The first movie in the Twilight Saga was directed by Catherine Hardwicke, but why didn’t she return to direct New Moon? In 2005, readers were introduced to a world where vampires, humans, and werewolves coexist thanks to Stephenie Meyer’s novel Twilight, the first entry in a series of four books. The core of the novels was the problematic romance between vampire Edward Cullen and mortal Bella Swan, who came across with different obstacles – from Bella’s best friend (and werewolf) Jacob Black, to a clan of vampires known as the Volturi.
Thanks to the success of the books, it didn’t take long for Twilight to make the jump to the big screen, with the first movie being released in 2008, a few months after the publishing of the final book, Breaking Dawn. Twilight covered the first book and introduced the audience to Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, and Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black. Twilight expanded the books’ fanbase and was a big hit (though it wasn’t critics’ favorite), making way for the adaptations of the rest of the books. However, the director of the first movie didn’t return for any of the sequels, despite the commercial success of the film.
Twilight was directed by Catherine Hardwicke, known at the time for her work on Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown. Although the movie has been criticized for its story and characters, critics praised Hardwicke’s direction and style, mostly for being able to turn a flawed story into an entertaining movie that successfully got to its target audience. Still, Hardwicke didn’t return to direct the sequel, New Moon, the following year, and the difference was big. That same year, Hardwicke shared (via MTV) that Summit Entertainment offered her “more money than I or anyone in my family has ever seen”, but the conditions and restraints that came with that weren’t as good.
Hardwicke explained that the budget and deadlines were what drove her away from the project, and even though she felt “a strong connection to the people around the world that liked the movie”, she didn’t think she could make a good movie under those circumstances, mostly because she would have had no time to breathe between post-production and promotion of Twilight and pre-production of New Moon. Just a few days after the announcement of Hardwicke’s departure from the Twilight Saga, Chris Weitz (About A Boy, The Golden Compass) joined the project as director. Unlike Twilight, New Moon got mostly negative reviews, and Weitz didn’t return for any of the following films – Eclipse, Breaking Dawn - Part 1, and Breaking Dawn - Part 2 – as Eclipse went into production while New Moon was in post-production.
After Twilight, Catherine Hardwicke explored other genres with the movies Red Riding Hood, Plush, Miss You Already, the short-film The Black Ghiandola, and most recently the action-thriller Miss Bala, based on the 2011 Mexican movie of the same name. The Twilight Saga would have been very different had Catherine Hardwicke returned to direct New Moon, as the second book in the series isn’t exactly known for having the best nor the strongest story, and she could have saved it a bit, as she did with Twilight.