Red Riding Hood Director: From Vampire to Werewolf

Making a blockbuster can do great things for your career.

It also has some drawbacks.

Just ask Catherine Hardwicke, a veteran of small independent films (“Thirteen,” “Lords of Dogtown”) who was tapped to make the first “Twilight” movie. It became the highest-grossing film ever by a woman director.

But working on a multimillion-dollar franchise is not without its traps, particularly when an artist has to curb her creativity to serve a fan base that expects a faithful film version of a beloved book.

Which is why in her post-“Twilight” career Hardwicke, 55, has become fascinated with the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

“This time we didn’t have a book to serve,” she said in a phone interview from Los Angeles. “All we had was a little fairy tale — and there are 50 versions of that. “Which is the real version? There isn’t one. That’s what I liked about it.”

Hardwicke got involved in what would become “Red Riding Hood” (it opens Friday) when she was sent a first draft of David Johnson’s script, which was being developed by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way productions.

“I read it and thought it was very intriguing, setting up all these interesting characters only loosely based on those in the fairy tale,” she said. “But this time I wanted to be able to put my fingerprints all over it, so I started working with David on a new draft. We had an intense couple of months of batting around ideas.”

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