It’s no small feat to establish a film franchise based on a book that is already treasured by millions. Back in 2008, director Catherine Hardwicke revolutionised the young adult fantasy genre with Twilight.

From her edgy debut in 2003 with Thirteen, Hardwicke went on to release Lords of Dogtown, her chronicle of the 70s skateboarding scene, before her new Toni Colette-driven dark comedy, Mafia Mamma. It’s a surprise to Hardwicke that the teen vampire romance became her most influential and commercial success.

Stephanie Meyer’s novel spoke to countless teen hearts and preyed on our endless desire for unconventional love story. The moment that Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) clocks handsome, aloof Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) in the school cafeteria, neither of them stands a chance. So begins the genre-defining romance, which paved the way for future female-led fantasy franchises such as The Hunger Games and Divergent. 

Though 15 years have passed since the film’s debut, Hardwicke recalls the experience with such energetic clarity and fondness that you’d be forgiven for thinking filming ended days, not years ago. 

“What a crazy phenomenon,” Hardwicke says, shaking her head as though still in awe of it’s success. “When I took the job, we did not know that it was going to be this big global, worldwide hit. It was just mind-blowing.”

When asked about Twilight’s timeless appeal and cross-generational relevance - including its newfound following on TikTok - Hardwicke says it boils down to our innate desire to be loved or the allure of “a dangerous, forbidden romance.” 

Ingrained within the film is the addictive nature of their desire, as Edward’s hunger for Bella grows and their dangerous obsession with each other parallels the animalistic anomaly of a “lion falling in love with a lamb”. Naturally, this only makes him want her more. 

“Rob and Kristen have so much powerful chemistry in the movie that you feel like you’re there,” she adds, “It’s something that Stephanie Meyer was great about putting it in the DNA of the book - their longing.”

To evoke that in the film, Hardwicke mapped the lovers’ proximity in every frame to build that vital sexual tension. “I had a chart to mark exactly how close they ever got – like, if a finger touched, or if a hand touched,” she says, “I knew exactly what happened and calibrated every moment. It kind of teases you through the film.” 

Alongside the epic love story, Twilight is widely recognised for its iconic, melancholic, muted aesthetic, where all the warmth and colour seems to have been drained out. Bella’s world is every sad girl’s daydream. 

Visually, it also illustrated the overcast location of Forks, which is integral to the book, as it’s one of the “foggiest and rainiest places in the whole continent” - a perfect retreat for vampires who sparkle in the sunlight. 

Every directorial decision was made with a conscious effort to control the colour palette, from the filming schedule being weather-dependent, down to every minute wardrobe detail. The actors were intentionally styled in neutral, natural, earthy tones to mirror the wild landscape.

“If we were filming and the sun came out, we did not shoot,” Hardwicke said, “We’d have to go and build a little rain cave and shoot in there or there was an interior set that we could go to, like a cover set.”

Alongside the climate restrictions, their limited budget of $37 million (£32m) impacted the scope of Hardwicke’s vision for the film. “I wanted to shoot in the real Forks and La Push Beach, but we couldn’t afford that,” she says,  “I also wanted to do this really neat underwater sequence, more of the ballet sequence, more action, but we could only afford this much… and it worked.”

Studios were sceptical about a Twilight adaptation (“Nobody wanted to make it!”), but Hardwicke was dedicated to transforming Meyer’s cherished story it into a captivating big-screen experience. 

“Twilight was still growing in popularity as we made the film. We could read the comments online, search what scenes (like the meadow) or lines people loved and even had tattooed on their arms! We knew we had to get those right,” she reflects. 

Reading is often an intangible, private experience at odds with the collective experience of cinema. It was important to Hardwicke that Twilight honoured the original story for the passionate existing fanbase. 

“I had to take scenes that were beloved in the book – for example when Bella asks Edward, ‘How long have you been 17?’ and change it,” Hardwicke explains. “It was set in a car, and two people in a car, wearing a seatbelt, stuck in a seat is not the most cinematic visual. It’s quite boring. So I took it out and put it in the forest with this big techno crane swooping around. That way you feel the emotions too.”

She focused on creating a symbiotic relationship between the film and the novel, drawing out the themes and the essence of this epic-scale Romeo and Juliet-style love story in just over 120 minutes.

“The treetop sequence in Twilight is not in the book at all. But it’s all about how it feels,” she says, “What it’s like to be in love with this cool vampire, who is dangerous and fast? Let’s make a scene that feels like that.”

Those creative risks paid off at the box office, as Twilight made a staggering $407 million worldwide, making Hardwicke one of the most successful female directors of all time. Its monumental financial success left the ambitious director hopeful for the future of her filmmaking career.

“I immediately thought, ‘I’m going to get to do anything I want after this’. But that wasn’t the case,” she recollects. “At the time, people weren’t shining a light on female directors, so all the other Twilight movies were directed by men. The Hunger Games movies were directed by men, and Divergent too.”

Despite her passion for the Twilight franchise, Hardwicke chose to not return for the sequels, to focus on developing her original films. However, if she had returned, Hardwicke says she would have done things differently. 

“I try to make a film in a personal way and I think they got less personal,” she says of the subsequent four installments, “I would have stayed with the tone that we created in the first film, where you’re more intimate with the characters.”

After Meyer published 2020’s Midnight Sun, a re-telling of the Twilight story from Edward’s perspective, it seems the Twilight universe may return to the big-screen in the future – and Hardwicke doesn’t rule out revisiting the franchise.

“Sure – I love it still,” she says, before offering a curveball for a new direction for the franchise. “I’d love to do it in outer space. That would be awesome.”

“I’d love to do something with it. I’m not against it, as I’m very interested in cool stories like Twilight and creating another world. I’m open to anything.”

For now, though, Hardwicke is at the helm of a new female-led dark comedy, Mafia Mamma. Each of her films might be “quite different” but the focus remains the same - to “just live in somebody else’s skin for a while”.

“I thought [Mafia Mamma] was kind of great,” she says, “This woman has been silenced and ignored. Her husband doesn’t really care about her, her son is ready to go away to college and her bosses are toxic men who don’t respect her voice. So the fact that she finally finds her voice as the film progresses is exciting.”

“We were also still filming during the pandemic, and I knew I wanted Toni Collette and for the film to be a fun, female empowerment story about a woman finding her voice and some cool revenge in there too.”

Mafia Mamma is available to stream on Prime Video from November 17. 

Images: Courtesy of Catherine Hardwicke, Getty, Gilles Bensimon