Catherine Hardwicke Not Directing Next Twilight Film

Posted on December 9, 2008

Catherine Hardwicke will not be directing the Twilight sequel. Variety reports that Hardwicke and Summit both had strong opinions about what to do with New Moon.

Hardwicke told Variety, "I am sorry that due to timing I will not have the opportunity to direct New Moon. 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."

Summit issued a nice statement about how unfortunate it is that scheduling conflicts will keep Catherine from directing, but Nikki Finke says that Summit fired her because they found her "difficult" and "irrational" during filming. They also thought she was terrible at filming action sequences, which there will be many of during the next film. Other rumors say that Summit thought the film was too arty and that they want a director who can give it more mainstream appeal.

Nikki also reports that Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass, About a Boy, American Pie) has been offered the director's chair for the next two films in the series. Twilight had the biggest opening box office numbers for any female director. We certainly don't recall another situation where a film did really well, so the studio immediately turned around and fired the director. But perhaps it's true that the studio's and Catherine's visions (and timetable) for the next film were quite different. No doubt Summit wants the sequel to be released as fast as possible.

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