching to make sure that what’s portrayed in the film is that Bella’s a strong female role model. That the messages they’re getting are positive ones.

PS: What’s the craziest or most surprising fan reaction you’ve experienced?
MR: You can’t call it crazy, but crazy wonderful. I just came back from Paris. I was there [for a press junket] with some of the actors: Daniel Cudmore, Edi Gathegi, Michael Welch, and Alex Meraz. At the end, there was this closing ceremony and we were told there was a surprise for us, and they led us out on the stage . . . and the entire audience was sort of standing in this darkened theater, almost as if in prayer. It was very odd. And then after a moment, Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” starts up, and they break into a dance they’ve been choreographing for three days. This wonderful, very unified dance, and it was amazing. We were stunned. A thousand pairs of hands all raised to the beat at the same time — it’s a powerful experience . . . I wondered, could that have happened anywhere else but in France? Would American audiences have been too cool?

PS: How involved is Stephenie Meyer in the writing process and what is your relationship with her like?
MR: Stephenie is very involved. My relationship with her has only gotten better with every movie. When I met her and began to engage, I had no reason to be protective. I found her to be extremely collaborative and a tremendous resource. So I began to engage her more and that happened more on New Moon and even more in Eclipse . . . She weighs in on every draft of the outline, every draft of the script. She’s on set. She’s very involved.

PS: What is one of your favorite scenes from the books or films? Is there one you’ve especially enjoyed writing or look forward to writing?
MR: There are a number. I think seeing Bella as a vampire and her adjusting to her powers and embracing them, those are all really fun scenes to write. Particularly when you picture Kristen Stewart playing her, and the way she’s embodied Bella as a sort of awkward, fidgety persona. When she turns into a vampire, all of that goes away.

Source

MakingOf Exclusive With David Slade, Wyck Godfrey, and Melissa Rosenberg

MakingOf has exclusive interviews with ‘Eclipse’ director David Slade, producer Wyck Godfrey and and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, each discussing their favorite scene from the film!

Creation Entertainment Ads More Stars To LA Twilight Convention

Creation Entertainment has added even more talent to the  Twilight LA Convention. 

This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. Joining Rob Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner will the Cullens: Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed, elizabeth Reaser, and Ashley Greene.  Also fimlmakers  David Slade, Melissa Rosenberg and Wyck Godfrey, bad vampires Bryce Dallas Howard and Xavier Samuel, members of the Wolfpack Chaske Spencer, Julia Jones, and Alex Meraz.

Seattle Times: Melissa Rosenberg Q&A

Melissa Rosenberg spoke with the Seattle Times about working on the Twilight Saga.

Q: What was the adaptation process like?

A: I’m working with great source material actually. … Probably, the biggest challenge was finding ways … to externalize Bella’s internal experience and make it visual.

Q: What is it that makes Bella relatable? I mean, many girls would kill to have her problem!

A: Here is this everyday girl … clumsy, awkward, socially inept, all these things, yet this extraordinary boy sees what’s extraordinary about her. … All of us has that yearning, that longing, whatever is special about us, to be seen, loved and cherished. She is living out our dreams.

Q: You’ve written a lot about teenagers — how do you tap into that angst-ridden state?

A: I never write for teenagers. … The minute you start trying to capture some sort of jargon or whatever is hip now, you’re already outdated, by the time it hits the screen. … It really is about finding character and emotional truth, rather than something current or edgy.

Q: How was each director in the series different?

A: For Catherine [Hardwicke], we had very little time to work on “Twilight,” I was feeding her pages … and immediately it was a very intense collaboration. With Chris [Weitzon "New Moon"], I’d already finished the second draft before he came on board, so I did a round or two and handed it off to him, and he made changes. … David [Slade] is a very visual director … so with “Eclipse” (due in 2011) I was able to write out specifically some of the sequences per his direction.

Read more here

Melissa Rosenberg Talks Eclipse

Reelz Channel was lucky enough to talk to Twilight Saga screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg about a few Eclipse details.

