You might remember a few days back when we ranted about Summit Entertainment unceremoniously ditching director Catherine Hardwicke for the Twilight sequel, New Moon. We had almost forgotten the whole thing when industry know-it-all Nikki Finke leaked word that Chris Weitz (About A Boy, American Pie and The Golden Compass), had been offered the job, in part because he’s besties with Summit’s president of production, Eric Feig. Ew.
As always, Finke’s super-informed commenters have shed some interesting light on the situation, and by extension, the way the Hollywood boy’s club works. The juiciest tidbits — with the passionate fangirl posts filtered out — after the jump.
From Sternboy: “First they hire Hardiwcke, who had to be sedated during New Line’s NATIVITY shoot and everyone there vowed to never hire her again. Now Weitz, who basically was locked out of the editing room on COMPASS because he was overwhelmed by the CG? I LOVE Summit. They need to give Tony Kaye a film next!”
From DH: “Well what I heard (cue rumor mongering) is that Chris was a disaster with TGC, having no experience with a big effects-based movie really showed, and that he was virtually locked out of the edit room as the suits took over to try and salvage something they could screen.
None of this means he’ll be a disaster on the vampire movie front and he is clearly a pretty intelligent guy, but…”
From Anymore: “Interesting, especially considering that Weitz’s brother, Paul, just directed Cirque du Freak for Universal–which just happens to be based on a best-selling series of books about a young person (a boy, in this case) who becomes a vampire.”
From retired: ” haven’t seen the movie, and I haven’t worked with Hardwicke. If the movie sucks, and that’s why they’re replacing her, fine. But if its because they don’t like her personally, or because she cried on the set, well, then, that’s just tough luck for Hardwicke and bad karma for the franchise and the studio execs. I’ve seen male directors weep hysterically on set. I also had a female producer once who drove her fellow ‘artists’ literally to the verge of nervous breakdowns. She went wild, threatening lawsuits and stalking people for years after the film wrapped. She won an Oscar a few years back.
In short, Hollywood is not for the faint of heart. It is not for normal, boring, well-adjusted, happy people.
When I produced my first movie, a mentor warned me about my friendship with the director. She said, ‘If you’re still friends after the movie wraps, that means that neither of you did your jobs right.’ And she was right, because I haven’t spoken to that asshole in 15 years.”
And finally, from Lobo Rojo: “I just hope they use real wolves. I want to know what Stephenie feels about all of this. AND i heard that Breaking Dawn might not be made. WHAT WOULD BE THE POINT OF MAKING THE FILMS IF THEY NEVER MAKE THE ONE THAT IS THE FINALE OF THE WHOLE STORY OF EDWARD AND BELLA?(Breakind Dawn) Eclipse woud be a real weird place to just leave it at. Just cause i dont think Rob and Kristen has signed on to do B.D. But maybe I’m just getting ahead of myself but I still think it would be weird to not make the last book into a film and Complete the whole story.”