Before Bill Condon was confirmed as the director of Breaking Dawn, one of the names that was being bandied about for a potential director (along with Gus Van Saant) was Sofia Coppola.  Sofia just sat down with New York Magazine’s Culture Vulture to talk about her vampire love, Breaking Dawn connection, and upcoming work.

“Stephen told me that when you began this movie, Johnny Marco wasn’t the main character.
Yeah, I was writing something else and this character came to mind. I kept thinking about that character and got interested in doing a portrait of this guy.

What was the original project?
It’s sort of embarrassing. After Marie Antoinette, I was thinking, Oh, I feel like it’s time for a vampire movie. So I was writing this vampire story, and then that character came in. It was before Twilight and all that stuff.

Was it kind of a Bret Easton Ellis, vampires-in-Hollywood type of thing?
Oh no, it was set in Europe.

And it just happened to involve a Hollywood star?
Yeah, he came into the story, but it was all set in Europe. And then I was writing the character of the daughter, and I asked my friend’s daughter what books she would be reading, and she was explaining to me the plot of Twilight, and I didn’t know what it was. So that’s why we have the daughter talking about that [in Somewhere].

And then life imitated art, because you were mentioned as a contender to direct the final Twilight installment, Breaking Dawn. Did you approach them, or did they approach you?
They approached me. I had asked [Summit] about something else a while ago, but they approached me about that.

Did you ever seriously consider the gig?
Yeah. Yeah, I talked to them about it. I liked the first story, and I have so many friends’ kids who love it. I think it’s romantic. But yeah, I didn’t end up doing it.”

See the whole story on New York.

Via RPattzNews