I MAY HAVE BEEN BITTEN

If one is going to spend their life in a state with earthquakes, riots, knife wielding ex-football stars and the Bret Michaels, there must be some perks somewhere.  There is of course the great weather, (although, and trust me on this, 90 degree temperatures in October can start to get to a girl from mountain states who just wants to wear wool and boots already!), lots of good restaurants and the opportunity to go to small intimate events like the one I went to last night.  Recently I joined an organization called Women In Film.  They are all about mentoring, educating and supporting, women in ...film.  Page to Screen is a monthly program they host where a book that has been made into a movie is discussed.  You read the book, see the movie, and talk about it with someone involved in that creative process.  Last night Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Twilight, was the guest of honor.  Maybe Stephenie Meyer wasn't available because they were learning glass etching at Homemaking or was she was swamped with scrap booking her red carpet photos with thousand dollar bills.  Or maybe she just lives in Arizona.  In any case there were about thirty of us in a small room with our copies of Twilght, mine brand new from Costco looking pristine, and some others who had gone with their owners to the tub, the doctors office, math class, and little league practice; dog eared and obsessed over.  And Catherine Hardwicke.   She is the world record holder for the biggest box office weekend opening for a female director, ever.  She is interesting looking, kind of a punk rock cowgirl vibe, and has a voice like silk with a slight Texas twang.  She is extremely creative and I am sure a little coo coo.  Following are some tasty bits from her comments:

- She thought Stephenie was very cool and respectful of her job as a filmmaker.  Stephenie liked most of the changes Catherine made in the script that were different from the book.
- When Catherine would reference some movies to Stephenie in conversation, she hadn't seen them.  She doesn't watch rated R movies!  (I loved this, Catherine actually said "not allowed."  She's "not allowed" to watch R movies).
- The original script for Twilight the movie included Bella as a high school track star, FBI agents, an island and jet skiis.  Jet skiis?  Creative Execs....  Catherine put a stop to that madness and made them start over from scratch keeping truer to the real story (about real girls and real vampires).
- Paramount Pictures sold the script because they didn't think people would want to see girls & vampires, and it wouldn't make any money.  Ouch.
- Catherine was terrified about the "sparkle" scene where Edward reveals to Bella why he cannot be seen in the direct sun.  She was afraid it would look goofy and stupid.  Also FYI, making a boy sparkle like that, very expensive.
- Rob (if you know him, I guess you get to call him Rob) was really feeling the pressure of having to live up to Stephenie's incessant insistence that Edward is sooooo hooootttt, to die for.  It's hard to have to be that pretty ALL the time, right y'all?
-   Rob was invited to the final call backs with three other candidates and Kristen who had already been chosen.  There was no money in the budget, so Rob had to get himself there from England, on his own dime.  Catherine likes to do her casting sessions at her house, not at an office.  (That's a stalker story waiting to happen).  After all was said and done, Kristen insisted that it must be Rob, even though at the time he had bad dark bangs, bad teeth and a belly born in a pub.  There was chemistry.   Catherine agreed, and made him go into training straight away (and take a trip to the dentist).   I think that plane ticket paid off.

If you are truly a Twihard (and you know who you are), you may not be thrilled by these details, but there is something about hearing it straight from the horses mouth.  She went on for a couple of hours and I was never bored.  It's unbelievable how much thought goes into every little thing with some Directors.  You can see for yourself in Catherine's book Twilight:  Director's Notebook:  The Story of How We Made the Movie Based on the Novel by Stephenie Meyer.

If I had more energy I would go a little more into detail of the moderator who asked if the "topic of the sexual behaviour between Bella and Edward wasn't a little too naive, kind of brushed over, and not very typical of today's teen."  I thought, dude.  Let a twelve year old be a twelve year old and allow the rest of us the creative space in our own minds to recall the slow dizzy simmer of our own first seductions (however innocent they were) and how crazy and most probably stupid and clumsy they made us. 

At the end of the night I asked Catherine to sign the mini movie poster that came in my book and told her she had a Denver Colorado Mormon Friends of Twight The Movie contingent, considerably made up of my family members.   She smiled and said awesome, way to support our sister Stephenie.