New/Old Pictures of Catherine Hardwicke and Amanda Seyfried

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Collider Interview with Catherine Hardwicke--Including New Details on Her Upcoming Projects

What do you enjoy about doing commentary for your films? Do you think it’s important for audiences to understand the work that goes into making a film, especially with something like this?

HARDWICKE: Yeah. I like doing commentary. As a filmmaker and film student, I think it’s really interesting to hear what a director did and how they figured out how to do things. I often like the technical commentaries myself, with the D.P. and stuff. We weren’t able to do a technical one, but you can hear myself and the actors speaking about the whole process of making the film, which can be very fun and interesting. When I talk to film students, I always say, “Buy the DVDs and listen to the commentaries, look at the making of, look at the behind-the-scenes,” because that’s such a great learning tool.

You seem to enjoy the casting process, as much as you do making the actual film. Does it feel like a magical experience to have that moment where you realize that you’ve found the person that’s perfect for the role that you’re casting?

HARDWICKE: Oh, yes! I can go back to my very first movie, Thirteen, and think about that exact moment when I saw Nikki Reed and Evan Rachel Wood do their chemistry read audition together. It just came alive. I was filming it with a video camera and I was like, “I know I can make a good movie now.” And, it was the same thing here. When I saw Amanda [Seyfried] and Shiloh [Fernandez] interacting and their chemistry, I thought, “Okay, that’s pretty sexy. That can be steamy. I feel something between these two characters.” You love those moments, as a filmmaker, or when an actress comes in and reads a small part, like the girl that played the mean girl in the movie. She was just so diabolical that I loved it. You’re like, “Yes!” I never expected it to be that way, but the actress might bring this whole other layer and just give you the chills. Those are exciting moments.

Is The Bitch Posse the next project that you’re going to focus on?

HARDWICKE: That is a really fun one. As a director, you’ve got to have quite a few projects going because you never know which one will actually come together with the financing and get the green light. But, the writer and myself and Virginia Madsen have been working on that for the last few days. The writer came out from New York. It’s very interesting. The writer has to sit down now and really roll up her sleeves and do the hard work of putting pen to paper, so I’m not sure how long that will take. I have another project that looks like it’s going to go first. It’s in Sweden and Germany, and it’s really wild. I can’t quite talk about it, but we’ll probably do the announcement in a couple of weeks. It’s a very fun, very crazy story that goes back to more of my Thirteen days. It’s more indie, raw and gritty, and it’s a true story.

Check out the entire interview here. 

Catherine Hardwicke on Her New 'Red Riding Hood' Cut and 'fighting the fight' as a Director

Looking back at the whole experience what did you enjoy about making the movie? What do you look back at after the past year and a half with fondness?
I always love the casting process and I love working with actors and I love finding chemistry between two actors and making discoveries.  I was very honored to work with Gary Oldman who I have admired forever, so I loved talking through scenes [with him]. love rehearsals and shooting too.  We had a fast schedule. It's still an adrenalin rush to be right there in that moment where we've got this much time to capture this moment on screen - that's super fun. The design phase.  I had always wanted to design a film that was from the imagination, a fairy tale setting that we got to design all the sets and the costumes and they were definitely creating a whole world. I did a lot of drawings myself and just getting into that.  The music.  Every step of the way you wish you had more time or money to make it better, but then you try to do the best you can in each moment.  But you love it, so it's a love/hate affair I think.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but have to tell you, I really thought the movie would do better at the box office than it did.  Whether it's the film or marketing or the release date, do you look back and go, "This maybe wasn't the right way to go"?  We made a strategic error here?
So far it's made $90 million worldwide, so that's not too bad.  But, I'm sure every studio looks back at every release and goes, 'Why didn't that one work?  Why didn't that do as well as we thought?  Did we put it out on the right weekend? Did we give the filmmaker enough time or money to finish it?'  I'm sure they second guess themselves. They have to.  Monday morning quarterback meetings.  I'm sure that happens.  As a filmmaker I think you always think you always wish you had more time.  We shot it in 42 days. I had many cool ideas and things you don't get to do if you only have 42 days. Horses and animals and CG wolves and everything.  And the release date was moved up and I would have loved to have had more time to try different ideas and things and have a little more time to work on stuff. I think that's most films.  Some people get a year in post and I envy those directors.  They get to try different ideas.  My friend [Gavin O'Connor] who did 'Warrior' has had two years. He shot it two years before mine came out.  He gets to go play with it more.   Of course I am envious of that luxury to have time to think about things and time to shoot. That's what we all wish for.

