'Breaking Dawn' author Stephenie Meyer discusses her new role as movie producer

Stephenie Meyer has been involved in the adaptation of her Twilight saga books to film from the very beginning. But on The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 and 2, she has taken on an even bigger role – producer.

“With the first part of the movie coming out, it doesn’t feel like an ending yet. It feels like we’re still going, and I’m not quite sure how it will be when we get to the end,” Meyer said.

Even though the Twilight saga films are based on Meyer’s work, Melissa Rosenberg actually wrote the screenplays for all five films. The two worked hand-in-hand to bring Meyer’s books to the big screen. Meyer even says that there were things Rosenberg added in the scripts that she wished she’d thought of for her books.

“To take on these beloved books was quite intimidating. My objective always was that if Stephenie liked it and if Stephenie believed it and approved it – that’s my job, because we’re all just visitors in her universe,” Rosenberg said.

That universe can be expanded in film. The books are written, for the most part, from Bella’s point of view. But one of the advantages of adapting it to film is the opportunity to include other points of view. For example, heroine Bella Swan might hear about something secondhand in the book, but in the movie, the audience sees it as it happens.

“Little by little, each movie, we were able to go a little bit further with that. It’s really liberating to do that,” Rosenberg said.

Meyer says that working on the films hasn’t changed her as a writer and storyteller. Instead, she says it’s given her fodder for it.

“It’s all experiences I’ve never had before – new things and different circumstances. So, I think I’ve grown a lot just from the experience. I’ve jumped a lot of hurdles, but I have a lot of new ones. I like feeling like I’ve grown,” she said.

With all the work she put into The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, her expectations of the film were bound to be high. Did director Bill Condon’s work live up to them? Absolutely, she says.

“For me, it was emotional the first time I saw it. You know, you worry. You see good stuff being filmed. You know it’s there. When a movie makes you forget that, and by halfway through, you’re just enjoying the movie and thinking, ‘Wow; what’s next,” then you know it’s really going to be successful. And I think Bill was very successful,” Meyer said.

Krista Richmond blogs at Killer Film.