Twilight Shifts Direction
Word has finally broken on Catherine Hardwicke being canned by Summit from the next two Twilight movies. Apparently, this has been one of the best-kept secrets in Hollywood over the past couple weeks; one has to wonder whether Hardwicke herself knew this was coming, or if she was too heads-down on the press tour for Twilight to see the oncoming train. While Summit’s official statement is that Hardwicke and Summit are parting ways on the sequels over issues pertaining to Summit’s plan to shoot the sequels back-to-back and have New Moon ready for late 2009, buzz is also swirling around rumors of Hardwicke being difficult to work with, etc. Which, of course, could be equally said to apply to any number of male directors, but so it goes.
If it’s true that Hardwicke was canned solely for being “difficult,” that’s one thing; if the split was more to do with schedule, or even artistic vision for how the series should move forward, that’s another. You can certainly make the argument that Twilight‘s financial success has more to do with the fanbase than the filmmaking, or that the things that did work about the film (its visual look, for instance) are more to do with the vision of the DP than the director. The next film, New Moon, will by its nature have to be very action-heavy, with a lot of special effects in morphing humans to wolves, and those areas were clearly not Hardwicke’s strong suit when it came to Twilight.
And Summit has to know that they need to up the ante, quality-wise, for the sequels. So I’d not be entirely opposed to another director stepping in to direct the next two, but wondering if they’ll go with another female director to appease the fanbase. Twilight is a very femme-centric book series, and it would take a very particular sort of male director to hold onto that center while upping the action and effects. As far as female directors go, only Kathryn Bigelow or perhaps Lexi Alexander come to mind as female directors who have a strong sensibility for action. Any other ideas for good directors to take the series over come to mind?
Bigelow is an inspired choice. Even though she’s been down this vampire path before, she has seasoned chops in camera, editing and working with actors. A real triple threat. Sign her up for two films and let her loose…
…which may be the problem. Bigelow is exactly the kind of talent behind the camera this franchise needs, but based on Summit’s go-go-go schedule, would they let her do her thing?
Either of your suggested choices would probably do a fine job, but I wouldn’t completely rule out a male director. I thought, for example, that Joe Wright did an excellent job of handling “femme-centric material”.
I don’t think we should forget; however, that Twilight was a kind of introduction to the series and given the increased budget would have been higher quality with Catherine Hardwicke at the helm.
Also, let’s remember that Twilight is first and foremost a love story. Not another Underworld, please.