Twilight Tuesday

I was originally going to post pictures of the Cullen family crest jewelry, but since there has been a deluge of big news about Twilight this week, I'll save that for next time. The first big news is about the orchestral score: it's finally available! I've put this on my Christmas list from Mr Hazel, though I don't know if I can stand to wait - I've been highly anticipating this since the movie came out. The entire score was composed by Carter Burwell and, combined with the soundtrack, should tide me over with reliving the movie experience until the DVD release.

Second - and this one is a biggie - word came out over the weekend that the Twilight director, Catherine Hardwicke, will not be directing New Moon. There have been conflicting reports - either she was fired by Summit or it was by mutual agreement - but the end story is that she will not be at the helm of the sequel.

It's beginning to look like the issues are the budget and the timeframe - Hardwicke, understandably, wants a bigger budget than what she got for Twilight (especially as New Moon will require more special effects) and a longer pre-production prep time, but Summit wants to keep costs as low as possible and rush the sequel out quickly, presumably in order to maximize profits. Hardwicke reportedly balked at these conditions, while Summit ended up looking like a bunch of money grubbers with no appreciation for artistic vision.

Hardwicke broke the record for the biggest movie opening by a female director, which is a staggering accomplishment (especially for a movie that was originally supposed to be an indie film); to be fired after that seems wrong. And since the special effects for Twilight left a lot to be desired (see Edward, glitter), the small budget for New Moon has me worried about how they're going to do the wolves and the Italy scenes. Particularly with a rushed production. What if it ends up looking like crap? On the other hand, the wait for the second and third movies will be excruciating, so a rush job doesn't sound too bad right about now.

Lastly, the latest rumor is the director job was offered to this guy, who directed About A Boy and Golden Compass. I loved, loved the former, but the latter sucked so much we almost walked out in the middle of the movie. So I'm not sure if I'm rooting for the rumor to be true or false.