I now see that Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke was absolutely prescient when she talked about how hard things are for women directors.
In an interview I did with her last month in conjunction with the opening of the spectacularly successful film adaptation of Stephanie Meyers’s teen vampire book, Hardwicke was surprisingly candid about the intense prejudice against females trying to helm major projects in Hollywood.
She’s just been squeezed out of the Twilight series and will not be taking on the first sequel entitled New Moon. The blogosphere is already rife with opinions on what actually happened. Sounds like Summit Pictures prez Eric Feig is faking it when he says the timing wasn’t right and Hardwicke wasn’t available to get the New Moon done fast enough. And Hardwicke, too, in her official statement made similar noises about timing.
Strange that – when I talked to her she was crossing her fingers that the box office would be strong enough to merit a follow-up and that she was totally ready to take up the director’s reins. Well, we know what happened there. The film’s already grossed $140 million, so wtf?
Don’t tell me about all the people who loved the book and hated the movie. You don’t get $140 in three weeks unless fans are going back more than once to see the damn thing. And anyway, the film is perfectly fine for what it is and you can credit Hardwicke’s empathy for her teen characters for that. As for the badmouthing about her being “difficult” go look up the antics of David O. Russell and tell me why he doesn’t get trashed in the same way. And regardless of their on-set behavious, male directors make tons of crappy films and still get gig after gig.
Here’s what I think happened. Twilight made a fortune and I’m guessing Hardwicke asked for the kind of money she deserved. Summit, I imagine, decided that instead of giving Hardwicke her due, they’d “upgrade” its director and find somebody with a bigger name.
And now they can afford it, thanks to her.
If you asked me she was disposed of like a used tissue.
