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Twilight 2

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Twilight 2 Gets a New Director.

by nymag.com

Director Catherine Hardwicke heroically rescued the Twilight movie from the icy death grip of Stephenie Meyer's ham-fisted prose, scoring not-terrible reviews and propelling the film to a $70 million opening weekend, the highest-ever for a female director - and what does she get? Fired! Vulture buddy Nikki Finke reports that Hardwicke has been canned by Summit Entertainment, who are currently looking for a new director to helm the two announced Twilight sequels.

Why? It mostly seems like Hardwicke was unwilling to do a rush job on a movie the studio needs to put out really really fast, before its fans grow up and discover how lame abstinence is. A statement released by the studio claims that "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." Summit Entertainment CEO Rob Friedman told Finke last night that "Catherine and Summit have agreed to part ways on the sequel because our visions are different," with a "studio insider" adding that "Hardwicke was 'difficult' and 'irrational' during the making of Twilight%u2026 Summit didn't like her. They're saying the DP [director of photography] Elliot Davis is the one responsible for the film's sumptuous visual look, that the editor Nancy Richardson had to save the film in post-production."

Variety says a major sticking point between Hardwicke and Summit was how to adapt New Moon, the second Twilight novel, which focuses more on werewolves than vampires (in the book, Bella Swan's vampire boyfriend leaves her). Understandably, the studio wanted to beef up the screen time of Cullen (Robert Pattinson), and a draft of the screenplay purportedly found a way to do this, but Hardwicke "simply wasn't willing to jam this movie with a script that still needed months of development."

It's hard to say exactly how many of those rioting Twilight fans saw the movie because of its director, but Hardwicke was instrumental in the casting of its two now-famous leads and did manage to drastically improve on Meyer's annoying book (mostly by leaving things out). If Summit forges ahead, as planned, with a new director and a crappy script that's not yet ready, you can probably look forward to our slideshow of 28 reasons why New Moon the book is better than New Moon the movie.

Twilight 2

Twilight is No. 1 by more than a neck at box office

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
You know you've got a big movie when the sequel is announced on opening weekend.

After months of anticipation among fans of the best-selling book, Twilight delivered in theaters over the weekend. It took in $70.6 million, according to estimates from Nielsen EDI.

CHART: The weekend's top 10 movies

The debut made it an easy winner for the weekend and gave filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke the highest debut on record for a female director. She supplanted Mimi Leder's Deep Impact, which opened to $41.2 million in 1998.

The opening prompted Summit Entertainment to announce a second film based on the Stephenie Meyer series. New Moon will be released sometime in 2010.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Africa | Disney | James Bond | Nielsen EDI | Bolt | Deep Impact | Twilight | Stephenie Meyer | RottenTomatoes.com | Catherine Hardwicke | Slumdog Millionaire | Summit Entertainment | Role Models | Mimi Leder

Meyer's four-book series has sold 25 million copies worldwide.

"People have responded in a way we hoped but could have never expected," says Summit's Richie Fay. "I think we've got a solid start to a new franchise."

Despite earning recommendations from fewer than half the nation's critics, according to RottenTomatoes.com, the $37 million vampire film exceeded most expectations and lured a blistering $7 million in midnight shows.

Even competing studios were surprised by the movie's debut.

"It came in and took business away from everybody," says Chuck Viane of Disney, which saw a lackluster opening in Bolt. The animated family film was third with $27 million, about $10 million below expectations.

"You have to give them credit," Viane says. "So much is made of the fanboys. I think we saw the fangirls at work here."

Indeed, 75% of the Twilight crowd was female, according to Summit.

"Stephenie was very involved in the movie, which fans obviously appreciated," Fay says.

Quantum of Solace was second with $27.4 million, lifting its total to $109.5 million. Solace crossed the $100 million mark on Saturday to become the first James Bond film to become a blockbuster in nine days. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa was fourth with $16 million, followed by Role Models, with $7.2 million.

Danny Boyle's India-based drama Slumdog Millionaire continues to do well in limited release, grossing $1 million on 32 screens and lifting its total to $1.6 million.

November continued its strong business as ticket sales were up 17% over last weekend and 13% over the same weekend last year.

Final numbers are due Monday