Entertainment Weekly Exclusive

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This week’s Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive first look at Catherine Hardwicke’s upcoming book about the making of Twilight. She had been negotiating a way to direct the adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s monster-selling sequel New Moon, and the talks had reached the breaking point.  Summit Entertainment offered her a queenly sum to resume her place at the helm – “more money than I or anyone in my family has ever seen,” says Hardwicke – but told her she’d be working with a tight deadline and a modest budget.  Regretfully, she told the executives they needed to find themselves a new director. “I was devastated,” she says.  “I really did feel a strong connection to the people around the world that liked the movie – and to Stephenie and the actors.  But I just didn’t think I could make a good movie under those circumstances.”

Hardwicke first began discussing Twilight: Director’s Notebook with Meyer’s publisher last summer, and then Twilight went on to gross over $350 million worldwide (so far).  “When the movie made enough money, they thought it was worth it,” says Hardwicke.  “They said, ‘Now you have three and a half weeks to do it!’  And I was like, Okay, I’m just going to keep writing until they rip this out of my hands!”

Fans continue to whip themselves into a frenzy online in anticipation of New Moon, which is already deep into pre-production under new director Chris Weitz.  (Hardwicke notes the irony that her replacement is enjoying a better deal than she’d been promised.  “I know the budget they were talking about with me – they’ve already gone way beyond that,” she said.)  But she’s done nursing her broken heart.  “I’m optimistic that it’s going to be great, and I’m sad that it didn’t work out for me to do it,” she said.  “But I’ll do something else cool.”

Hardwicke’s publisher allows EW.com to post two pages online here:  www.ew.com/twilightdiary

To see the rest, you’ll have to pick up a copy of the Feb. 20 issue of EW, available here: www.ew.com/twilight2009