andPOP » Catherine Hardwicke

Movie Review: Red Riding Hood

Christian Allaire — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:31:08 +0000

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We all know the story: girl wears a red cape, is being followed by a wolf. She then visits her grandmother, her grandmother is the wolf. Or something like that. But all this goes out the window in Catherine Hardwicke’s adaptation of the classic “Red Riding Hood.”

Let’s start with the positive. Hardwicke, the director of the film who’s also directed for “Twilight,” delivers a visually stunning film. It captures great North American landscape, and the film’s forte definitely lies its cinematography and visual appeal. I absolutely commend her artistic decisions and direction she took within the story. I mean, contrasting Amanda Seyfried’s gentle blond hair and piercing blue eyes with that dramatic red cape. Heaven on screen. In fact, Seyfried is genuinely what saves the film from disaster itself – her understated acting is not only realistic but saves the movie from being cheesy.

But let’s move into what’s wrong with the film. Although the movie has its twists and turns that keep it interesting, the story itself suffers from an identity crisis. Set in a medieval village that is haunted by a werewolf, a young girl (Seyfried) falls for an orphaned woodcutter (Shiloh Fernandez), much to her family’s displeasure. So is the movie a thriller? A love story? A dark comedy? It dabbles in a bit of all three. There is a certain melodramatic love tension that occurs between the two young hotties, then there are brutal wolf attacks on the village people, and then there are clever allusions to the original fairytale. But it’s all too much. Pick on one theme, and make it great.

I saw this movie with my friend, and we left feeling neutral. It wasn’t a bad movie, in fact, we both said it could have been a lot of worse so we respected the fact that they made it interesting. But then again, the movie wasn’t great. They could have been much more shocking with how they changed the story, they could have made way more clever connections to the original, and besides Seyfried, the acting could have been better.

But for what the movie is, a teenage love-action story, the movie achieves its goal and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I give it a 2.5 out of 5, smack dab in the middle. Not great, not horrid.

Finally Someone Admits The Twilight Kids Are Doing It

@jordans_life — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:48:46 +0000

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It’s official! According to the superficial.com, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson have had some sort of romance. The news comes from the original Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke. In a recent interview with Time Magazine she spilled the beans stating, “I didn’t have a camera in the hotel room. I cannot say, but in terms of what Kristen told me directly, it didn’t happen on the first movie.” I think we can all read between the lines as to what “it” means. However, I can’t really say I’m shocked. Seriously? Is this news? Two really good looking people can only be stuck together for so long and eventually they’re going to find their way into bed together.

Although, there was a considerable age difference between the two on the first movie. At four years apart, Twilight’s boy wonder was dangerously close to earning the nickname Robert Polansky. The director even cautioned the young superstar, “After I cast him, I told Rob, Don’t even think about having a romance with her,” Hardwicke says. “She’s under 18. You will be arrested.” Well, I guess Edward really would do anything for Bella. Even if it means spending some time in the slammer, once again Twilight is showing us all that love has no boundaries.

Catherine Hardwicke Will Not Direct Another ‘Twilight’ Movie

Eva Lam — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:08:10 +0000

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Although “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke has been replaced for the “New Moon” sequel, some fans have held out hope that she would return to helm the third or fourth movie in the teen-vampire franchise.

Unfortunately for those fans, Hardwicke recently shot down the possibility of directing any future “Twilight” installments in an interview with MTV. “I think it’s healthier to have a new person do [each one],” she said.

“I’ve loved all the different directors that did the ‘Harry Potter’ [films], because each one had their own cool style and energy, so I think that’s good. And I’m moving on to other projects.”

Hardwicke also expressed her confidence in “New Moon” director Chris Weitz. “Although I don’t know him personally, I’ve heard he’s really excited and just diving in,” she said.

Although she avoided the use of computer-generated imagery in “Twilight,” she told MTV that she didn’t share fan concerns about Weitz using it for Bella’s “New Moon” cliff dive, citing the director’s previous experience with CGI in “The Golden Compass.”

Hardwicke penned a book about her experience helming the first film, “Twilight Director’s Notebook: The Story of How We Made the Movie,” which recently hit store shelves. The director has also signed on to direct the supernatural drama “If I Stay” and is in talks to direct “Maximum Ride,” based on James Patterson’s five-volume fantasy series.

‘New Moon’ To Be Finished By 2009 – Hopefully

Ilan Mester — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:39:35 +0000

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“Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke, who recently broke the record for the largest opening by a female filmmaker, says that the first step for a ‘Twilight’ sequel is making sure everyone is on the same page.

“Well, right now we’re trying to figure out if the studio people, and me, and everyone’s on the same page,” Hardwicke told MTV News, “I want to do ['New Moon'] better than we did ‘Twilight,’ and do it really cool. I definitely don’t want to do it as something just tossed off, like a ‘Saw II’ or something like that.”

Hardwicke said “New Moon” could be finished by the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010. “Cameras could be rolling in about five moths,” Hardwicke explained to MTV News. “We spent about a year and three months getting ['Twilight'] ready, between writing the script and casting. We could probably do things a little bit faster this time, but who knows? It depends.”

The director also revealed to MTV News a draft has already been made by “Twilight” screenplay writer Melissa Rosenberg, “There’s a draft, but then of course, you do more than one version of the script. You work on it. You try to bring it to life”.