Melissa Rosenberg on Eclipse

TV’s Hollywood Crush has details from Melissa Rosenberg on a a special cameo by new wave rocker Peter Murphy. Check it out:

“That’s cool, I didn’t know he was playing it,” she said of the scene, remembering it in the script but unaware that Peter had been cast in the role. “That’s one of the great things about ‘Eclipse,’ is that Stephenie [Meyer] goes into some of the backstories of ‘How did the wolves come to be?’ and ‘How did Rosalie come to be?’ and ‘How did Jasper come to be?’”

“I got to actually write those scenes, and have them come alive and explore some backstories,” she explained of her script for the third “Twilight” movie, due in theaters next summer. “[Those flashback scenes] are always, for me, very compelling.”

As Billy explained, Peter was cast as “an old Spanish, sort of unrelated vampire, in a flashback sequence” involving Billy Black (Gil Birmingham) telling the origins of the Quileuete wolves.

“[Peter] is involved in telling the story of how the wolves came to be,” Melissa revealed. “He is one of the provocateurs of the wolves way back when — he sort of starts the whole thing rolling.”

As fans know, much of the tension in the “Twilight Saga” revolves around a careful balance that has kept the vampires and werewolves of Forks living in relative peace for decades — until Bella Swan comes along, that is. Peter’s flashback will detail the evolution of the wolves, and shed further details on how the Quileute and Cullens forged their pact.

Read the entire article here.

FearNet Interview With Melissa Rosenberg

Jen Yamato has this week’s Twilight special up on FearNet and this time it features Twilight Saga screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. Check it out!

There is a common link between the sparkly universe of Twilight and the sociopath exploits of Showtime’s Dexter, and her name is Melissa Rosenberg. The screenwriter and Emmy-nominated television producer has been juggling the two franchises since 2007, which is when she scripted the first Twilight film from Stephenie Meyer’s novel. Following the film’s enormous success, Rosenberg became Summit’s go-to writer for the series, and she’s since written two sequels including this month’s New Moon and next summer’s Eclipse.

FEARnet spoke exclusively with Rosenberg from her home in Los Angeles, where she had recently returned from a whirlwind trip to Rome to unveil new footage for Italian Twilighters. Among other topics, Rosenberg discussed her favorite new scenes and explained how that proposal scene will be split between New Moon and Eclipse — and that, if she were to write Breaking Dawn, the subject matter wouldn’t be a problem.

FEARnet: Summit seems to reward the Italian fans with juicy world-exclusive clips that the rest of us salivate over!

Melissa Rosenberg: They get a lot of clips – they saw a lot of the show! It was good; they were so receptive and wonderful.

Have you seen the final cut of New Moon yet?

I saw an early cut of it, yeah. Some of the special effects weren’t there, stuff like that. But I have to tell you, it’s funny because for writers, and for me – I often will dread a director’s cut. As a writer, you have already seen the movie in your head. And the movie in your head costs a gazillion dollars; you can’t actually make the movie in your head, but you’ve seen it. And so, a director’s cut is almost always a disappointment because it’s not what you’ve seen in your head. It can be a major adjustment, it’s not what’s in my head but this one’s different, but as good.

When I saw Chris’s cut, about ten minutes into the movie I started smiling. I thought to myself, I get to put my name on this. It was just so thrilling. It’s really good. I have to tell you, in all sincerity, it’s really good.

Fans want to know: Did the proposal scene make it into New Moon?

The proposal comes into the end of New Moon, and that is the first proposal. Absolutely in Eclipse, the proposal when they’re on the bed, yes — to me, that was a quintessential scene from the book. When Edward gets on his knees, with his mother’s ring, and she says yes — that was one of the most romantic scenes that Stephenie wrote in all four books.

Read more HERE

Eclipse Going to Be Dark

E! Online chatted with The Twilight Saga screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg who mentioned the dark turn that Eclipse will take in the film franchise.

To find out how dark Eclipse will be, we’ll have to wait until the movie actually comes out.

But Twi-screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg says there’s absolutely no doubt the third flick in the vampire franchise is taking a darker turn.

And she credits the storyline and director David Slade for that…

“David has a darker sensibility, so it clicks,” Rosenberg said. “The story has a slightly darker tone. I mean, it goes into a full-out battle, so it is darker in the nature of what it is. David was the perfect director for it.”

