News, Women Directors

New ‘Twilight’ Shorts Directed by Women to Appear on Facebook

Great news for Twilight fans — and even better news for aspiring women filmmakers: Lionsgate, the studio behind the film series, and Stephenie Meyer, who, of course, wrote the Twilight novels, announced yesterday that the franchise is very much alive. The most exciting part of this news, in our world at least, is that female directorial hopefuls will be chosen to make the short films, based on Twilight characters, that will keep the franchise going.

The Storytellers — New Creative Voices of ‘The Twilight Saga’
will select its new creative voices via a group of female panelists that will include Meyer and Kristen Stewart. They will be joined by Kate Winslet, Octavia Spencer, Catherine Hardwicke (who directed the first installment of the franchise), Jennifer Lee (co-director of 2013’s third highest-grossing movie Frozen), and producer and head of Women in Film Cathy Schulman. That is one impressive jury, and successful participants will be given the chance to be mentored by these industry vets.

It is important to note that the first film in the series was the only one to be helmed by a female director despite the fact that the movies are based on a series of books about a girl and written by a woman, and its primary readership — and viewership — consisted of girls and women. The Storytellers — New Creative Voices of ‘The Twilight Saga’ is an especially welcome step in the right direction by putting women at the forefront of the series.

Rather than focusing on Twilight, Meyer’s statement about the project focused entirely on the impetus behind making this a female-centric project: “The female voice is something that has become more and more important to me as I’ve worked in the film industry,” she explained.

The shorts will be available exclusively on Facebook, and given that Meyer’s books have sold more than 120 million copies and the film adaptations earned a whopping $3.5 billion, it’s safe to assume that the resulting shorts will be very popular and shared across millions of news feeds.

[via NY Times]


Women and Hollywood Transition

Dear friends- A little over 15 years ago I had a crazy idea: to try and start a conversation asking where the women were in front of the camera and behind the scenes in Hollywood. I called my blog...

Gina Rodriguez Developing Series Adaptation of “Princess of South Beach” Podcast for Netflix

Gina Rodriguez is celebrating the success of her new ABC comedy “Not Dead Yet” by developing a series adaptation of a popular podcast for Netflix. Deadline reports that the streamer has...

Sophie Lane Curtis Feature Debut “On Our Way” Acquired by Gravitas Ventures

Sophie Lane Curtis’ feature debut has secured distribution. Deadline reports that Gravitas Ventures landed worldwide rights to “On Our Way” with plans to release the award-winning...

Posts Search

Publishing Dates
Start date
- select start date -
End date
- select end date -
Category
News
Films
Interviews
Features
Trailers
Festivals
Television
RESET