#TheHost Interview: Stephenie Meyer on original 'Twilight' script

examiner While promoting the upcoming theatrical release of her other story adaptation, "The Host," Stephenie Meyer issued a few more details on what that original script - which was ditched completely as Melissa Rosenberg and Catherine Hardwicke stepped in for Summit Entertainment's nab of the property.

craveonline CraveOnline: You introduced the movie last night. Did you stay to see The Host with the crowd?
Stephenie Meyer: No, I wanted to but we had an industry dinner thing that I had to put in an appearance at. I wish I could have. I like watching it with the crowd and hearing them react to things. That’s always really exciting. That was my favorite thing about Sundance actually, was sitting in there with a real audience for the first time and hearing people laugh at our jokes. It was like, “Yes!”

Was Sundance the first time you got the chance to see one of your movies with an audience?
No, I’ve been in with the Twilight movies but they don’t have as many jokes so it’s not really the same thing. Actually the last Twilight movie I was very excited to watch people’s reaction to that because we had the surprise twist ending. I wanted to know how they were going to react to it and if they were going to see it coming. Just listening to people [gasp] was really cool.

You started writing the Twilight books not knowing they would be movies, but by the time you wrote The Host did you have a pretty good idea this could be a movie someday?
No, no, because I wrote The Host before Eclipse came out, the book, not the movie. I wrote The Host actually quite a while ago. I think only Twilight was out and at that time it was kind of a one off. We didn’t know that we were doing the whole series. So that felt flukey. “Okay, I had a movie made off one of my books,” and then The Host didn’t feel like something you could make into a movie. I really didn’t think you could do it. I mean, the whole thing happens inside one person’s head. That’s a tricky premise.

By the time of Eclipse you didn’t have movie deals yet? It wasn’t in motion?
I think we were working on them but it wasn’t a for sure thing. I was really protective with the Twilight books because when I first sold the rights, there was a script that was written that was so completely different from the book, you wouldn’t recognize them. Most of the names are changed, but you change Edward and Bella’s names and you could’ve made that movie without paying me a dime because it had nothing to do with mine. That was kind of a wake-up call so I was protective with the others. I wanted to make sure that people were going to make the story and not just take the name and run with it. It took a little while to make some of those deals.

What was that fake wrong Twilight script about?
Oh my gosh, it was vampire CSI. Actually, it would be an interesting movie. It was like the FBI was tracking these vampire migration patterns and there was a speedboat race and Bella had a gun and leather pants. She had night vision goggles. She became a vampire by the end. Charlie died. I mean, it was crazy. It was completely different.

It was the Michael Bay version!
Not as many explosions but definitely closer to that.

I remember you telling me what a difficult role you thought Wanda/Melanie was for an actor and now I get it. Do you think that was harder than describing the most beautiful man imaginable?
Yes, I do. I think Soairse took on a challenge that I haven’t [seen.] Certainly there’s never been equal to that in anything that I’ve done. I can’t think of an equal. I’ve seen multiple personalities but usually you’re only one person at once, so you get to play all these different characters which is one thing. Playing them both at the same time is a whole other things, and to have them actually be two distinct and separate-able individuals is something else, and she made it look so easy. Just like oh yeah, of course, effortless. (..)
The next big book series that’s going to be a movie is 50 Shades of Grey. When you hear that was inspired by Twilight, what’s your reaction to that?

I don’t know, it seems like a pretty loose connection to me. They’re very different, from what I’ve heard. It’s not something that I have read or will read. It’s really not something that affects me at all, but good on her for being successful. That’s awesome, another successful female writer in the world.

Is there a sense of “Is that what you got out of Twilight?”
Now that you mention it, I hadn’t thought about it that way. But you know, there’s a lot of people who wanted a little bit more in that vein. I remember there was a whole thing online about the fade to black in Breaking Dawn. They called it the fade to sad. They had T-shirts.

You also told me last time you’re a little vampired out. Are you also high schooled out?
I was a bit. When we started casting for The Host I had a bit of a hangup with Saoirse’s age in the beginning where just immediately her age was an issue. Like, “What do you think about Saoirse Ronan?” Too young. Because I was looking at actresses in their 30s. I was thinking of aging it up to have that separation, but the bottom line was that we needed the best actress we could have and Saoirse is the best actress so we’re lucky to have her. The age thing at that point in time, I was ready to step away from high school, but she was 18. She’s out of high school.

Well, there are no high schools in the world of The Host.
No, there aren’t. She skipped out which is really sad actually. High school’s horrible but you’d really miss it if you didn’t get that chance, wouldn’t you?

It’s an important building process. Will mermaids have impossible love triangles too?
It’s possible. I imagine that there will always be a little bit of romance because it’s the fun part of the story. It’s the part that makes your heart beat faster.

Is it true the mermaid story has time travel also?
No, no, no, that’s a separate story. Someone asked about different things, the range, and I know that they’re specifically half written in my files, the mermaid story, the time travel story, the ghost story and a couple other things.

I was surprised to notice your first producer credit was only on Breaking Dawn Part 1. What was involved in getting to the point where you could be on as producer too?

Well, I was really doing the same things on Eclipse and a little bit on New Moon where I sort of got involved with each movie a little bit more and a little bit more. So by Breaking Dawn it was sort of an “oh, well, you’ve kind of been doing this for a while. We’ll give you the producer credit” type of thing. But it wasn’t a change in my duties, just my title.

Would you try screenwriting?
I’ve thought about it. I’ve had a couple of ideas that I feel like are better suited to a visual medium than to actually make a book out of them because it’s so much about what you see. I just don’t know if I could write that short. I’d probably write a 400 page script which is completely useless so I don’t know if that will ever happen.

Well, it could be a trilogy.
Maybe. You’d have to come to the point though by the end of the first movie, right?

Would you try television, a series?
That’s something that’s been talked about but I don’t know. That’s a huge expenditure of energy right there. You’ve got to be on top of that. You’ve got to live and breathe a TV show. I just don’t know that I could have the time to devote to it.