The Twilight Saga isn’t exactly a triumph among critics – or, at least, it hasn’t been up until this point. It doesn’t really matter, though, since its in-built audience is huge and its fans generally settle for handsome men with their shirts off as the thrust of the narrative, but it’s still a fact that undermines the movies, somewhat.
Summit’s hiring of Bill Condon – director of the acclaimed Kinsey and Dreamgirls, among many other pictures – to helm the franchise’s final movie installment, Breaking Dawn, is certainly interesting. While all the previous directors associated with the series are experienced and have steered large-scale movies in the past, Condon is an award-savvy director whose output has generally been targeted at an older audience than that associated with Twilight.
So, is this an attempt on the part of Summit to give critical credibility to the Twilight series? It’s perfectly possible. The real question here, however, is whether it’ll make much of a difference to the series overall. By the time Breaking Dawn rolls around, Twilight will have its tone well-established by the prior three movies, the latest of which is, of course, Eclipse, released in June. A reinvention seems off the cards.
I like the mentality behind it, though. Why not just hire the most capable person possible to direct a final installment of a popular film franchise, if it’s an available option? It’s a move that can only help the series.
