Skip to footer

More 'Twilight' movies are coming ... kind of

Five female directors will be making short movies based on the 'Twilight' universe, but the original actors aren't expected to return.

|
Andrew Cooper/Summit Entertainment/AP
The 'Twilight' films star Kristen Stewart (l.) and Robert Pattinson (r.).
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

“Twilight” fans are getting more movies … sort of. 

According to the New York Times, five female directors will get a chance to put their own spin on the “Twilight” universe by creating short films based on the characters through a new project titled “The Storytellers – New Creative Voices of ‘The Twilight Saga.’”

A panel of people including original “Twilight” actress Kristen Stewart, “Twilight” writer Stephenie Meyer, actresses Kate Winslet, Julie Bowen, and Octavia Spencer, “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke, “Frozen” director Jennifer Lee, and “Twilight” producer and Women in Film president Cathy Schulman will select the directors. Once the five have been chosen by the panel, fans will help decide who the first-place winner is, according to Deadline.

According to the NYT, none of the “Twilight” cast members will appear in the movies. The short films will debut on Facebook. 

Lions Gate vice chairman Michael Burns commented cryptically on the new venture. 

“We think Facebook is a great way for us to introduce the world of ‘Twilight’ to a whole new audience while re-energizing existing fans,” he told the NYT. “This is the just the beginning — a template, if you will. You can probably guess what might be coming next.”

Meanwhile, Meyer said in a statement, “The female voice is something that has become more and more important to me as I’ve worked in the film industry," according to Deadline.

The “Twilight” movies were based on Meyer’s four-book series, which followed a mortal girl, Bella Swan (Stewart), who fell in love with vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). The last movie in the series, “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2,” was released in 2012 and grossed more than $292 million domestically, according to the website Box Office Mojo.

Monitor film critic Peter Rainer said of “Breaking Dawn – Part 1,” the last “Twilight” film he reviewed and the one in which (years-old spoiler alert) protagonist Bella found herself pregnant, “’Part 1’ is going for a ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ vibe but without much wit or imagination.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to More 'Twilight' movies are coming ... kind of
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2014/1001/More-Twilight-movies-are-coming-kind-of
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe