Catherine Hardwicke’s adaptation of the wildly popular book Twilight has just passed the $150 million mark after only three weeks in theatres. With a lean production budget of $37 million, and a series of sequels lined up to keep the money rolling in, it stands to reason that everyone involved should be very happy right now. But wait — this is Hollywood we’re talking about here! Needless to say, there seems to be some drama unfolding as Summit Entertainment and Catherine Hardwicke have decided to part ways for the sequel. Word came down over the weekend that Hardwicke will not be directing New Moon, because the March 2009 start date “does not work with Ms. Hardwicke’s required prep time to bring her vision of the film to the big screen”. In other words, Summit wants to rush the sequel to the screen as quickly as possible, and she doesn’t want to compromise her work. On the flip side, there are rumours that Hardwicke was difficult to work with.

While I don’t know anything about the Twilight books, and don’t really care about the films, I will be curious to see if there is any sort of fan backlash from this decision. Typically you don’t go and change the formula if the first movie was a smash hit. Remember how pissed off people got when it looked like Jon Favreau might not return for Iron Man 2? Hardwicke may not be as well-established as Favreau, but she has a decent filmography behind her and to downplay her contribution to Twilight’s success would be a mistake. From what I understand, she did a good job of staying faithful to the source material while also making some minor tweaks for the screen. Most importantly, however, she is a female director, and this is a series that probably benefits from a feminine touch. Is Summit Entertainment making a big mistake here? All things being equal, it is probably a smart move for Catherine Hardwicke, assuming she can get past the inevitable negative press.