LOL

Jacob Aaron Estes (Mean Creek)

Or Ang Lee .

What about Julie Taymor? New Moon could be a musical .

Summit Entertainment has wasted no time moving ahead with the next installment in Stephenie Meyer's bestselling "Twilight" series, "New Moon." But in an unusual move after the successful launch of a franchise that has already generated $138.6 million, the upstart distrib is not bringing director Catherine Hardwicke back to direct the picture. Summit and Hardwicke cite Summit's wish to rush the movie into production as one reason for their split. Summit wants to release the picture, which will demand substantial CGI work, by the end of 2009 or the start of 2010. A former production designer, Hardwicke wanted more prep time.

"Twilight" scripter Melissa Rosenberg handed in a draft of "New Moon" the weekend that "Twilight" opened. Hardwicke wanted more time to work on it; Summit announced it was going ahead with "New Moon" on November 22, with no director attached. Negotiations lasted two weeks before Hardwicke formally passed on the film Saturday.

As word spread through Hollywood agencies that the talks might not result in Hardwicke's return, reports surfaced that Summit was checking out other directors for the "Twilight" franchise while they insisted they were still negotiating with Hardwicke, who delivered the biggest opening weekend ever for a woman. (CAA denies that they were soliciting other directors.) The movie is still going strong as the director and cast promote it overseas; it came in second this weekend with $13.2 million, grossing a total $138.6 million.

The problem that stalled negotiations was that Hardwicke had strong opinions about what to do with the next installment, and so did Summit. The debate was how to focus the adaptation of the second book, which deals more with giant werewolves than vampires, as well as the long depression of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), after her vampire lover (Rob Pattinson) leaves her. One issue was how to get more of teen heartthrob Pattinson into the film. (Rosenberg has figured out a device to achieve this.) But Hardwicke, burned out from her "Twilight" labors, simply wasn't willing to jam this movie with a script that still needed months of development.

"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 Summit production prexy Erik Feig. "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."

Hardwicke has other balls in the air, including two projects in the works with Groundswell Entertainment's Michael London, who produced "Thirteen."

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.

You guys bashing Nikki don’t get it. She is a journalist, a real one. Not the ass-kissing liars that now dominate our media. This column is the most honest information in this town and all of you know it. I’m sure she’d defend any competent woman but this is NEWS!

That said, everyone knows the Twilight set was a mess and Summit execs were overworked and busted their asses to save this film. There are a lot of unsung heroes over there and they should all be proud of themselves.

Because of the state of our business, whenever a woman or a black person gets fired, there will be charges of some kind of “ism.” The truth is male directors act like asses and get rewarded. Catherine’s movie made money and so all things being equal, she should stay. That’s how it works.

However as I said, the Summit team is smart and they should be given the benefit of the doubt if they want a new visionary for the franchise. There are great women in that firm and I doubt if they were against Hardwicke because she’s a woman.

First off, it’s clear that Twilight succeeded in spite of Hardwicke, not because of her. The movie is howlingly bad, and sets feminism back about 30 years in terms of message. I actually found it offensive, and am shocked you didn’t. (Nikki, have you even _seen_ it? No? Then stop speaking for the rest of your gender, thank you very much.)

Secondly, anyone who’s spent any amount of time in Hardwicke’s proximity knows she’s total looney tunes. I mean, completely wacko nuts. It’s beyond bizarre.

Thirdly, if she’d actually made a movie with a fraction of the artistry of the brilliant Julie Taymor (though I thought it was aggressively sexist of you to even bring her up for comparison, Nikki; what the heck was that about?), it’d be an entirely different story. Then again, let’s not forget that Julie’s movies are box office poison, and arguably not even movies, but rather art installations.

Look, Twilight got a shot because of its immense, rabid, pre-existing fan following, but the franchise’s potential will quickly evaporate unless Summit puts a real filmmaker at the helm who can take things up a notch. If they’re smart, they’ll seize this opportunity in a similar way Warners did when they picked the visionary Alfonso Cuaron to succeed the relentlessly mediocre Chris Columbus on Harry Potter.

Bottom line: this isn’t sexism, Hardwicke just isn’t that good a director - and she really is a nutcase.

Concerning what?

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/source-twilight-sequel-offer-out-to-director-chris-weitz/

Chris Weitz to replace Hardwicke? So much for girl power.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/source-twilight-sequel-offer-out-to-director-chris-weitz/

Chris Weitz to replace Hardwicke? So much for girl power.