Here is a great little interview from Allen Coulter which brings insight into his first impressions and part of the process in agreeing to take Rob on for Remember Me.   I’ve placed the main flesh of the article in this post so those who have not seen the movie can AVOID clicking on the link provided [MAJOR spoiler in  main article that could ruin the potency of the entire film].  Love your work Allen.

Pattinson was freshly returned from Mexico and astonished because he had been besieged “by 50 girls at the airport,” future Twi-hards who knew him from pre-release publicity. “Little did he know that this was not even the tip of the tip of the iceberg,” Coulter says, laughing. “Nor did we.”

After lunch, Coulter told producer Nicholas Osborne: “I don’t know why but I have the instinct that this guy could do it.” It would also clinch the production deal because Summit would commit to the $16 million budget. “Clearly,” Coulter says now, “that’s not lost on a director. That certainly gets your attention. But, if we didn’t think he was right, we would have said no.”

The “yes” came, Coulter recalls, “because he seemed to understand the role. He had the kind of scruffy attractiveness we needed and a hidden intensity. He was kind of secretive in a way that I thought was kind of interesting, given who his character is and how he’s conflicted about his father. So we said: ‘Let’s just take a flier!’

“It was after that I saw Twilight and had to admit that, if I had seen it before, just because it is so radically different, I might have hesitated.”

The Twilight films, Coulter says, are like silent movies and Pattinson is like 1920s star Rudolf Valentino. Pattinson was also about to go viral. “It might have given me pause because someone that famous brings a certain amount of baggage.”

One problem now might be typecasting. “There will be people who cannot accept that this young man is doing something different from Twilight,” Coulter says. “Or they may have an attitude about Twilight and about his fame, about his face being on the cover of magazines, and that may influence how they see the movie.

“That is something that, in my opinion, the movie will outlive and, at that point, people will simply see it as a young man in a role. And, in my opinion, I think he is perfect for the role.”

Remember Me, which co-stars Robert Pattinson and Emile de Ravin along with a rogues gallery of great character actors, is a romantic tragedy — not a romantic comedy. That already makes it different from most Hollywood movies, especially with its melancholic mood.

“I didn’t think of it as daring,” says American director Allen Coulter. “But it’s not a mood that most Americans necessarily sign up for. I just thought it was true to the story.”

Indeed, Americans did not sign up. Remember Me earned $55 million worldwide, just $19 million of that in North America despite the star power of Twilight star Pattinson (he was cast before Twilight was released and became famous during the Remember Me shoot). Remember Me, like other challenging films that look at youth romance in an intelligent way, is now looking for its audience on DVD.

Click here to read the rest of the article. You’ve been warned re spoilers.

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