Discuss: Does It Really Matter Who Directs The 'Twilight' Sequel?

Does it matter?
Here's the thing. Summit got a 'bye' in the first round by the fans because we knew this was a small budget flick. We went in droves and told every single person, young, old---complete freakin' strangers---to buy the books and then GO SEE THE MOVIE!!! so that we wouldn't be facing a stunted franchise, dead after one film.
So we could overlook the things like special effects, etc... in favor of the STORY. We expected the critics to trash it, but didn't care as long as the film was true to the book and the characters came to life before our eyes.
I loved the movie, for the movie's sake. I can separate the book from the film and enjoy both separately as long as the characters are true.
But what I can't stand is the notion that the fans of TWILIGHT want the same mindless, hurried crap turned out by the makers of the slasher pics and teen spoof flicks. If that's the case, Summit greatly under estimates the mentality of their core fans. We EXPECT more out of NEW MOON, because we deserve the series to grow, improve, mature. IF that's their intent in switching directors than everyone wins. But I am afraid that isn't the case.
I understand the necessity to film these in a timely manner. Our vampires don't age, but our actors do. But I'll be damned if Summit will get all of the money I paid for TWILIGHT if they do some quick, hacked together movie. (I've seen it five, yes FIVE times, with plans for one more. I passed on Bond,Bolt and everything that came before and after, to support this film.)
If Catherine Hardwicke was passed over due to budget and time issues, then there is reason for serious concern. It means the product, our beloved books, are seen as nothing more than a meal ticket and the fans as nothing more than ignorant, shallow individuals who will follow the masses blindly, no matter the quality of the film. That's reprehensible, given that it was the voice and passion of the fans that drove the box office WAY beyond the studios expectations.
I expect better of the studio we have championed the past nine months. Summit has to step up their game to keep our support. It is only unwavering support if they commit to the film, the author and her vision, and back it up with a bigger budget and smart, talented writers, directors etc... Otherwise, all bets are off. The fans supported the first film to see the next made. They will only support NEW MOON if its a GOOD film.
Trust me.

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financially speaking, i can't see this mattering at all. the crowds that made this film successful weren't there for the person in the director's seat. if she is replaced by a man, it will give the movie blogosphere something to chew on, but not for very long. i doubt that anyone else will pay much attention.
caveat - a think another female director would be great, but the director is there to serve the story, not become the story.

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i think everyone will be back for robert "e.c." pattinson in glitter regardless.

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Its not like Hardwicke was the one causing Twilight to rake in the dough. The fact is, the fans will see it whether its good or not, or whether they like it or not. Even if they consider it an abomination, they'll still see it. Even though it is an abomination, many will still love it. Her directing finesse, if she has any, is not really pulling in the box office. Most twilight fans have no idea who the director is, and this will only ruffle the feathers of those who spend their time deeply entrenched in twekkie world (a small percentage of the gargantuan yet usually only slightly committed fanbase).

Its best to pump these puppies out fast before twekkies go through puberty and move onto jodie pisscoult.

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I for one am excited to see her go. She took the amazing twilight "world" that it's readers know and love and made it cheesy. The cheese was not a product of budget, but poor decisions that were made. Recently, I even saw Catherine "gushing" about something she added and how amazing it was when it was the worst part of the movie, imho as well as Critics. And this was after critics slammed the movie. She is in her own world. Summit is smart to move on, however, it seems they are under-estimating the books. This story, albeit a teenage romance, should still be on par with other amazing book to movie adaptations like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. If directors can take THOSE worlds and bring them to life in such an amazing and realistic way then so can Twilight. And again, it had nothing to do with budget. I'm still not a fan that the writer is the same, Twilight (as a script) was extremely choppy and felt more like a made for TV movie. The score also sounds more like commercially licensed music for websites and answering machines than a poetic story.

All in all, Twilight made money because fans LOVE the book. It has nothing to do with "Catherine" or a brilliantly made movie (which it wasn't.) If Summit turns out another "flop" of the movie then the fans will begin leave. Let's hope they choose the next director more brilliantly (especially if they are to potentially be at the helm for the next 2 movies.)

"and whether fans will drive a stake through Summit's wallet should they hire a male director to continue the franchise. "
- The only people I have heard mention a potential "stake" being thrown at the prospect of a male director are these critics and "hollywood" people. Who cares! I'm sorry but I'm a fan of hiring the best person for the job (and yes, I'm a woman.) If someone is going to say that a man isn't "up for the job" than how much better is that than saying a "woman" isn't up for the job? Men have made excellent love story themed movies for years... we fans don't have loyalty to Hardwicke, we have loyalty to the series (and Rob ;-). We just want to see it done correctly.... and the one who blew it already was a woman.

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Hardwicke leaving is a very bad sign my peeps. The tone she helped the actors create escalated the film beyond a teen drama. She has a slew of good work under her belt, and will not jepordize it with some reworked mediorcore stuff. She is in a no win situation. If the screenplay for New Moon doesn't get the Ed Cullen rewrite fans will be mad that he is not in most of the film. How do they expect little Lautner to carry this thing ? Do I feel the chemistry there ? not yet . If they rewrite the die hards will freak. It's lose/ lose and Hardwicke is being paid enough to put her name on the next two, bottom line.

**Note to SPUNK RANSOM***
I will be pizzed if you don't do all 4 of the movies. I hate when roles are recast. I don't care how much hair you loose, or what your beer gut looks like~it's called suspension of disbelife.It sounds like you and Kristen created the tone and tension for your peeps. You'll have to bring what you got to the next director and convince them to not fix what ain't broke. Oh yeah will you marry me.

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This movie shouldn't even exist...the hole concept about vampires is ruined by some crappy writer who has no creativity at all......so, to cut things short, I don't give a damn.

