Melissa Rosenberg, the writer who adapted The Twilight Saga: New Moon for the big screen, sent EW her first-person account of the movie’s the star-studded premiere earlier this week.
MELISSA ROSENBERG: The family started coming to town a couple days before The Night. Excitement has been high, lots of discussions about wardrobe, and some last-minute shoe and shirt shopping. Finally, everyone’s outfit is decided upon.
The big day arrives. Around noon, the house starts filling with the friends and family who are joining me for the premiere. Garen Tolkin, fab make up and hair artist, arrives to glam me up. Her assistant, Lydia Foster, is on hand to attend to my sisters, girlfriends, mother… she’s kept very busy.
Stylist April Steiner arrives with the jeweler whose company is named Diamond In The Rough. They present me with the most stunning, intricately designed bracelets, earrings, and cocktail rings for me to borrow. If I borrow them, I’m guaranteed to be nervous the entire night about losing them. But they’re so gorgeous, I accept the trade-off.
Everyone’s having fun primping. It’s a lot more fun to dress up when you have professionals there to make sure you don’t take any wrong steps. Meanwhile, I’m tucked away in my bathroom getting the final touches. I come out occasionally to make sure that, amid the fun, everyone’s moving toward readiness.
Nate & Al deli supplies platters of sandwiches that Chef Laurie Worthy keeps freshly plated. We make a serious dent in what seemed like a ton of food. I try to wolf something down, but it’s all too exciting to eat.
My husband Lev BURSTS into the house a half hour before limo time, having driven all the way from San Dimas to Beverly Hills in record time. The New Moon scene of Alice driving in Italy about describes his journey home. He was finishing his last day directing a TV pilot. He’s keyed up, caffeinated, and bolts into the shower. I can’t believe he made it in time and am sooooo glad he’s with us when we leave!
The limo arrives to pick us up. It seats 10. Our driver sees this huge group of people heading toward his car and asks nervously how many we are. I say 11. We’re actually 12 but we start shoving ourselves in there before he can stop us. Inside, it’s a game of Twister. Everyone’s on top of one another. Laughter is abundant.
As we near the theater, we see the crowd of fans thickening the closer we get. When we arrive, everyone in the car is a little stunned, overwhelmed, and thrilled by the madness just outside the window. We collect our collective nerve and pile out of the limo in clown-car fashion.
I hit the red carpet with my dashing Lev. And I talk to everyone. I mean…everyone. I’m in front of every journalist there. It takes me 90 minutes to walk the equivalent of two city blocks. And I’m talking the whole time. I try to visit with the fans as much as I can, signing posters, books, and whatever else they brought. I love these folks: so passionate, warm and personable. Unfortunately, I keep getting pulled away to do more press. Still, it’s all incredibly exhilarating.
Highlights on the red carpet include talking with Access and Extra, and my favorites, Carrie Bell from Entertainment Weekly, and Larry Carroll with MTV.
Super highlight: Lev & I meet Mary Murphy and Cat Deeley of So You Think You Can Dance! We’re both huge huge fans of their show. Both ladies couldn’t possibly be warmer. Mary even joins me for an interview and pretends to be thrilled to meet me! Love those gals.
In the theater I nearly fall down the aisle several times — I’ve not yet perfected the art of walking down a sloping aisle while wearing ridiculously high heels. Lev tries to keep me steady.
The excitement in the theater is tangible. It’s like a reunion too, seeing people I haven’t seen in a while. I finally find Stephenie [Meyer] who looks stunning in Carolina Herrera — so great to see her radiant smile. It’s been far too long since I’ve seen her. We see Jamie Campbell Bower, who we spent time with in Rome, Michael Sheen, the gorgeous Edi Gathegi, all the incredibly talented New Moon producers.
They finally get us all in our seats. I take off my shoes (trade secrets!). The movie begins. It seems like a pretty friendly crowd, so I’m hopeful for a good reaction — most of them are either married to, related to, friends with, or associates of someone connected to the movie. They want the movie to succeed. They laugh and gasp and applaud in all the right places. It’s so gratifying to see one’s work playing well to an audience!
I’m relieved, delighted, happy. But I can’t get my shoes back on!
The clowns pile back into the limo, our numbers having grown to 13. Fortunately, the party is only a few blocks away. We enter to a forest-like environment with wonderfully atmospheric music wafting through.
We’re starving so we beeline to our table and get some of the delicious food. We hide out there for a while, then go to mill about. I meet Anna Kendrick, surprisingly, for the first time. She’s funny and lovely and wearing a fabulously fun dress. I get to talk more in-depth with Stephenie, but she’s surrounded by her family, me by mine — we need a lunch together! We see several other New Moon actor friends (love Charlie Bewley!), but never cross paths with our leads. It’s wonderful to see everyone, and we enjoy the party, but it’s been a hell of a day. We clown it back into the limo and spend the ride home packed in like sardines, recounting every great moment of the best night ever.
Comments (1-15) of 22 Add your comment
Wow! I dont care.. and im entitled to my own opinion so dont say if that if i dont care why did i bother to comment.
