Sophia Coppola noped out of directing the final Twilight movie because of the "weird" baby
In hindsight, we wouldn't want anything to do with it either.
Cast your mind back to 2011, when one of the biggest things in the world of film was the Twilight films. After the first part of the final film, Breaking Dawn: Part 1, was released, the studio quickly began to search for a director for the second half of the story. Among those who had a chance to helm the picture was Oscar-winning director Sophia Coppola. If it is hard to imagine the Lost in Translation director associated with the Twilight franchise, rest assured she wasn’t considered very long.
According to a recent interview with Rolling Stone to promote her upcoming biopic, Priscilla, Coppola had one meeting before she removed herself from contention for the job. It wasn’t the overwhelming teenage angst or the sparkly vampires that put her off, though – it was the book’s awkward handling of Bella and Edward’s baby, Renesmee, that made the writer-director nope out of the project.
“I thought the whole imprinting-werewolf thing was weird. The baby. Too weird!” she told the magazine, referencing the fact that werewolves in the Twilight setting forge a permanent and fierce bond with their soulmate. This process is instantaneous and doesn’t require the subject to consent or even be of an age where they can consent. For example, a werewolf forms this bond with Renesmee when she is just an infant, which is problematic in so many ways that we can see why Coppola wasn’t keen on having her name associated with it.
The final Twilight film eventually got its director by way of Bill Cordon, who had helmed the previous movie in the series, which was probably for the best for all parties. The whole conversation has been a reminder of just how odd the Twilight stories became toward the end.
Wondering what other weird movies are coming out in the next couple of months? Check out our guide to every upcoming movie scheduled for theatrical and streaming release.
