UPDATE: Summit Entertainment Co-Chairman/CEO Rob Friedman just phoned me to add: “Catherine and Summit have agreed to part ways on the sequel because our visions are different.” The start-up studio’s hastily prepared statement (below) notes: “Summit’s targeted end of 2009 or early 2010 release of the film, New Moon, does not work with Ms. Hardwicke’s required prep time to bring her vision of the film to the big screen.”
EXCLUSIVE: So the rumors are true. I’ve confirmed that Summit Entertainment has rejected Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke from heming the sequel in this big new franchise. No doubt my news will speed up the studio’s announcement, and Summit will surely spin this as all going down amicably along the lines that “she couldn’t fit the film into her time frame”. (Summit does want a ridiculously speeded-up sked for the next installment.) But this terrible news for Hardwicke comes just as she and the Twilight cast are on their European press tour. Tomorrow’s interviews in France will now focus entirely on what, if anything, Catherine did to deserve this treatment.
This also could blow up into a scandal for Summit if it chooses a male director over Hardwicke, whose Twilight easily beat Mimi Leder’s 1998 Deep Impact box office gross as the biggest opener for a female director. That was a record embraced by Hollywood feminists as a sign of growing gal power. [“To think that the people at Summit are sexist is insulting,” an insider there replies to me.] This wasn’t a good weekend for female film directors because Lexi Alexander’s Punisher: War Zone bombed, earning less than half what Hollywood thought it would. As to whether Hardwicke’s career will be damaged by this very public firing is up for grabs because, even though the pic was skewered by critics, it is already a $160M low-cost blockbuster. Summit has started preparing the sequel New Moon, based on Meyer’s second book in the series, and, to contain costs, the studio is considering making third book Eclipse back to back.
The word from inside Summit is that Hardwicke, the acclaimed Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown and The Nativity Story director, “was ‘difficult’ and ‘irrational’ during the making of Twilight,” one insider explains to me. “That doesn’t mean anything when you’re talking about a filmmaker because they all are, but still…” (Joe Roth and Sony kept saying that about Julie Taymor on Across The Universe. Yet she made a cult classic and is now directing Marvel/Sony’s Spider-Man for Broadway.) But an outside source also informs me, “Summit didn’t like her. They’re saying the DP [director of photography] Elliot Davis is the one responsible for the film’s sumptuous visual look, that the editor Nancy Richardson had to save the film in post-production, and Summit thought Hardwicke’s [CAA] agent Beth Swofford was alternately ineffectual and hysterical. It certainly demonstrates, while CAA agents boast of their vast influence, how little clout and muscle they actually have, or are willing to use, to protect their artists.”
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I’m told that the studio has even had quiet talks with other CAA directors for the last week. “And Swofford never told Hardwicke about that and that she was about to get kicked to the gutter,” an insider tells me. “To add insult to injury, Hardwicke can now look forward to being grilled by the press for days on end, in front of the cast, about why she’s getting shit-canned.” Adds another source: “Catherine is the consummate professional so she’s continuing the press tour.”
Here’s Summit’s news release tonight:
Los Angeles, CA, December 7, 2008 – Summit Entertainment and director Catherine Hardwicke jointly announced today that the filmmaker will not be directing the next installment in the newly minted TWILIGHT film franchise. Summit’s targeted end of 2009 or early 2010 release of the film, NEW MOON, does not work with Ms. Hardwicke’s required prep time to bring her vision of the film to the big screen. Thus as has been done before with many successful film franchises, the studio will employ a new director for NEW MOON.
“I am sorry that due to timing I will not have the opportunity to direct NEW MOON,” said Hardwicke. “Directing TWILIGHT has been one of the great experiences of my life, and I am grateful to the fans for their passionate support of the film. I wish everyone at Summit the best with the sequel– it is a great story.”
“Catherine did an incredible job in helping us to launch the TWILIGHT franchise and we thank her for all of her efforts and we very much hope to work with her on future Summit projects,” said Erik Feig, Summit’s President of Production. “We as a studio have a mandate to bring the next installment in the franchise to the big screen in a timely fashion so that fans can get more of Edward, Bella and all of the characters that Stephenie Meyer has created. We are able to pursue an aggressive time frame as we have the luxury of only adapting the novels into screenplays as opposed to having to create a storyline from scratch.”
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- Summit Readying ‘Twilight’ Sequel
Yet another terrible example of the way Hollywood talks about and treats women. Nikki look at what you have written. Catherine made a brilliant film. Summit should be ashamed of themselves for treating her this way and you are a party to her humiliation by writing this piece.
