Twilight
Filmmaker: Catherine Hardwicke
USA / 2008 / 122 mins / English
Cinemas screening the film: UK-wide release
Based on the cult teen novel series, Catherine Hardwicke’s hotly anticipated fantasy romance arrived in the UK on the 19th December - a visually stunning, action-packed tale of forbidden love between vampire and teenage mortal..
Twilight was an outstanding success, and sunk its teeth into £2.5 million of box office during its opening weekend, beating family favourite Madagascar 2 (£1.8m) and the seasonal Four Christmases (£1m) into distant second and third places.
Synopsis
Twilight is an action-packed, modern-day love story between a teenage girl and a vampire. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has always been a little bit different, never caring about fitting in with the trendy girls at her Phoenix high school. When her mother re-marries and sends Bella to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she doesn't expect much of anything to change. Then she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a boy unlike any she's ever met. Edward is a vampire, but he doesn't have fangs and his family is unique in that they choose not to drink human blood. Intelligent and witty, Edward sees straight into Bella's soul.
Soon, they are swept up in a passionate, thrilling and unorthodox romance. To Edward, Bella is what he has waited 90 years for - a soul mate. But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy. But what will Edward & Bella do when a clan of new vampires - James (Cam Gigandet), Laurent (Edi Gathegi) and Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre) - come to town and threaten to disrupt their way of life?
Success
At the US release last month, Twilight made a staggering $70.6m (£51.1 m) during its first weekend at the cinema, beating Quantum of Solace and Disney's Bolt to the top spot. This breaks the record previously set by Deep Impact's Mimi Leder for the biggest opening film directed by a woman.
Birds Eye View met director Catherine Hardwicke to hear her perspective on being the woman at the helm of a global hit franchise…
About the Director
Hardwicke began her career as an architect. She spent most of the 1990s as a production designer, working on such films as Tombstone (1993), Tank Girl (1995), and Three Kings (1999). The following year she collaborated with director/screenwriter Cameron Crowe and actor/producer Tom Cruise on Vanilla Sky (2001).
Hardwicke's first foray into film direction was with the award-winning Thirteen (2003). Hardwicke and fourteen year-old Nikki Reed got together to write a movie that would reflect Reed's teenage experiences. The script for the movie was done in only six days. Hardwicke went on to direct Lords of Dogtown (2005), a fictionalised account of skateboarding culture.
In 2006, Hardwicke directed the biblical film The Nativity Story for New Line Cinema. In 2008, she directed the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's bestselling book, Twilight.