Twilight Movie Original Script, Discussed By Its Creators
Twilight Movie Original Script, Discussed By Its CreatorsSkip To Content
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The Original "Twilight" Script Had Bella On Jet Skis And Shooting Vampires, Because Misogyny
"The original script literally had Bella on jet skis being chased by the FBI."
by Natasha Jokic StaffLink
It's apparently been a part of the Twilight lore for a while that the original script of the movie had Bella as a jet ski–riding, vampire-shooting athlete. However, I — a mere idiot with a laptop and internet connection — did not know this. That is, until today.
Summit Entertainment In a new episode of the podcast The Big Hit Show, people involved in the making of the Twilight movie talked about what the first script looked like — and hoo boy, is it bleak.
Summit Entertainment For context, Paramount Pictures' MTV Films originally optioned the film rights to Twilight. Mark Lord, the one who wrote the first script, originally pitched it as a vampiric take on Romeo and Juliet — but, according to Mark, "They wanted to just put in some more action to advance it more and give something more for the male audience. They thought they were going to lose the male audience with too much of a romance."
Summit Entertainment When asked if Bella shot vampires with a shotgun in the first script, Mark said, "Probably, sure, it’s badass." One major departure from Bella's character in the books was that, in Mark's script, she was a runner — and she met Edward while running in the woods. "I wanted to have a strong [female character], as opposed to just mooning over this guy."
Summit Entertainment Why does "strong female character" have to mean "more like a man"? Apparently, the script was "the best we could put together for what they wanted. They were happy with it." However, the new head of production at Paramount said that people didn't want a movie about werewolves — so, long story short, the movie ended up with Summit.
Summit Entertainment To cut the Paramount guys a little bit of slack, the Twilight saga wasn't the international mega-hit we know it as back then. But still! Gillian Bohrer, a creative executive over at Summit, said of the first script, "I remember that there was a boat chase in one scene, I remember that there's a barn that burned down, and I remember that Bella's dad died — and then Bella got turned into a vampire. All that happens in the first story."
Summit Entertainment Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first Twilight movie, echoed Gillian's sentiments and said, "The original script literally had Bella on jet skis being chased by the FBI. She was a star athlete. Nothing to do with the book."
Summit Entertainment "It's interesting that the first writer on it was a man and it led to jet skis and shotguns in order to deal with the challenge of making Bella proactive," Melissa Rosenberg, who ended up writing the actual Twilight script, explained. "And then when you put women on it, we go in the direction of character."
Summit Entertainment Unsurprisingly, Stephanie Meyer herself was not a big fan of the original, gun-toting Bella — and almost decided not to give the rights to another studio. Thankfully, the team at Summit convinced her that the newer version would be closer to the book, and the rest is history.
Summit Entertainment You can listen to the full episode of The Big Hit Show here.
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