I really liked the movie. I get all that with the effects, that people complain about, but i really think she captured the feeling of the book. And there was a lot of emotion too…
No idea why Hardwicke was even hired for the Twilight job considering it’s not like anything she’s done before. So the talk about the DP being responsible for the movie’s look doesn’t seem like bullshit. But dropping her while she’s out there shilling the movie is a shitty thing to do. No doubt specifics will come out as to what they meant by “specific”.
And Nikki? Why talk about Hardwicke as being a female director and comparing female director grosses? I find that incredibly sexist and I’m surprised it comes from a woman like yourself. Why not compare Hardwicke’s movie’s grosses with that of any director – male or female?
I hope this news is true because Hardwicke was appalling. If it hadnt been for Rob Pattinson I’d never have seen this film.
Hardwicke has had it coming for years. I have heard from producers who have worked with her that she is quite possibly the worst human being they’ve ever had the displeasure of working with. That’s why Wyck Godfrey was brought on to the movie — he somehow was able to tame the beast while she directed their bible loser movie, so Summit paid him to babysit. Why she continues to work amazes me. Tamor is the same but at least she has talent. The sad truth is that there are few working women directors and these two do nothing to make producers want to hire the fairer sex and put them behind the camera. But I hear Darnell Marin, who directed the awesome Cadillac Records, is so talented and talent love working with her. Then of course there’s the obvious double standard. Michael Bay’s an a**hole too but you don’t see him on the unemployment line. Hollywood creeps me out sometimes.
Oh well..! It happens..!
:(
Drama…
The movie is only making money because girls liked the book so much / the boy that plays Edward is “dreamy”. I saw the movie with an open mind and Hardwicke bombed. The acting was unwatchable and the editing was even worse. I’m still not sure why there is hype about here… she ruined Lords of Dogtown and another should-have-been money maker in The Nativity Story.
Nikki have you seen this movie?
Please be right about this. Hardwicke was dire. I adore Pattinson and he deserves better than Hardwicke. He’s awesome as Dali in Little Ashes where he has a good script and brilliant director. Hopefully he’ll have at least a decent director and script for New Moon. I’d ditch Rosenberg the script writer as well. I really hope they just use the bookas an aide memoire and build up Pattinson’s role in New Moon. 2 hours of Stewart’s emotionless face is too much for me.
That really dose not make me to happy. It seems to me that Hollywood is saying that if you end up making a movie and it dose really well in the box office and you are a female, you will end up getting screwed over and fired in the end.
Rosenberg is a great writer. Have you seen Dexter? If I had to guess, I’d think she was hamstrung by Summit not to change the story’s structure, as well as significant dialogue.
If anyone thinks the sucess of Twilight’s opening gross was down to Hardwick’s direction, then they are delusional.
I’m all for celebrating women’s achievement in cinema, but this movie was ridiculous. Just look at that meadow scene – that was the best she could do?
After hearing about the disagreements about budget, this is actually a smart move by Summit. Look what a really talented Darren Aronofsky was able to with The Fountain with the same budget.
The success of Twilight was purely down to its fanbase, NOT Hardwicks direction. Just making this film has really damaged her credentials, regardless of what it made at the box office at opening week.
I think that scene was great, I really liked it… the whole movie was very romantic, so I think is that kind of story that you either buy it or not..
I am very upset to here this. i think Catherine did an amazing job on Twilight and how the hell are they going to find another female director who loves Twilight like she did? No male could ever direct the Twilight series because it was written by a woman from the eyes of a woman. I’m not sexist or feminist, I just think it’s impossible. I am very sad at reading this. I think the real reason why they fired her is because she wanted a bigger budget for New Moon and they wouldn’t give it to her, so they made up a lame ass excuse to get rid of her.
wish they would get rid of the screenwriter too. that script was all kings of awful.
Yeah, I think this article is very sexist, sorry. You shouldn’t have written it. As for Catherine? The main concern I have is that a MALE is going to direct it. I just dont think a guy can really understand what Twilight is about; a woman should direct it.
“The sad truth is that there are few working women directors and these two do nothing to make producers want to hire the fairer sex and put them behind the camera….”
I don’t believe that is true. First, Taymor’s been nominated for an Oscar, and she’s got a singular visual style. A convivial set is great, but “niceness” doesn’t direct great films. And this is a Machiavelli-minded industry.
