I Genuinely Can't Watch "Twilight" The Same Way Again After Reading These 21 Facts

He told The Big Hit Show, "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."

MTV and Paramount eventually lost the rights to Twilight, and Summit Entertainment ultimately got the rights for the film adaptation.

According to The Wrap, following the massive success of Twilight, there was an "internal 'witch hunt' [at Paramount] trying to pinpoint who was responsible for letting the project go."

Twilight production executive Gillian Bohrer told The Big Hit Show, "It was sort of exciting to us that somebody like Catherine, who had done such kind of grounded, realistic portrayals of adolescence, saw something in the book that really spoke to her."

She continued, saying, "She came in with an annotated copy of Twilight and a big visual presentation, and she'd put together a whole lookbook on how she saw Twilight. And from that point on, there was never really a serious conversation of any other filmmaker."

Eventually, Melissa Rosenberg was brought on to write the Twilight script. She went on to write all five Twilight movies. 

Speaking to The Big Hit Show podcast, Melissa said, "Well, it's interesting that the first writer on it was a man, and it led to jet skis and shotguns in order to deal with the challenge of making Bella proactive. And then, when you put women on it, we go in the direction of character."

In an interview with The Big Hit Show podcast, Catherine recalled just having Kristen and Jackson run around a local park and just hang out after they spent some time reading scenes together. 

She said, "Kristen and Jackson are just playing by the end. I'm like, 'She's so good. She's perfect for this. She doesn't over act, she doesn't push it. She's got that kind of sexual repression. All the kind of things needed.' And I really felt strongly about Kristen."

Summit Entertainment executive Erik Feig told The Big Hit Show podcast that Rob sent in an audition tape after they asked him to audition. He said, "I remember I was watching it at home...And my wife walked by. And I said, 'Watch this for a second.' I said, 'I really like him. Watch him. What do you think?' And she watches, and she's like, 'Yeah, really good.' And I said, 'Good looking?' And she said, 'Uh, yeah.' And I said, 'Yeah, but do you think the average girl in America is going to think he's good-looking?' And she said, 'Yeah. Yeah, totally.'"

Erik said he recalled telling his wife they would likely clean up Rob's hair a little bit and make it less "scraggly," and she told him no.

Catherine told The Big Hit Show podcast, "Rob and Kristen auditioned on my bed, the kissing scene, Rob was so into it he fell off the bed. I'm like, 'Dude, calm down.' And I'm in there filming with my little video camera, whatever."

After this audition, author Stephenie Meyer signed off on Rob and Kristen portraying Edward and Bella.

In 2008, Stephenie's manuscript for Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the internet. In a note to fans on her website, Stephenie said she didn't know how she would continue working on the book, writing, "I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely."

The book was ultimately published in 2020.

In 2018, Catherine Hardwicke told The Hollywood Reporter, "Nobody knew what it was going to be, what it was. I didn't have committees giving me notes; I wasn't watched by big-time producers. I didn't have the pressure of hitting blockbuster marks. We didn't even have a test screening, so it was really made like an indie film."

Catherine Hardwicke told Business Insider, "We were filming in the winter because that's when you have the most overcast. We couldn't have bright sun because then the vampires would have to sparkle. We didn't want them to be sparkling all the time, we couldn't afford that. CGI sparkling cost a lot of money."

Catherine Hardwicke recalled to Business Insider, "The weather did not cooperate. And you can't have pouring rain [because of] all the makeup drips; the hair. They just don't look like the cool vampires in the pouring rain."

Catherine Hardwicke told Entertainment Weekly, "I can't imagine [the baseball scene] with any other song. I'm sure most people when they hear that song, that [scene] is the first thing they think about."

Alongside the rig for this moment, wires had to be rigged on location so that while the Cullens played baseball, they could be pulled on wires both up in the air — like when Emmett and Edward slam into each other — or simply just so they could be pulled so they would appear to be running faster. 

Catherine told Entertainment Weekly, "Me and the camera person would [accidentally] be in the shot and we didn’t have a VFX budget on that film so we had to find a way around that."

Catherine Hardwicke told Entertainment Weekly that the ballet scene was one of the best examples of the cast and crew "trying every trick in the book" to film this movie with a limited budget. 

First, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart filmed the moment where Edward grabs Bella, and close-ups were filmed to get the moment where they see each other. Then, the van was driven up and put in the perfect location where Rob could then bounce his hand off of it. 

In a behind-the-scenes featurette for the film, Catherine Hardwicke spoke about including the moment, saying, "I do kind of like it because if you know the book cover you got it for, like, one eighth of a second in there."

In the book, this scene takes place inside Edward's car, but Catherine Hardwicke wanted it to feel bigger on screen, so she moved it outside. 

On an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Catherine spoke about filming the moment, saying, "I want to feel how dizzy you would feel if you were coming to this realization. We're moving around and helping you feel like this is just crazy ... I was kind of going with that out of body experience." 

The cast and crew added wildflowers, moss, and more to make the meadow on the golf course come to life.

One reason it was not filmed on location in Portland was that the movie was filmed during the winter, and the cold and unpredictable weather made it challenging. 

While speaking to the Ghetto Film School, Catherine added, "You saw [Bella's] own personal color palette change." 

She also said "nobody ever" wore any bright colors like yellow, orange, or red. The only red/orange seen in the movie was for Bella's signature pickup truck. 

Livia told Billboard, "Paramore was chosen because it was the epicenter — the key demographic that would be drawn to the movie. Paramore was almost like a voice to the reader of this book as well because we saw an immediate reaction. They were on the brink. They weren’t broken by any strategy. That song, that movie — all of that just catapulted them."

Twilight music supervisor Alex Patsavas, Livia Trotella, Catherine Hardwicke, and other Summit executives worked extensively with bands that they wanted to be featured on the Twilight soundtrack.

Twilight music supervisor Alex Patsavas also told Billboard, "Kristen knew what would best evoke the feeling of that scene. I think she came up with that possibly before the movie even shot. I’m not actually sure of that, but by the time we were in post, that song was already living in the cut."

Ultimately, the Twilight soundtrack spent 48 consecutive weeks on the Billboard charts. 

Catherine told Entertainment Weekly, "I thought, 'Let me give them their due so people will know.' Everybody had their footage with their name on it."

The footage used at the beginning of the end credits also included some deleted scenes that hadn't been used in the movie. Speaking to the footage used, Catherine added, "I'd see Kristen and Rob just laying there, and I’d say to the cameraman, 'It's not a scene or anything, but just walk up and let’s film it. Let’s just get beautiful moments.' That’s what’s really fun in a movie is if you can have two seconds on a set where you’re not just running around and have a little moment to make something magical or create something special."