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First, in 2004, the unpublished manuscript for Twilight was given to producer Greg Mooradian, who brought it to the head of Paramount’s MTV Films division. Mark Lord wrote the original film script, and the story was completely changed. According to Mark on an episode of The Big Hit Show podcast, he was instructed to “put in some more action to advance it more and give something more for the male audience.”
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According to Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, Mark Lord’s original script “literally had Bella on jet skis being chased by the FBI. She was a star athlete. Nothing to do with the book.” Catherine told The Big Hit Show podcast she immediately told executives at Summit that if they were to get the rights and adapt Twilight, “this script has to go in the trash,” and they need to make the film adaptation exactly like the book.
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Director Catherine Hardwicke knew Kristen Stewart was the perfect Bella Swan after seeing her in Into the Wild (2007). However, Kristen was unable to attend auditions for Twilight because she was filming Adventureland (2009). So, Catherine flew to Pennsylvania to meet with Kristen and even brought future Twilight star Jackson Rathbone with her to read scenes.
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Robert Pattinson was first brought into audition after executives looked through photos of the Harry Potter cast to see if there was anyone who hadn’t auditioned that would be right for the role. That’s how they stumbled upon Rob, who played Cedric Digory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).
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Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson’s chemistry read took place at Catherine Hardwicke’s house. Notably, they performed the scene when Bella and Edward kiss for the first time, and Rob was apparently “so into it” that he fell off Catherine’s bed.
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When filming began on Twilight, author Stephenie Meyer gave Robert Pattinson and Catherine Hardwicke an exclusive first look at her manuscript for Midnight Sun, which is Twilight told from Edward’s perspective. Rob told MTV in 2008, “It is very top-secret. And it is like halfway, two-thirds finished. I read that right at the beginning [of filming]. I got a lot of stuff out of that.”
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Twilight was filmed in only 44 days in Oregon. Despite becoming a box office hit, it was filmed like an indie movie, with a small budget, on location, and a short amount of shoot time. The movie was made for just $37 million, and four days before production began, they had to cut $4 million from the budget.
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The budget for Twilight was so limited that they couldn’t afford to use a lot of CGI. Aside from the scene where Edward shows Bella how he sparkles in the sunlight, the Cullens are never shown in the sun because production didn’t have extra funds to spend on CGI to make them sparkle.
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The baseball scene took a week and a half to film instead of the initial four-day estimate. It was shot on location in the Columbia River Gorge in Portland, Oregon. Due to the weather — they filmed during the winter — they had to make sure the cloud cover was consistent throughout filming. If the sun came out or if it rained, they couldn’t film.
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Using “Supermassive Black Hole” by Muse during the baseball scene was a very early idea because author Stephenie Meyer listened to Muse while writing the book. Catherine Hardwicke told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that she originally wanted Muse to do the score for the whole movie, but the timing didn’t work.
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For the moment when James, Laurent, and Victoria meet the Cullens and Bella on the baseball field, a “magic carpet“-like rig was created out of plexiglass and covered with leaves so the trio could glide over the grass and approach the Cullens.
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The first scene they filmed for Twilight was actually one of the hardest: the ballet studio fight between Edward, James, and Bella. Due to the limited budget, a lot of old school tricks were used to get this scene right instead of using VFX. For example, because of all the mirrors, Catherine Hardwicke and the camera crew had to simply hide and film the scene so they weren’t visible.
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Also, because of the limited budget, Edward biting into James’ neck and spitting out part of his skin was not created using VFX or makeup. Instead, the crew used melted string cheese for James’ skin, and Robert Pattinson would simply spit it onto the floor — hopefully out of frame — while filming.
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Another big scene that was all done without special effects was when Edward saves Bella in the school parking lot. A soft, flexible door was created so that Edward’s hand would make an impact when he stopped the van from crushing Bella.
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The recreation of the Twilight book cover in the cafeteria scene was also done practically and without CGI. A clear string was attached to the apple, and Robert Pattinson had to catch it perfectly to recreate the cover. It took thirteen takes to get it right.
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The forest where Edward reveals to Bella that he’s a vampire was filmed right behind the restaurant in the film and near a parking lot. This was actually a backup location as the first location was covered in snow and they couldn’t shoot there.
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While most of Twilight was filmed on location in Portland, some reshoots took place in Los Angeles. For example, the iconic meadow moment between Edward and Bella after she finds out he’s a vampire was actually filmed on a golf course in Griffith Park.
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The Cullens were given a specific color palette for their wardrobe. Catherine Hardwicke said they decided to have the colors they wore resemble “arctic wolves,” so they were dressed in silver, white, and grey. Then, when “Bella fell more in love with Edward,” she began to wear more of those colors, too.
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After Atlantic Records executive Livia Trotella gifted Paramore’s Hayley Williams a copy of Twilight, she became obsessed. Eventually, Hayley even went to the editing room and watched an early cut of the movie before writing “Decode” and “I Caught Myself.”
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“Flightless Bird, American Mouth” by Iron & Wine was included in the movie because Kristen Stewart was listening to the song and suggested playing it while she and Robert Pattinson filmed Bella and Edward’s dance at prom. Iron & Wine singer Samuel Ervin Beam recalled to Billboard, “I guess it was just a thing where they heard it so many times in that scene, they couldn’t imagine it [being] something else.”
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And finally, at the time, the cast was all relatively unknown or up-and-coming actors, so Catherine Hardwicke wanted to make sure they got the recognition they deserved. So, she came up with the idea of the black-and-white credits where the cast’s names were prominent so audiences would learn who these actors were.
What was your favorite Twilight fact? Or do you have another one that wasn’t included that you love? Tell us everything in the comments below!
