Melissa Rosenberg, screenwriter of 'Twilight,' 'New Moon,' 'Eclipse,' describes adaptation process

Melissa Rosenberg, screenwriter of Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, gave an interview recently on MakingOf.com where she talked about her creative process in adapting the scripts from the popular series of novels by Stephenie Meyer. Starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, the second film has just wrapped and the third is in pre-production.

The films have kept Ms. Rosenberg busy. She describes her week as writing five days on the television series, Dexter, and two days on the Twilight scripts, and she's been working without a vacation for many months now. Not that she's complaining. Working for 17 years in the movie and television industry, she knows she has an opportunity that does not come around very often.

In the beginning, writing Twilight, she was protective of her creative process and consulted with Meyer only as needed. As Meyer likewise saw what Rosenberg did with Twilight, the collaboration between the two writers opened up more, until by the third novel, Eclipse, Rosenberg was showing Meyer her outline even as she began the adaptation.

Meyer has shared more of her notes with Rosenberg as well about the mythology of the world she created. This has been helpful, Rosenberg says, because of the books so far, Eclipse has proven to be the most challenging to adapt. Filmmakers plan to open the perspective a bit from the novel so that audiences do not always see the scenes purely from Bella's point-of-view. Having more details about the fantasy world Meyer created that are not even in the books gives filmmakers more authentic material to use in their adaptation.

Ms. Rosenberg says, "Working on the Twilight Saga has been one of the great experiences of my career."

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