Second, try and read “Twilight”. It’s crap. Hardwicke had no budget, a silly script adapted from a silly book, two wooden actors, and she turned in a hit. Is it a great film? No. But it’s fine. It’s serviceable. They owed her more than to fire her now. (They should have paid her off after the PR tour wrapped.)
Third, in documentary, many of the marquee filmmakers — like Barbara Kopple, Jessica Yu, and Ondi Timoner, for example — are women. So directorial female talent exists, but these women are either choosing not to participate in the studio narrative filmmaking process, or they are being shut out of it. This leads me to believe that producers do bear part of the blame for the paucity of women directing mainstream narrative films.
what’s all this nonsense about robert pattinson ‘saving’ twilight by imbuing it with some degree of quality? eh???
granted, the guys good looks clearly played a factor in getting the swoony pubescent market to part with their pocket money, but what happened onscreen once he drew the tweenies in through the theater door is largely irrelevant. though i’m amazed he managed even that contribution, given in the poster he looks likes the recently exhumed corpse of a child snatcher.
for twilight itself…. as inexpert and shlocky as i find jk rowling’s writing and prose to be, she at least creates an imaginative world with an appealing story. whereas matronly mayer brings us twilight, which is a duff concept even on page – toothless vampires romancing some sweet valley high emotional albatross – there’s no way you could make a legitimately good movie from that, and hardwicke’s real crime here was getting involved in the first place. you can’t polish a turd, after all.
though if McG can get re-hired for a charlies angels sequel, you have to be concered about what a pain in the arse she must be to work with.
Wow this is the happiest I’ve been since BEFORE the movie. I was so disappointed in the directing of Catherine Hardwicke. Sloppy camera angles and horrible pacing, destroyed would could of been an enjoyable film.
I hope they do go with another female director though, But i am not worried at all in backlash, because Twilight fans will go see the movie even if it was horrible/mediocre/good. So its a no lose, Summit just needs to hold on to thier guns, and stick by it.
oh I so hope this is true!
I don’t know how I feel about this… I feel like a more experienced director might be nice… but need a new script writer too… however, Catherine really did fight the studio to try and stay closer to the book than they had wanted to…
Also I feel like it’s pretty crappy to do this to her (if this is true) while she’s out promoting Twilight for them.
I don’t get why people are trying to make this out as some feminist blow. The movie was a succes DESPITE the direction, not because of it. Seriously, any low rent director could have been plugged in (including any one of the Smallville directors) and the movie wouldn’t have been any worse. A million teenage girls would still consume it over and over again.
That being the case, and with all these stories of her being hard as hell to work with, this is a very sensible move on the studios behalf. Why have a pain in the arse director putting out mediocre crap when you can have a yes-man (or woman) studio schill who could do just as good a job with zero complaints?
NOOOOO!!! I LOVE CATHERINE! HOW COULD THEY DO THAT?!!
Good riddance. I haven’t seen Twilight and don’t plan on it, but Hardwicke came across as both arrogant and ignorant in every interview I have read with her.
She harps on and on about sexism, complaining about why Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson got to direct Spiderman and LOTR, while studio bosses don’t give her any of these big films. News flash: Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson were both widely accomplished and successful directors before they took on those franchises. With Hardwickes dismal reviews for Twilight, I doubt she’s half the director either of them are. Sexism has nothing to do with it.
Second of all, she complained that studio heads dislike how she breaks down on set and cries, but accept male directors having affairs, yelling, being abusive, etc. While none of this is acceptable, a directors job is to guide the production. They cannot be breaking down on set and crying. They are supposed to be in charge. Crying is completely giving up control. It has nothing to do with whether you are a man or woman; that is not acceptable behavior for a director!
do the contracts that the actors signed agree with changing directors?
i’m guessing it doesn’t matter much, ex: harry potter.
New Moon is going to be a whole different game as it relies heavily on visual imagery (giant warewolves, etc). They need someone at the helm who is experienced with working with sfx, etc. That is clearly not Hardwicks strongest area.
let’s be honest. Yes the book is sugary sweet teen romance without much substance. But Hardwicke destroyed whatever spirit pervades through much of Meyer’s work. Stewart and Pattinson had zero chemistry and Stewart was flat the whole movie. Where is the joy of being in love? And the action sequences that could have been gritty and raw instead were cheesy and filled with melodramatic slo-motion. In the world of Bourne and Bond action, Hardwicke fell very short of the bar.
And i understand that they have to make a 100 minute movie, but the pacing was terrible. Sorry Catherine.