Twilight

[MacGuffin]

Teaser Trailer

Release Date: December 12th, 2008 (wide)

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Sarah Clarke, Peter Facinelli 

Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke

Premise: A teenage girl - Bella - moves to Forks Washington to live with her father when her mother gets remarried. Upon arriving in Forks, Bella learns about a mysterious family of very beautiful people. When she meets one of the 5 children - Edward - she finds herself spinning into a mind boggling tale of one of the deepest and scariest loves. even when she finds out what Edward truly is, she still takes risk after risk so that she can stay with her vampire sweetheart.

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.

[MacGuffin]

Catherine Hardwicke will not direct 'Twilight' sequels
Source: Los Angeles Times

Despite introducing America's most successful new movie franchise, Catherine Hardwicke will not direct the sequels to "Twilight." Summit Entertainment Co-Chairman/CEO Rob Friedman tells Nikki Finke of DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com: "Catherine and Summit have agreed to part ways on the sequel because our visions are different."

Finke reports a source reveals that the studio is "taking 'Twilight' director Catherine Hardwicke off the sequel" because she "was 'difficult' and 'irrational' during the making of 'Twilight.'" The movie received lukewarm reviews — scoring 53 on Metacritic — but it nabbed respectful notices from some major media like the Entertainment Weekly and the Los Angeles Times, it was produced for a modest budget of $40 million and has grossed more than $160 million in several weeks. While most hit films suffer huge attendance plunges after opening weekend, "Twilight" has held on for a third weekend, coming in second place these past few days, reaping $13.2 million. The success of "Twilight" is so spectacular that plans are now under way to shoot the next two installments of Stephenie Meyers' books — "New Moon" and "Eclipse" — back to back in order to save money.

"This terrible news for Hardwicke comes just as she and the 'Twilight' cast (Robert Pattinson, Kristin Stewart) are on their European press tour," Finke adds. "No doubt tomorrow's interviews in France will now focus entirely on what, if anything, Catherine did to deserve this treatment. This also could blow up into a scandal for Summit if it chooses a male director over Hardwicke, whose 'Twilight' easily beat Mimi Leder's 1998 'Deep Impact' box office gross as the biggest opener for a female director."

The Los Angeles Times applauded Catherine Hardwicke's direction of "Twilight": "Neither Laurence Olivier attempting Shakespeare nor Konstantin Stanislavski tackling Chekhov approached their material with the degree of reverence that Hardwicke brings to 'Twilight.' A director whose entire career ('Thirteen,' 'Lords of Dogtown,' even 'The Nativity Story') has been built on the veneration of young adults, Hardwicke has connected so intensely to the Meyer novel that it's hard to imagine anyone else making a better version.

"Hardwicke also was instrumental in casting Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson as the star-crossed Bella and Edward, and those choices were excellent, not only because they're skilled performers but also because they too threw themselves into their parts as if they were Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor doing 'Camille' for George Cukor."

Entertainment Weekly said: "On screen, 'Twilight' is repetitive and a tad sodden, too prosaic to really soar. But Hardwicke stirs this teen pulp to a pleasing simmer." The Philadelphia Inquirer cheered Hardwicke for helming "Twilight" with "savvy humor."

The studio issued the following press notice:

"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 Summit President of Production 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.' "

[MacGuffin]

I haven't read the novels, but I can tell you this was not a worthy adaptation. I felt it lacked capturing the romance that is supposed to be the core of these stories. Among other things, I blame this mostly on the script because the film also relies too much on Bella's voiceover; at times sounding like a book on tape reading. The two leads try their best to create chemistry, but poor dialogue and character modivations prevent that from happening. Kristen Stewart, who I thought stole all scenes she was in in Into The Wild, wasn't given the right elements to be that strong, young woman in love that she should have been. Instead, in one scene in the hospital, she completely goes over the top and comes off as a clingy, obsessive girlfriend. The effects were weak and looked like guys on wires climbing trees. You could just feel that all parts were there to make it a vampire Romeo and Juliet, but seems like the filmmakers didn't want to upset the fans by straying too far from the book.

[Kal]

Also did not read the books, so I'm not sure this was a script problem or an acting problem. Everything is overly exaggerated, on purpose, so the scenes at the beginning when Edward and Bella don't talk but exchange 'Zoolander looks' for half an hour is like a soap opera. I went with zero expectations so no big deal, but I'm curious to see if the change of Director for the sequel had something to do with these things and if the writer demanded it and how will Paul Weltz  continue it. They will also have a much bigger budget to work with, which may also make it worse.

[SiliasRuby]

she completely goes over the top and comes off as a clingy, obsessive girlfriend
[/quote
I like clingy obsessive girls who like love and sex...do you know any mac? let me know...this goes in my catagory too stupid its fantastic...catagory...I'm still drunk...stephen is fantastic.

[Stefen]

^lol. awesome.

[SiliasRuby]

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Stephen King's opinion may drive a stake through the heart of "Twilight" author, Stephenie Meyer.

In an interview with USA Weekend, the bestselling author compared Meyer with J.K. Rowling , the author of the Harry Potter series.

According to Stephen, "Both Rowling and Meyer, they're speaking directly to young people... The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good."

Meeooww!


While Stephen may not be a fan of Stephenie's writing, he understands the appeal of the series.

"People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it's very clear that she's writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It's exciting and it's thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because it's not overtly sexual."

He further explains, "A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that's a shorthand for all the feelings that they're not ready to deal with yet."

[Stefen]

pwnt.

[private witt]

Stephan King may know shitty writing when he sees it, but he sure doesn't know a shitty movie (ie: King's remake of 'The Shining').

[private witt]

I'm glad that nobody here gave a crap about this turd of a teeny bopper vehicle, but I just realized that this chick was the girl from 'Panic Room'.   Somebody give me an obvious award.

[SiliasRuby]

Well, plenty of people gave a crap. Its just no one here cared. They are making another one thats coming out next year. No, you shouldn't get an award, most posers figured that out, no one bothered.

[Pas]

I'm glad that nobody here gave a crap

Well, plenty of people gave a crap. Its just no one here cared.

I don't understand the english language anymore

I just realized that this chick was the girl from 'Panic Room'.   Somebody give me an obvious award.

They are making another one thats coming out next year. No, you shouldn't get an award, most posers figured that out, no one bothered.

[Gold Trumpet]

Well, plenty of people gave a crap. Its just no one here cared. They are making another one thats coming out next year. No, you shouldn't get an award, most posers figured that out, no one bothered.

The next one is coming out this year. Haha, you deserve that for your Die Hard comment.

I think the reason no one here even gave this film the time of the day is because it's made for girls. I think if it was at least made for boys it would have inspired some vigilance from the Xixax crowd. Of course if it was made for boys it would be ten times more violent and probably pretty enjoyable too.

[Kal]

Pretty much every girl I know is fucking obsessed with this shit, but with the books and they all hate the movie. The books are fucking thick and there is like five of them, and all these chicks seem to have read them multiple times. I refuse to even pick one up.