Rosenberg’s comments came just a day after Justin Chon, who plays Eric Yorkie in the Twi-movies, told me Eclipse is “gravitating toward more of a dark kind of moody film.”

But not to worry, Rosenberg said, Eclipse won’t be unrecognizable. “They have the continuity of having the same writers and same actors, but the directors put their own stamp on it,” she said. “They’ll be similar, but very different.”

Source

Will Breaking Dawn Make it to the Big Screen?

In a new article over at E! Online, Mark Malkin reports that he as exclusive information concerning Breaking Dawn straight from a Summit Representative -

While there’s been no official announcement that all systems are go for a fourth Twilight flick, a rep for Summit Entertainment promises that Eclipse will not be the last we see of Robert Pattinson & company…

“The fans should rest assured the we’re working with Stephenie Meyer to bring Breaking Dawn to the big screen,” the rep said. “As in all creative processes, things take time. We want to make sure we get it right.”

And as Twilight fans know, that probably means softening the more hard-core aspects of Breaking Dawn.

“Our fans are in the PG age range, and I don’t feel a big necessity to see violence and to see gore,” Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg told us in late April.

Gore or not, Kristen Stewart probably said it best when we chatted with her in March.

“We all really hope there is going to be a number four,” she said at the time. “I’m pretty confident that the fans aren’t going to…lose interest. The only case that a fourth one wouldn’t be made is if all of a sudden people stopped caring, and I really don’t think that’s going to happen.”

[Photo Source: TwiCrack!]

Rachelle’s Final Scenes in New Moon Revealed

 

MTV News had a chance to sit down with New Moon screenwriter, Melissa Rosenberg. She had no problem giving the deets on one of Victoria’s (Rachelle Lefevre) final scenes in New Moon -

 New series director Chris Weitz, however, gave Rosenberg permission to get away from Bella’s point of view a few times — most notably in a scene where we’ll get a glimpse of the evil vampire’s road trip. “I was able to explore what Victoria was up to,” Rosenberg revealed. “And at one point, we cut away to Victoria driving really fast in a car.”

When any of us are driving a long way, we might swing into a 7-Eleven and grab a Gatorade, some Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or a Slim Jim. Victoria, however, prefers human flesh.

“She took a snack with her,” laughed Rosenberg, making reference to Victoria’s latest victim. “And she’s reminiscing about her days with James. I loved writing that scene.”

You can read the rest of the interview over at MTV.

Video Interviews From Comic Con 2009

Collider Interview with Melissa Rosenberg

Collider Interview With Chris Weitz

Collider Interview With Ashley Greene

 

MTV Interview With Jamie Campbell-Bower

MTV Interview With Kristen Stewart

Hollywood.com – New Interviews from Comic Con

Check out this new interview from Hollywood.com!

We were lucky enough to chat with New Moon director Chris Weitz, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg and star Ashley Greene during New Moon’s Comic-Con takeover. They had a lot to share about onscreen chemistry, creating the wolves, and Taylor Lautner’s resemblance to a certain Greek god.  

Chris, what were the challenges of adapting a Twilight book?
Weitz: In terms of the visuals, just sort of combining a sense of, I mean the last film I did [The Golden Compass] was set in a parallel universe, so we could reinvent the wheel. This one’s not only set in a very specific place, and in some ways a very workaday place, but also a place that had already been established in the previous film. And then to take it to flights of fantasy, the Volturi. Really, to be honest, its hiring someone like David Brisbin who is a genius production designer and Javier Aguirresarobe the D.P. who shot things in such a beautiful way. We were able to take a world that had already been established and put it in a setting that is just incredibly rich, and I think it’s quite beautiful.

We know the characters are close to people’s hearts, but Kristen and Robert have become true superstars, what do you think is the secret of their appeal?
Rosenberg: Personally for me, it’s how genuine they both are. They’re both very authentic people; that comes across on the screen.

Greene: They have great chemistry.

Rosenberg: They’re chemistry is incredible together, I mean visually as well. I think that sets them apart.

Check out the full interview HERE

Melissa Rosenberg Says Eclipse Script Hardest to Write

There’s a new interview with Eclipse screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg from the set of New Moon in Vancouver and she admits that the script for Eclipse was the most difficult one to write–

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.

Read the interview HERE

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