Reasons For Director’s Departure From ‘Twilight’ Sequel ‘New Moon’ Revealed

CHICAGO – Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the original “Twilight,” revealed to Entertainment Weekly this week that she walked away from the highly anticipated sequel “New Moon” because the film was going to be shot under too short a deadline and with too many budget constraints.

The Chris Weitz-directed sequel will star Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, and perhaps Lucy Hale, AnnaLynne McCord and Dakota Fanning, all of whom were the subject of casting rumors recently.

Hardwicke, doing promotion for her upcoming book about the making of the hit film, “Twilight: Director’s Notebook,” revealed how her departure from the franchise came to be. She says that Summit executives actually called her in Paris while she was having dinner with the film’s stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.

Catherine Hardwicke had been negotiating with Summit to shoot “New Moon” and was offered “more money that I or anyone in my family has ever seen,” but the studio wanted to film the sequel quickly and with a modest budget and the director turned them down.

Now Hardwicke says, “I was devastated. I really did feel a strong connection to the people around the world that liked the movie - and to Stephenie and the actors. But I just didn’t think I could make a good movie under those circumstances.”

Hardwicke’s “Twilight: Director’s Notebook” will be out in stores on March 17th and the DVD for the movie will hit stores on March 21st.

The Twilight ensemble.
Photo credit: Summit Publicity

“Twilight,” which stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Ashley Greene and Taylor Lautner from director Catherine Hardwicke, has grossed $178 million domestically. This has put the “New Moon” sequel into production immediately and has spawned a series of casting rumors. Other books in the Stephenie Meyer series include “Eclipse” and “Breaking Dawn”.

Read about the chaos during the “New Moon” open casting call.
Read our story about AnnaLynne McCord auditioning for “New Moon”.
Read our story about Dakota Fanning talking about “New Moon”.
Read our story about the open casting call for “New Moon”.
Read our story about Lucy Hale auditioning for “New Moon”.
Read our story about Dakota Fanning auditioning for “New Moon”.
Read our Vanessa Hudgens role denial story for “New Moon”.
Read our Robert Pattinson story on “Parts Per Billion” and “New Moon”.
See our 2009 Summit release slideshow with “New Moon”.
See our high-quality, 28-image “Twilight” slideshow.
Read our “Twilight” opening-weekend box-office story.
Read our “Twilight” sequel story prior to opening weekend.
Read our story about Taylor Lautner’s casting in “New Moon”.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com