Katherine Hardwick is a successful Hollywood director and, more recently, a producer whose most famous work today is the first part of the legendary Twilight Saga.
Beginning of a creative career
Katherine began her career in the film industry as a production designer. All the paintings in which Hardwick took part (Girl of the Tank, Tomstone, Two Days in the Valley, Three Kings, The Newton Brothers and the canonical Vanilla Sky) are distinguished by non-standard color schemes. The full-fledged debut, in which director Katherine Hardwick acted as a co-author of the script, was the dramatic film "Thirteen." By the way, the second screenwriter was the leading woman, also a debutante in the big movie, Nikki Reed. Hardwick's 13-year-old daughter of friends helped the director transfer without distortion to the screen everything that an ordinary teenage girl experiences and feels at that age. The film, which illuminated the difficult life of teenagers, has been repeatedly nominated for the most prestigious film awards in the United States - Golden Globes and Oscars. The drama really helped to better understand each other's adults and children, Catherine Hardwick received not only the recognition of industry experts, but also won an army of loyal fans.
On the eve of
After a triumphant debut, the director takes off a biopic dedicated to the subculture of skaters, "Kings of Dogtown." The picture tells about the formation of a new extreme sport. The film was based on the events that really happened in the 70s, and the prototypes of the main characters are real people. In general, the movie is about vanity, friendship and decency. In the center of the story, the main characters are young skateboarders Tony, Stacy, Jay and Sid, who dream of winning the position of the authoritative extreme Skip. The heroes are prepared for the vicissitudes of fate, which will become a real test of the strength of friendship of four children.
After the release of the biopic, Catherine Hardwick begins work on a fragment of the biblical plot “Divine Birth” adapted for the movie. The film was commissioned by the world famous film company New Line Cinema. The picture tells the story of Joseph and the Virgin Mary, beginning with their expulsion from Nazareth and ending with the coming to Bethlehem, where, as everyone knows, Jesus should be born.
Twilight (2008)
World fame and true popularity came to the director in 2008 after the first part of “Twilight” was released on the big screen. This mystical romantic movie in the genre of melodrama, created based on the work of Stephanie Meyer, is the most successful work of a female director in the history of the American film industry. In general, world fees exceeded $ 400 million. Despite the unsurpassed success of the first part, the next part - “New Moon” - was filmed by another director (Chris Weitz). According to the official version, Katherine Hardwick did not agree with the deadlines announced by the producers for the filming of the picture, so she voluntarily refused to cooperate.
Interesting Facts
The movie Twilight (2008) would not have been like that without the direct involvement of Hardwick. She personally controlled the casting, managing to discern the potential of actors Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner - today's youth idols. After the release of the movie, these performers instantly gained the status of sex symbols. This fate passed the director, although the army of Hardwick fans increased. The Youtube site is filled with a host of amateur videos in which the authors try to reproduce the filming process of the saga, carefully copying the intonation and gestures of the female director.
Gothic version of a fairy tale
In 2011, the author of the first episode of the Twilight franchise began work on the adaptation of another story about people and wolves, this time gaining inspiration from the tales of the brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. An interpretation of the eternal plot was presented to the audience, taking into account modern trends in fashion and time - this is exactly what Catherine Hardwick created her picture. “Little Red Riding Hood” has a mystical and romantic atmosphere, the plot tells about the relationship between a man and a werewolf - a supernatural creature. For the courage and eccentricity of the director’s decision, you can already give a positive assessment, the world has not seen such a Little Red Riding Hood.
Little Red Riding Hood is a sweet girl Valerie (actress Amanda Seyfried), wears a scarlet cloak, in the best traditions of Western European mythology, and is trying to figure out a real werewolf in her environment. The situation is heating up after the arrival in the village of a seasoned hunter father Solomon (actor Gary Oldman). All the girl urgently needs to deal with events in her personal life, the fact is that the beauty from early childhood is in love with the poor orphan lumberjack Peter, and her parents prophesy to her the wife of the rich blacksmith Henry.
As a director and video maker
Katherine Hardwick, whose films do not leave indifferent the youth audience, like no one else knows the problems of teenagers and understands them. Confirmation of this fact can be considered the documentary The Hunting Ground, which was released at the end of 2015 on CNN. Cinema addresses violence in American colleges and campuses. The soundtrack to it is a clip from Lady Gaga, directed by Hardwick. The main female role was played by the young actress Nikki Reed, but the singer did not appear in the video clip.
Among other things, the director is sincerely interested in a variety of youth subcultures. Her gothic rock-and-roll film “Light Me” is an unpredictable stylish thriller with a good soundtrack and unexpected ending. When watching, the viewer will definitely get aesthetic pleasure from the gothic atmosphere of the film.