Mellisa, the dialogue is atrocious!
i completely agree. in fact, i believe that for most people who are fans for the book but hate the movies, the reason for the dislike is because the screenwriting is so bad. but apparently you can’t tell her anything because nothing has changed.
Thats true and since Eclipse is already done, lets just hope it improved.
Since the article said that Mellisa sent this blog to ew, it should be a possibilty that she is reading this.
absolutely agree with you. after the first film. I thought they woupd change the script writer – it was obvious that she just can’t cope with the task. and i also thought that it couldn’t be worse but i shouldn’t have doubted Melissa’s abilities. it looks like she is doing it on purpose to make Stephenie’s wonderful book look like it’s something dumb and absolutely stupid. too bad she was working on Eclipse as well. i don’t even want to watch it because i’m simply afraid i won’t like the book that much after that. thanks Melissa, you’re absolutely terrible. I hope you retire soon and don’t spoil any other films
Congratulations! Happy to hear I’m not the only one who takes my shoes off in the theatre. :p
Congrats, and ouch! These comments are harsh. Consider the source material…
Melissa, I walked away from both movies feeling like you didn’t know the characters. Either that or you went on some horrid ego trip and twisted them into what you’d like them to be.
End of NM was an excellent example. Edward would NEVER have proposed unless he was on one knee. Really.
As far as I can remember Edward did propose in new Moon and he was not not on bended knee, it was not until Eclipse that he proposes properly on bended knee with a ring!
My big issue is Aro … why is he so surprised that Bella would sacrifice her life for Edward? Vampires tend to think of humans as happy meals with legs (yes it’s a Whedonism but it still applies to all except the Cullens). Why would he care?
And where was Bella’s realization that Edward truly loved her and that he was only trying to leave to protect her?
I realize this comment may endure quite a bit of bashing but I am not of the opinion that Rosenberg’s screenwriting skills are somehow inferior. I actually enjoy the twilight saga films almost the same as the books. Also, I too was a bit peeved that Edward proposed in New Moon but let’s consider the practicality of that scene. Producers cannot decide whether to produce Breaking Dawn so that means the much awaited wedding scene may well take place in Eclipse. In the case that this does indeed happen, it was immensely sensible to introduce the notion of a marriage between the two lovebirds, don’t you think?
I think the marriage proposal was included because Edward’s request that Bella marry him before he turns her into a vampire is at the book’s ending. He proposes to her more formally (ring, bended knee, etc.) in Eclipse. As a fan, I would have been disappointed if the New Moon proposal had been left out.
The scene most important to me to see was where Edward explains himself and then after the voting, then proposes marriage knowing that this will force Bella to wait till she is turned. It was split up in a bunch of different scenes which I didn’t care for, but at least they were in there.
Yeah, Edward does propose for the 1st time in NM. I thought the way they did it was clever. I enjoyed “Twilight”, but I thought NM was a big improvement. It was closer to the book, they used more dialogue straight out of the book, and I thought they paced it well.
Sorry, Melissa, but one thing that I don’t like about these movies is the dialouge…Twilight was CRAPPY and you deserve part of the blame because the dialouge was horrrible.
oved it. You understood Stephenie’s intent and ran with it. Thanks for giving so much to Charlie and the other adults, it made it so much more than just a teen movie. Can’t wait to see the rest. Also…Love Dexter!!!
I am so enamored by this beautiful story… From Twilight to Breaking Dawn, and even the teaser, Midnight Sun, but I am disappointed, once again, with the film adaptation. So much dialogue is left out altogether, leaving out much needed info. for those who haven’t read the novels…. I thought the picture, itself, was breathtaking, kudos to Chris Weitz! However, playing devil’s advocate here, I just had so much build-up after having seen “Twilight” more times than I can count, reading all the books 4 times, and felt my bubble burst as the ending credits ran…. Love to all the cast and crew, though…. I will be returning for “Eclipse”!
Haven’t read the books. My twenty year old niece has though. Six times. She used to be somewhere between semi-literate and illiterate. Not anymore though. Stephanie Meyers is an Angel with literacy wings. She is the answer to a foolish uncle’s prayers.
I love that you blogged about your experience. The limo driver must have been shocked lol.
Thanks for doing such a great job with NM. All of the crucial parts were there and you made it easy for people who didn’t read the books (like my husband) to understand and appreciate all of the conflicts and resolutions.
Well done. Looking forward to Eclipse.
Melissa Rosenberg, You have completely butchered SM’s books!! Your dialogue sucks, the conflicts are terrible, you are going to completely ruin my favoite book, Eclipse. You don’t understand or get the characters at all. I think you should start writing children’s books since the kids don’t really care about the shotty dialogue and read the books for the pictures. That seems to be more your pace. Face it, your writing is terrible. Your a fraud!!!
I wish there was some way to contac Rosenberg, she is the worst writer I have ever seen. She is incapable of anything romantic. She has had nothing but bad reviews on new moon and twilight. Summit isn’t very smart either or they would get rid of her. She stinks.