It’s been more than a decade since the last Twilight movie came out featuring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart as the romantic vampire duo. However, no matter the time gap, Stephanie Meyer’s best-selling sensation always brings forth good memories of teenage years in blue hues, Pacific Northwest landscapes, and a super gorgeous cast.
Thus, recalling the Twilight saga, here’s an important takeaway from the cinematic existence. Apparently, the Romeo and Juliet-like supernatural love story between Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson’s character, was inches close to turning into a super confusing storyline. Surprisingly, Bella Swan almost became Buffy The Vampire Slayer on steroids, until last-minute changes.
Twilight Saga’s Weird Turn Of Events During Its Development
The blue hues, gorgeous cast, with sparkly vampires, humongous werewolves, and a teenage chick, are all that Twilight saga ever needed, to turn into a cult classic for generations. But surprisingly, Stephanie Meyer’s supernatural love story about a girl falling in love with a vampire almost got turned into a slasher movie, with action-packed scenes.
Kid you not, when Twilight was in its early developmental period, the stormy-skied, romantic story filled with adrenaline rush, was way out of vision, despite the original novel. Instead, the plot almost got turned into a love story full of shotguns and jet skis and dead bodies falling from rafters. Well, surprisingly the film crew tried turning the Twilight saga into an action franchise.
Sitting for an interview with the Spotify original, The Big Hit Show, screenwriter Mark Lord revealed his chaotic idea of turning Stephanie Meyer’s teenage love story into an action thriller. This happened way before Catherine Hardwicke and Melissa Rosenberg came aboard to shape the first and best Twilight movie. Delving into the rise of the billion-dollar franchise, Lord discussed his take on the story.
Kristen Stewart’s Character Almost Became A Vampire Slayer
When the Twilight series was initially in the developmental phase, several screenwriters were hired to deliver the best script adaptation for Stephanie Meyer’s novel. However, none of them were at par, until Catherine Hardwicke and Melissa Rosenberg took over the process and skimmed through the scripts to toss away nearly five scripts into the trash. One of them came from Mark Lord.
“What I can recall of my pitch was, I don’t really care for vampire stories, wasn’t my jam. But Romeo and Juliet, I love… So I went in and I was like, “Look, I don’t love vampires, but I love telling the story about these characters.” And so that’s why they hired me.”
Discussing why he initiated the action genre, Lord stated, “they thought they were going to lose the male audience with too much of a romance”. Thus, in order to retain male viewership, Mark Lord birthed an action-packed version of Twilight, where Kristen Stewart‘s Bella Swan almost turned into Buffy The Vampire Slayer on steroids.
“I want that girl to shoot some vampires, I want her to blow some s— away… It was the best we could put together for what they wanted. They were happy with it and then they exploded… there were some pretty hostile and angry people that wanted to make sure that we did not make this film.”
Thus, eventually with time, as Catherine Hardwicke got involved, she made sure Mark Lord’s as well as the other’s scripts never saw the light of day. Hardwicke told Lord, “first of all, this script has to go in the trash. No good. You’ve got to make it like the book”. Therefore, sticking to the novel, Hardwicke and Rosenberg ditched the ridiculous action-packed script and retained the essence of Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan.
Watch all Twilight films on Peacock.
Source: The Big Hit Show
