The massive box-office success of 2008’s “Twilight” changed the fortunes of its three young stars, propelling them on an upward career trajectory and transforming Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner into household names. Yet not so much changed for the film’s director, Catherine Hardwicke.
A respected production designer who transitioned to the director’s chair with the acclaimed 2003 low-budget indie “Thirteen,” Hardwicke, 55, earned praise for her films’ kinetic energy and visual stylings, but not even wearing the mantle of the female director with the highest-grossing opening weekend in movie history dramatically improved her fortunes in Hollywood.
“Nothing is easy,” Texas-born Hardwicke said recently over a vegetarian meal. “You have a big success, and it’s still not easy to make a movie. I had a bunch of other projects that I worked really hard on after ‘Twilight,’ and the magic just didn’t hit.”
After spending the intervening years readying various projects at different studios — including a radical interpretation of “Hamlet” and an adaptation of the bestselling young adult novel “If I Stay” — she’s hoping to recapture that magic with “Red Riding Hood,” which opens Friday.
A gothic retelling of the classic fairy tale, the new film covers familiar territory for the director. It centers on a teen girl, Valerie (played by Amanda Seyfried), who falls in love with a brooding bad boy, Peter (Shiloh Fernandez). But Valerie’s plans to run away from her village with Peter are sabotaged after a werewolf begins to terrorize the enclave, and her mother (Virginia Madsen) reveals her plan for her daughter to marry the wealthy Henry (Max Irons).
A teen-targeted supernatural romance with a headstrong young woman torn between suitors, it’s safe to say, doesn’t seem like much of a departure for Hardwicke, who insists she turned down an offer to direct “New Moon,” the second movie in the “Twilight” saga, despite Internet reports that suggested she was fired from the project.
But Hardwicke, whose other directing credits include 2005’s “Lords of Dogtown” and 2006’s “The Nativity Story,” said her interest in making “Red Riding Hood” had nothing to do with her connection to the franchise adapted from Stephenie Meyer’s vampire-werewolf saga.
“I could go my whole life and say I’m not going to do anything with a love triangle, but whenever you have a romance there has to be some obstacle, and even the dumbest romantic comedies have a love triangle, or something,” Hardwicke said. “As for the werewolf aspect of this, people have been fascinated with werewolves way longer than ‘Twilight.’”
A respected production designer who transitioned to the director’s chair with the acclaimed 2003 low-budget indie “Thirteen,” Hardwicke, 55, earned praise for her films’ kinetic energy and visual stylings, but not even wearing the mantle of the female director with the highest-grossing opening weekend in movie history dramatically improved her fortunes in Hollywood.
“Nothing is easy,” Texas-born Hardwicke said recently over a vegetarian meal. “You have a big success, and it’s still not easy to make a movie. I had a bunch of other projects that I worked really hard on after ‘Twilight,’ and the magic just didn’t hit.”
After spending the intervening years readying various projects at different studios — including a radical interpretation of “Hamlet” and an adaptation of the bestselling young adult novel “If I Stay” — she’s hoping to recapture that magic with “Red Riding Hood,” which opens Friday.
A gothic retelling of the classic fairy tale, the new film covers familiar territory for the director. It centers on a teen girl, Valerie (played by Amanda Seyfried), who falls in love with a brooding bad boy, Peter (Shiloh Fernandez). But Valerie’s plans to run away from her village with Peter are sabotaged after a werewolf begins to terrorize the enclave, and her mother (Virginia Madsen) reveals her plan for her daughter to marry the wealthy Henry (Max Irons).
A teen-targeted supernatural romance with a headstrong young woman torn between suitors, it’s safe to say, doesn’t seem like much of a departure for Hardwicke, who insists she turned down an offer to direct “New Moon,” the second movie in the “Twilight” saga, despite Internet reports that suggested she was fired from the project.
But Hardwicke, whose other directing credits include 2005’s “Lords of Dogtown” and 2006’s “The Nativity Story,” said her interest in making “Red Riding Hood” had nothing to do with her connection to the franchise adapted from Stephenie Meyer’s vampire-werewolf saga.
“I could go my whole life and say I’m not going to do anything with a love triangle, but whenever you have a romance there has to be some obstacle, and even the dumbest romantic comedies have a love triangle, or something,” Hardwicke said. “As for the werewolf aspect of this, people have been fascinated with werewolves way longer than ‘Twilight.’”
