I just got this press release from Summit:
SUMMIT BEGINS SEARCH FOR NEW MOON DIRECTOR
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.”
This is all the info I have. The most up-to-date news will be at the Lexicon.
59 Responses
im disappointed catherine wont be directing..she did a pretty good job! and im sorry….but this guys credits r a bit weird… the golden compass tats not very realted to twilight….and American Pie even less! i just think catherine understood the concept and the story of twilight because of her experience directing other teen films like 13. it sucks tat shes not gonna direct new moon!=/
I agree with Laura so much. I starting reading these books since the first one came out. Before anyone even knew what Twilight was about. I thought the movie was horrible. Kristen Stewart makes for an awful Bella. If you’ve seen any of her previous movies, well she’s quite manly. Tom-boy. Special effects – poor. Edward was so unbelievably creepy, it frightened me. I thought the only decent actor in that movie was the guy who played Charlie. They made the whole plot seem stupid. They hardly explained anything. If you wouldn’t of read that book you wouldn’t had known what was going on. All though I thought the movie could have been done A LOT better, I just don’t think Twilight is a novel that should have been brought to the theater. It’s the type of book that everyone has their own version of, so it’ll never be spot on, if you read the books before the movie. I’m sure everyone that saw the movie then read that books are extremely satisfied.
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The new director Chris Weitz is pretty great. I am anticipating New Moon- I adored Twilight, but with a new director, ( A GOOD new director ), I think New Moon will be really great. Hopefully it will meet my expectations. (:
hey…i really liked her.!y will they change her????but i wish new moon would be still great
The only way I can see comparing this franchise to Harry Potter is to say this: the actors have already been cast, and I’d rather not watch another movie than have to watch one with different actors portraying the characters we’ve already come to love on the big screen. If they’re going to go through with Breaking Dawn, which they hopefully will, and if they break into two movies as has been suggested, they don’t have eons of time to get out the movies. It’s even harder in this case because we’re working with characters that don’t age, so you can’t let the actors age too much if you want to stay true to the story. I’m sure they’ll be able to get someone great because of the past success. I’m sure they’ll stick with the storyline, because all the actors are already invested and have read the books and will give their input now as well. I can’t wait to see it!
i completely agree with yoko! and, may i say, i believe the director should read all the books first before messing with plot and story line. idk if catherine did or not, or wat she was allowed and wasn’t allowed. but thats just how i feel.