MELISSA ROSENBERG ON ‘NEW MOON’, ‘ECLIPSE’, AND ‘BREAKING DAWN’

Film.com has a great new interview with the talented Melissa Rosenberg, who has penned scripts for Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. In this new interview, Melissa talks about the differences in writing for Dexter and then Twilight; how she would describe directors Catherine Hardwicke, Chris Weitz, and David Slade; what MPAA rating she believes Breaking Dawn will have, and much more.

LL: Can you give me one sentence on each director you’ve worked with, what their main strength is, for The Twilight Saga? MR: Catherine Hardwicke, she brought a very intimate feel. She had a very indie sensibility, she brought those characters to the screen in a very intimate way.
Chris Weitz did sweeping drama. Beautiful visually, and very classic epic storytelling.
David Slade, so far (the process isn’t done yet), brings a level of pacing and intensity.
LL:How much input do you get on the next director? Do they ask you about certain names? Or do they come to you with who you’re working with?
MR: It’s definitely not up to me. I’ve seen lists and weighed in, and they always welcome input, which is lovely, but ultimately it’s their decision and they’ll do what they do and I’ll work with whomever they choose. I had no knowledge of the first three directors and it worked. Generally speaking they [the list] are people I haven’t worked with before.
LL: Can you talk about Taylor Lautner’s growth into a leading man? It’s seems like he’s really come a long way from Twilight.
MR: Taylor is unusual because he easily could have lost that part. He was a day player in the first movie, and there were all these discussions about whether he’d be coming back. He took it upon himself to transform himself into a leading man. He made himself a leading man. That was nobody but him, he made that for himself.
Taylor Lautner is a rare breed. He wanted something and he made it happen. It easily could have gone the other way, if he doesn’t do anything maybe it doesn’t happen for him. Incredibly driven. That character is such a physical character that it had to be a transformation.
LL: Having read Breaking Dawn, where things get ratcheted up a notch, do you still go for that PG-13 rating?
MR: Oh yeah, absolutely. That’s your audience. In this series you don’t sacrifice anything. There are some movies that wouldn’t play at PG-13, like The Hangover, but this is just not one of them for me. Again, if you’re capturing character, emotion, and emotional journey, you’re OK.

Check out the full interview with Melissa here.