Hardwicke, Catherine & Meyer, Stephenie (Twilight)
During this past summer’s Comic Con, intrepid reporter Andrew Kasch braved the wilds of screaming girls to take place in a roundtable chat with “>Twilight author Stephenie Meyer and Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke to get an up close look at making the books a reality.
Dig the results below, and be sure you get your Twilight tickets now!
Q: Coming out of films like Lords of Dogtown, was it a hard transition to get into this world?
Catherine Hardwicke: Oh, I love this world! I mean I fell in love with Stephenie’s book right when I started reading it. I’m like ‘I’m there! I wanna be there, I wanna live it, I wanna see it to just breath and come to life’ so it was easy and a pleasure, yeah.
Q: Did you already know how nuts this whole craze was when you started?
CH: I didn’t know it was going to be THIS crazy! [laughs] I was really surprised. The way they responded to the movie and all this took off online, I was surprised. I know how passionate the fans can get, but that there were so many of them was kind of WOW! It’s so cool that it’s so creative that people are making their own trailers and songs and writing their own material. It’s sort of a creative explosion.
Q: How do you feel about this huge universe taking on a new life with movies?
Stephenie Meyer: It was risky, when we first started being approached about the movie, Twilight [the book] wasn’t even out yet. So this is before it had any fans, before I had any sense of how it’s going to do and my agent told me, “Y’know, they can do anything, they can do anything with this.” And for me it came down to protecting it… We had some close calls, we sort of learned that it could be a bad thing, but then luckily we ended up with Summit and they wanted to do it right, which is amazing.
CH: Yeah, and for me, I read one of those close calls, a draft of another script and they had made Bella like a track star and just totally changed everything…
SM: I liked the night vision goggles… [laughs]
CH: Yea, night vision goggles, jet skis, FBI guys on jet skis too! It was so different from the book that I thought “Man, we gotta get it back to the book” and that was our goal, let’s make it like the book and get all the cool stuff in it.
Q: Stephenie, did you have any part in the casting as well?
SM: Not contractually, but one of the great things about Summit is that they have been very cooperative; they want me to be a part of things so they did let me have some input and if there was a situation where I did want some changes, the actually did listen to me, which was amazing. That was really great of them and the put together such a cast.
Q: Catherine, are you signed on to do the rest of them?
CH: No decisions have been made yet, but it’s all getting figured out. We all hope, we’ve got our fingers crossed.
Q: After “Buffy” and “Angel”, vampires seem to be more popular than ever. What do you think the appeal is?
CH:: Vampires are sexy! They’re not like creepy old zombies, they’re hot!
SM: I’m not the right person to ask about that because I haven’t seen a single episode of “Buffy” and I’ve never read any vampire books. But people ask that a lot. The horror industry is doing great, but most of the monsters in it are disgusting. But vampires are the only ones that are dangerous, but at the same time hot.
CH: I want a vampire to bite my neck!
[both laugh]
Q: What team are you both on?
SM: I’m “Team Switzerland!”
CH: I kinda was more “Team Jacob” before I started work on the movie. But after meeting Rob [Pattison], I kind of converted.
Q: Did you spend much time on the set, and what was it like to see the characters you created come to life?
SM: I did spend some time on the set. So cool, but it was really surreal. The first night I was there, I went to dinner, it was the first time I’d met any of the cast. They came straight from a photo shoot and they were in costumes, and there is nothing in the world like sitting down on a table with a bunch of people who are people you made up. And they looked amazing, I kept trying to call Peter [Facinelli] Carlisle, I was like “No! Peter!” It was really exciting; I don’t think I ate the whole time I was there because I was so keyed up.
Q: How to you react when you see the cover of Entertainment Weekly with the quote “Is she the next J.K. Rowling?”
SM: Y’know, I get that a lot. On one hand, it’s so completely flattering because she’s this generation’s most important author, I think. But at the same time, there’s no real way to compare to that. We’re so different, the only thing we have common is our fans are equally fanatical.
That’s all we have for now, but there are still a few days before Twilight hits theaters so keep your eyes on Dread Central for more! Don’t forget to read our “>Nikki Reed interview and “>Kristen Stewart interview, too!
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