Twilight News: New Director for New Moon

Director Catherine Hardwicke, center, with Robert Pattinson, right, and producer Jamie Marshall in happier times. Or at least closer times. Photo courtesy of the oh-so-powerful NY Times.

Variety reports that Catherine Hardwicke, who guided Stephenie Meyer’s teen novel Twilight to the big screen, will not direct its sequel, New Moon. Summit Entertainment, the studio behind the new hit movie franchise and Hardwicke both cited differences in prep time for the film. Summit, not surprisingly wants to get it going as soon as possible; Hardwicke, concerned about the amount of CGI necessary to handle the werewolf-heavy plot, wants more time.

Additionally, Hardwicke thought the script needed more work and didn’t want to jump into a project when she felt the story wasn’t quite there. Melissa Rosenberg, who did the Twilight adaptation, just handed in a draft of New Moon (for those Robert Pattinson fans worried about his lesser presence in New Moon, never fear–Rosenberg has supposedly found a way to work around that to make sure everyone’s favorite vampire will get enough screen time).

Here are the “this is a nice divorce quotes.” Ms. Hardwicke, you’re up first:

“I am sorry that due to timing I will not have the opportunity to direct ‘New Moon. 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.”

And let’s hear from Erik Feig, Summit production president:

“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. 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.”

So, does anyone have any suggestions on who should direct New Moon? Do you think it’s important that it’s a woman? Or doesn’t that matter? Should it be someone with more of a special effects background? Hey, Joe Johnston just finished The Wolf Man…No, I’d doubt he’d be up for another one right now. Summit’s not going to want anyone incredibly high-priced–part of the appeal to them of Twilight was that it didn’t cost much to make and is now earning buckets of money. So look more for a first-time director making the jump from commercials, or music videos, or even an actor or writer trying out the big chair. Hang on and let’s see what happens…