One Part Of The Last Twilight Movie Stopped An Acclaimed Director From Making It

Sofia Coppola reveals that she came close to directing The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, but she passed on it because she found one aspect too weird. Coppola is the director behind a number of award-winning movies including Lost In Translation, Marie Antoinette, and Somewhere; her latest movie, Priscilla, is currently earning rave reviews and awards buzz. Meanwhile, The Twilight Saga, which chronicled the love story between human Bella (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson), came to a close in 2012 after racking up millions of dollars at the box office and becoming a cultural phenomenon.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone discussing her extensive career, Coppola revealed that she was approached to direct the final movie in The Twilight Saga, but she decided to turn it down because she thought the “whole imprinting-werewolf thing was weird.” Read her full comment below:

“We had one meeting, and it never went anywhere. I thought the whole imprinting-werewolf thing was weird. The baby. Too weird! But part of the earlier Twilight could be done in an interesting way. I thought it’d be fun to do a teen-vampire romance, but the last one gets really far out.”

What Sofia Coppola Has Been Up To After Passing Up The Twilight Movie

The Twilight plot point that Coppola was referring to has prompted a great deal of controversy. In Breaking Dawn – Part 2, Jacob (Taylor Lautner) undergoes a common werewolf process known as imprinting, which is likened to finding one’s soul mate. The problem is, Jacob imprints on Bella and Edward’s infant daughter Renesmee. Many have pointed out how awkward this is, even though Jacob insists it is an innocent gesture. It’s understandable that Coppola would’ve taken issue with this aspect of Breaking Dawn – Part 2, and she instead went on to direct other projects that have bolstered her position as one of the best directors of her generation.

In 2011, Coppola began developing The Bling Ring, a crime film that’s based on Nancy Jo Sales’ 2010 Vanity Fair article titled The Suspects Wore Louboutins. The movie, which featured an ensemble cast led by Emma Watson, Katie Chang, Leslie Mann, Taissa Farmiga, Claire Julien, Georgia Rock, and Israel Broussard, was eventually released in 2013 to generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised the strong performances and Coppola’s directing.

A couple of years after turning down the opportunity to direct The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, Coppola wrote and directed The Beguiled, a Southern Gothic psychological thriller based on Thomas P. Cullinan’s 1966 novel of the same name. It earned Coppola the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming only the second woman to win the award. In 2020, she directed the comedy-drama On the Rocks, and she is currently celebrating and promoting the release of Priscilla.

Source: Rolling Stone