Catherine Hardwicke Says ‘Twilight’ TV Show Should Keep Vampire Romance ‘More Grounded’
“Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke hopes the upcoming TV series adaptation sinks its teeth into the forbidden romance at the heart of the teen vampire saga.
Hardwicke directed the first film released in 2008 and starring Kristen Stewart as high schooler Bella and Robert Pattinson as undead bloodsucker Edward. The director departed from the franchise after the initial film’s mixed reception and was replaced by Chris Weitz. Lionsgate recently announced a TV series adaptation that was in initial development over a decade since the film series ended in 2012.
“I think it’s exciting,” Hardwicke said Movie Web of the next show. “I think we see that it’s an enduring story that people continue to engage with. You know, the world of TikTok loves it, generations of the internet, everyone keeps finding it. I was talking to a girl the other day, she was born the year we shot the first ‘Twilight’ movie, and she was very passionate about it.”
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Hardwicke continued, “So I think, if anything, in the first one, we were able to keep it a little more grounded, just a little bit. You felt like there was some kind of reality, and you really felt the connection between Bella and Edward. So that might be a fun way to think about it, but the chemistry between Edward and Bella is so important as well.
“Twilight” author Stephanie Meyer is expected to be attached to the TV series, and film franchise producers Wyck Godfrey and Erik Feig will executive produce. Sinead Daly is attached to write the show.
Hardwicke told IndieWire earlier this year that she’s skeptical that author Meyer will sign multiple iterations of the novels.
“I don’t know if Stephenie (Meyer) will accept, that’s the only thing,” Hardwicke said, noting that more “Twilight” content “would be fun.”
“There were a million things like, ‘Can we do a TV series?’ There were a million funny parodies,” said the “Mafia Mamma” director. “To see a whole new crowd of people playing those parts, that could be pretty cool. Why not? Make a twist on it! Let’s do “Twilight” in space, that would be fun. Or set it in the past. Let’s go back to the Wild West! We could do that Oregon Trail or something. The Oregon Trail wasn’t hard enough! You’re dying of dysentery, or you might be bitten by a vampire.
Hardwicke also pondered the creative decision to show Edward (Pattinson) biting Bella (Stewart) on screen, which never appeared in the first book.
“I’m like, ‘No, we’ll see.’ We will go visual. We’re going to make the things that are mental in the books, like the treetop scene, physical,” she said. “Any possibility for an action sequence where you can express character through action, I love it. Let’s make it physical if we can.
The director of “Prisoner’s Daughter” concluded: “We have all these stupid things that people think: ‘A woman can’t direct the action. A woman doesn’t understand visual effects.” All these annoying things, no matter how many times you’re like, “OK, well, watch Kathryn Bigelow or watch this or watch this.” My first jobs were in visual effects when I arrived in Los Angeles, so I understand them very well. It’s a bit annoying. You’re told, “This really isn’t the kind of movie for you.” Even after having ‘Twilight’, I was told the same sort of thing.