Twilight Almost Underwent Some Bizarre Tweaks On The Way To The Screen

As far as vampire movies go, "Twilight" might not be the most popular of the bunch, as the 2008 movie holds a 49% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The series became something of a pop-culture phenomenon as fans of the books by Stephanie Meyer flocked to see the entire saga over the years. The franchise raked in $3.3 billion worldwide (via Cheatsheet) so clearly audiences were much more impressed by the angsty romance between Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and an immortal vampire, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson).

The 2008 film sees Bella slowly fall in love with Edward after moving to the town of Forks, Washington. She uncovers the truth about him — even learning that although vampires can't be killed by sunlight it makes their skin glitter like diamonds, which is why they often hide themselves from the world. But Edward's mysterious nature only makes her more interested in him, although it all gets a little bloody when a roaming vampire clan start killing people in Forks — and turn their attention to the Cullens.

"Twilight" is certainly a product of the mid 2000s, complete with an equally angsty pop-punk soundtrack, but it almost underwent some bizarre tweaks on the way to the screen.

When speaking to The Big Hit Show podcast (via toofab.com) screenwriter Mark Lord revealed that MTV and Paramount asked him to juice the story up with some action because "They thought they were going to lose the male audience with too much of a romance." This was before the first book had been released, so MTV had the opportunity to take "Twilight" in a new direction before audiences really got their fangs into the books. The first script supposedly had "Bella blowing away vampires with a shotgun," with Lord saying, "I want that girl to shoot some vampires, I want her to blow some s— away..."

Fans of the books will know that isn't Bella Swan, at all. But Lord said, "It was the best we could put together for what they wanted." MTV and Paramount eventually dropped "Twilight," but it found a home at Summit Entertainment. Director Catherine Hardwicke came onboard, and was tempted by "Twilight" but she wasn't impressed with Mark Lord's script, saying, "I said, 'First of all, this script has to go in the trash. No good. You've got to make it like the book."

According to Hardwicke, some of the other changes were even more surprising, "The original script literally had Bella on jet skis being chased by the FBI. She was a star athlete, nothing to do with the book." It's a good thing Melissa Rosenberg rewrote the "Twilight" screenplay and paid more attention to the source material.