“Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke hopes the upcoming TV series adaptation sinks its teeth deeper into the forbidden romance at the center of the teen vampire saga.
Hardwicke helmed the first film that was released in 2008 and starred Kristen Stewart as high schooler Bella and Robert Pattinson as undead bloodsucker Edward. The director stepped away from the franchise after the initial film’s mixed reception and was replaced by Chris Weitz. Lionsgate recently announced a TV series adaptation in early development over a decade since the film series concluded in 2012.
“I think it’s exciting,” Hardwicke told MovieWeb of the upcoming show. “I think we see that it’s an enduring story that people keep engaging with. You know, the TikTok world loves it, the internet generations, everybody keeps finding it. I was talking to a girl the other day, she was born the year we made the first ‘Twilight’ film, and she was very passionate about it.”
Hardwicke continued, “So I think, if anything, in the first one, we were able to keep it a little bit more grounded, just a little bit. You felt like there was some kind of reality to it, and you really felt the connection between Bella and Edward. So that might be a fun way to think about it, but also the chemistry between Edward and Bella is so important.”
“Twilight” author Stephanie Meyer is expected to be involved in 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 was skeptical whether author Meyer will sign off on more iterations of the novels.
“I don’t know if Stephenie [Meyer] will go for it, that’s the only thing,” Hardwicke said, noting that more “Twilight” content “would be fun.”
“There’ve been a million things like, ‘Can we do a TV series?’ There’s been a million funny parodies,” the “Mafia Mamma” director said. “Seeing a whole new crowd of people playing those parts, that could be quite interesting. Why not? Do a twist on it! Let’s do ‘Twilight’ in outer space, that would be fun. Or set it in the past. Let’s do it back in the Wild West! We could do that Oregon Trail or something like that. The Oregon Trail wasn’t hard enough! You’re dying of dysentery, or you could be bit by a vampire.”
Hardwicke also reflected on the creative decision to show Edward (Pattinson) biting Bella (Stewart) onscreen, which was never featured in the first book.
“I’m like, ‘No, we’re going to see it.’ We’re going to get visual. We’re going to make physical the things that are mental in the books, like the treetop scene,” she said. “Every chance for an action sequence where you can express character through action, I love that. Let’s make it physical if we can.”
The “Prisoner’s Daughter” director concluded, “We have all those dumb things that people think: ‘A woman can’t direct action. A woman doesn’t understand visual effects.’ All these annoying things, no matter how many times you say, ‘OK, well, look at Kathryn Bigelow or look at this or look at this.’ My first jobs were in visual effects when I came to L.A., so I do understand them very well. It’s kind of annoying. You get told, ‘This isn’t really the kind of movie for you.’ Even after I had ‘Twilight,’ I was told that same kind of thing.”