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Yeah it does. I mean my beef with the movie was that it was obviouse that she couldn't handle anything away from the one on one romance scenes, once things had to speed up, and the action started taking place, it was choppy, had no fluidity, and was poorly executed. i will give her a little slack because of the budget, but not much. The second book has alot more action and it was clear that they didn't want to take the risk of having her and her poor judgement mess up something that will be judged harsher by the fans next time around. The one person who is the key to this series and is overlooked, is the screenwriter..she took a 500 page book and effectivly put it into a 2 hr. movie and captured almost everything brilliantly. As long as she is back things should be peachy. Like i said the new director needs to be somebody that can handle action sequences better but still capture the basic feeling that the previous director had installed. You don't want this to turn out like the Potter series, from the stand point, that you could tell there were different directors in that series, and because of that the feel was so off from each individual movie. Its also gotta be done at a PG-13 level.

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Twilight, everything that it stands for, sucks.

It's a teenage fad, raking in the dough. Directors don't matter on this franchise, it's got a built in fan base.

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I don't really think the name of the director (or gender for that matter) will have much of an impact on the opening weekend B.O numbers for the next one. But where I do think it matters will be in the films staying power and ability to bring in new fans. If the director can churn out a solid film that is genuinely entertaining (as opposed to only entertaining for the die hard fans) then the next movie can far exceed the final numbers of Twilight. It seems to me that Twilight did very well by drawing in the pre-existing fan base for multiple viewings (as evidenced by our 5x and soon to be 6x viewer in Wendy), but I have yet to read a review from the average movie goer who even enjoyed this movie. It seems that if you hadn't read the books you didn't see the movie, and even if you did you certainly did like the film AT ALL. To me that says that Hardwicke made a pretty crappy film, and if the next director can rectify that then getting rid of her was definitely a good thing. If they get someone else who sticks to the formula of Twilight then the next one will pull in the same amount of money; certainly a success, but not really the kind of success that a movie should have given the rabid fan base the material its based off of will already be bringing in.

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Man, I gotta start proof reading before I submit stuff...

"...and even if you did you certainly did NOT like the film AT ALL."

And when I said stick to the formula of Twilight I meant Twilight the movie, not the book. I was saying that if the next movie is done in the same way as this movie was done then the director won't make any difference.

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I don't think that using a new director would change a thing. The stories and the characters are set. A monkey could direct theese films and make them work. As for being rushed, feature films are usually SHOOT in 4 to 6 months anyways, the longest I've ever worked on was The Hulk for 9 months. What takes up the bulk of the time is pre and post production, the Pre is done: story's there, cast in place, the union supplies the crew, done. Once the CGI effects have been done once, they are easier to reproduce as the CG files are already there. Spiderman 3 still used the original CG files from the first movie. As long as they stick to the scripts they already have ther will be no problem. The movies will be OK.

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Does it matter?

Yes and no. It would be helpful (but not necessary) if the new director had experience with action films since the sequels will have more special effects and more action sequences. The gender of the director shouldn't matter.

If what you are asking is "will we have a repeat of the box office return for the next movie?", I doubt it.

For the fans of the Twilight book series, it was just the beginning! This is a book series that many people (not just teenage girls) love and although the audience is not as wide as Harry Potter, it is just as loyal. It was exciting for people to see their beloved characters come to life. It felt like a kind of grass roots effort because everyone knew that budget was going to be virtually non-existent, the director consulted with the author and the fans on many occasions, the director and film crew welcomed fans during filming, etc. It was also stressed that if the first film made enough money, the other books would be made into movies. So fans came out and out of loyalty ensured that the next film would be made.

It seems like something of a mixed blessing now because although New Moon will be made, it feels like the process has been distanced somewhat from the fans. It really appears (from reading articles like this one) that the fans are being taken for granted. Especially when the opening sentence is "Here's the short answer: Um, like, Robert Pattinson is still in it, right?".

I would like whoever directs the next film(s) to make a film that reflects the reason the books are so popular. Trust me, that has nothing to do with the quality of Edward's hair gel.

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I think we may be being a little too hard on Catherine Hardwicke. I did read the books, but saw the movie with a friend who hadn't and at the end of the film my friend thought better of the film than I did. I like Catherine Hardwicke as a director and I am sad that she will not be directing the upcoming films. However, there are other talented directors and I am hoping that they will find someone who will handle the films with finesse.

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I hope that Rob returns as Edward Cullen. Team Edward.

I just hope that the next director will have at least read New Moon to get a feel for how to direct it. By getting it right, even if that means the movie turns out to be at least 3hrs long then so be it. It is not like movie goers have not sat that long before in the movie theater. New Moon will have so many different things going on like the changing into wolves, going to Rome and the presence of Edward in Bella's conscious that whoever directs it will need to be super talented and have a budget that matches. My goodness, look at Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. The movie and books matched to a "tee". I know, I have read them. It would be nice if Steven Spielberg could direct New Moon and Eclipse.

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Here's another Twilight convention to add to your list: http://www.twicon.org/. My friend and I have been eyeing that one but the ticket price is a bit high... heh.

As for the director question, I have to say I don't really care who directs as long as the end result is a movie I like. One thing I am hoping a new director will change, though, is the cheesy sound effects used for the vamps. Sure the source material is cheezed to the max, but those horrible twinkling and swooshing effects really didn't help. The woods should have been dead silent but for wind blowing through trees, or something, when Edward was trying to scare Bella. It was just really distracting from the point of that scene and made it more funny than scary (or anxious even). So cut the cheeseball sound effects and right there any upcoming movies will be improved on a hundred-fold.

Oh, and less Edward-monkey-like and more Edward-cat-like.

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