EXCLUSIVE! Thank Goodness THIS Didn't Happen: 'The Twilight Saga' Was Almost Made Into An Action Series!
Twilight producer Mark Morgan reveals that a different studio nearly bought the rights to Stephenie Meyers’ books — and turned Edward and Bella’s love story into a vampire action flick!
We all agree that the best part of the Twilight Saga is the love story between Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, right? Have we got news for YOU, Twi-hards! Had another studio gotten their hands on Stephenie Meyer’s fabulous collection of teen vampire novels, you would have been seeing way less of your favorite characters, far MORE action…and Bella’s dad, Charlie Swan, would have died!
Twilight producer Mark Morgan gave HollywoodLife.com the exclusive scoop at the LA premiere of Nikki Reed‘s new film, Last Day of Summer, Sept. 22. “I actually found the material originally and then [sold it to MTV] and then sold it to Paramount,” he confided. “Lo and behold, six months later, after we chose a writer [Melissa Rosenberg], we did a draft and [Paramount] put the project in turnaround.”
Mark noted that it was hard finding a buyer for the script — believe it or not, nobody wanted it! “We went shopping to every studio around, but everyone passed,” he told us. “Every studio passed! Finally [Summit] said ‘let’s do it.’ It was a total blessing that Summit [chose to do the movie], because frankly, Paramount would have chosen a different director [over Catherine Hardwicke]. Their rewrite wasn’t exactly like the book.”
So what WOULD you have seen in this parallel Twilight universe? “They wanted to go more with an action movie,” Mark explained. “They had Bella [Kristen Stewart] fighting back. They had her father dying in one of the scripts, actually, and her becoming a vampire in the first movie. There were a lot of weird things that I don’t think they understood at the time, because the books were just becoming popular. By the time [the script] got to Summit, they were smart enough to say ‘You know what? Let’s throw out all the old scripts and let’s start from scratch.”
EXCLUSIVE: RPatz and KStew Are Going to Lose Their Virginities in South America!
We’re not talking little tweaks here and there either, BFFs — Mark says Paramount wanted to change EVERYTHING about the movie you love so much! “[They wanted to change] everything,” he confirmed. “Ironically, I love Paramount, but I do not think they would have hired Catherine, our first director. They would have gone for someone bigger. Boys. More action. I mean, one of their drafts literally had a Korean FBI agent who was hunting and tracking vampires across the coast. There was SWAT in the trees and literally it was like, ‘Red leader, read leader 1’ and the vampires were picking them out of the woods. It would have been a different movie.”
Mark is well aware of what could have happened to Bella, Edward and the Cullen clan — and he’s only too happy that things worked out the way they should have! “[The fans] would have killed us,” he acknowledged.”They would have stoned us.”
Plus, R-Patz and K-Stew may never have fallen in love! Now THAT would have been a tragedy!
Laura Schreffler & Sarah Rose Attman
Also, be sure to check out our vampire face-offs:
- Kristen Stewart vs. Nina Dobrev, Anna Paquin & more — who’s the hottest vampire lover?
- Robert Pattinson vs. Ian Somerhalder & more — which vampire has the sexier style?
- Ian Somerhalder & Nina Dobrev vs. R-Patz & K-Stew — which vampire hook-up is hotter?
- Edward & Bella vs. Damon & Katherine and MORE — what’s the hottest vampire hook-up ever?