So you thought you kissed the ‘Twilight’ saga goodbye in 2012 forever did you? Well here’s some good news for fans of the movie franchise and the book series by Stephanie Meyer, it’s baaaaaack! And back with a good cause surrounding it.
Organization Women in Film have teamed up with Facebook, Lionsgate films and a new crowd-sourcing film project site called Tongal to revive the popular Vampire series in an initiative that will see the emergence of new female directors in Hollywood. The campaign is called ‘The Storytellers – New Creative Voices of The Twilight Saga.’
A panel of high-profile Hollywood dames including Twilight author Stephanie Meyer, director of the first film Catherine Hardwicke, star of the films Kirsten Stewart, Academy Award-winners Kate Winslet and Octavia Spencer, Emmy Award-winner Julie Bowen and ‘Frozen’ co-director and Academy Award-winning writer Jennifer Lee will head up a panel who will choose the aspiring filmmakers to direct 5 short films that will be shown on Facebook in 2015.
The campaign isn’t just designed to bring more female directors to the forefront of Hollywood, but also to display the way different media platforms can combine and create new and exciting ways for content to be distributed to fans.
“More people than ever before are creating, discovering and engaging with videos on Facebook,” said Facebook Vice President of Partnerships Dan Rose in a press release
“Our partnership with Facebook and Women In Film underscores the opportunities for growing our franchises in exciting new directions, and we’re pleased to introduce fresh creative talent to the Twilight universe as part of our commitment to female empowerment in front of and behind the camera,” said Lionsgate Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer and Vice Chairman Michael Burns.
In an industry where currently women make up less than 5% of directors in major motion pictures, and 10% in indie films, initiatives like this are needed as much as oxygen.
“Accessing Hollywood is a momentous challenge, especially for aspiring female filmmakers,” said WIF President Cathy Schulman. “Women In Film is proud…to lessen the gender gap in our film community and provide a platform for women’s perspectives to be seen and heard.”
“The female voice is something that has become more and more important to me as I’ve worked in the film industry,” said author Stephanie Meyer.
To say we need more female perspectives and leaders in Hollywood is an understatement. But it’s not as if women in the industry need to prove they are capable of captivating an audience. Just look at how successful ‘Frozen’ has been at the worldwide box office, becoming the fifth highest grossing film (not just animated film) of ALL TIME, and it features two female lead characters, co-directed by a woman as mentioned above.
The New York Times speculated that if this initiative becomes as huge as they hope, it could pave the way for more collaborative efforts based on other popular books turned into movie franchises. ‘The Hunger Games’, for instance.
If there were more initiatives, like what we have seen in Britain and Canada, as well as a dedicated focus to improving the scope of female directors in Hollywood, we could see a huge shift in the representation of women on screen. The more women are given the opportunities to write, direct, produce and create female perspectives, the less we will see stereotyped one-dimensional roles. We also need these initiatives to be noticed by studio chiefs because ultimately they are the ones who call the shots and they are the last line of defense in keeping women out of this “boys club”.
We never thought we’d say this, but hooray for more ‘Twilight’ action in the name of promoting talented aspiring female directors!