When you make your next project does that make additional time a priority?
Well you hope to find some way to protect that time that you need.  And that's a challenge.  Directors that get 135 days or a year to shoot or a year to edit, those are jobs that are few and far between.  And only certain kind of movies get that.  [Or that the studio can justify] spending that amount of money.  It's a challenge as a filmmaker. Every time you do the best you can with the resources you are given and to protect your integrity and your vision and you try your hardest to do the job.  We fight the fight every day. (Laughs).  I was talking to some filmmakers last night about this exact subject.  'How do you know?  How do you fight the fight? How do you get enough money to do it?'  If you get too much money then you have too many studios notes and too much expectation. So, it's a struggle every day.  My next project I want to do an indie film and it looks like I'm going to do a really cool, raw, kind of indie film in Europe and that seems like it's going to happen. It's almost come together. More back to my roots like 'Thirteen' days.  That doesn't really mean I'll have a bigger budget, but a different kind of beast.  Different challenges to fight.

Check out the entire interview here. (If you don't want the alternate ending spoiled, do not read the beginning of the interview)

Catherine Hardwicke Talks Red Riding Hood with Movie Web

How is this Alternate Cut different from what we saw in the theatrical release?
Catherine Hardwicke: Its only twenty seconds longer. We have an alternate ending. When we were cutting the film...Actually, while we were shooting it, I said, "Hey, why don't you let me try this?" I tried this new ending. I liked it. Its fun. It's a bit more provocative. It's got a little bit more of a twist. It's a little bit sexier. It's a different choice. I think both endings are fun, but this one gives you a little something extra to talk about. But its only twenty seconds longer.

I love the way this movie looks, in terms of art direction and set design. How did you draw towards some of the visual ques we see in Red Riding Hood?
Catherine Hardwicke: From the start, I was intrigued by what David Johnson did as a screenwriter, and what Leonardo DiCaprio's company did. They went back to the original version of this story. Where the wolf was a werewolf. Back in the 1200s, people believed that idea. I liked that idea. It gave you this chance to reveal that the wolf is someone that lives in the village. There is a homegrown sense of paranoia. And the fact that the village had been tormented by this wolf, in this story, for over twenty years. That would mean that over twenty or thirty years, there would be a built-in paranoia when it came to the architecture of the village. That is what we tried to do. I started looking at Northern Russian architecture, where I found these big rustic log buildings that were built up on stilts, with ladders that were removable at night. They had these huge wooden shudders. Ad they had these scary totems that were carved into them, that would scare away the bad spirits. I thought it would be great if the whole town had embraced this spirit of paranoia. The psyche. It was in these pointed logs, and things. That was our inspiration for the town, for the design, and the woods. The primal fear of going into the dark woods alone. Our production designer enhanced that by having the twisted trees with the huge thorns on them. I thought it all added to the mythic quality, and the fear that you feel, in this fairy tale. Our cinematographer, Mandy Walker...A female cinematographer, yes! She did such a great job lighting it. She captured that mood, which you could see in the movie, of that fear and that paranoia.

Check out the entire interview here.

Catherine Hardwicke Talks RRH's Alternate Ending and Her Upcoming Project (Fingers Crossed)

CG: There's a much darker, alternate ending to Red Riding Hood. As a director, did you get attached to one particular ending?

CH: I like both endings! They're very different. If I had it my way, I would have had one ending in one theater and one in another.

CG: Where do you draw from, as far as emotional moments, especially with movies based in fantasy?

CH: You try to find the closest human experience. Try to get the closest to the heart of that emotion. Directing Red Riding Hood, I would try to find a time when I thought someone was my friend, but they just wanted to borrow something from me. Maybe they didn't want to kill me, but they did have an ulterior motive. It's a nugget of something real that you hold with you the whole time.

CG: What's your dream project?

CH: My first movie, Thirteen, and it was very real-almost too real. It was very gritty, with raw human emotion. I'd love to do something like that again. I have a project in the works that would be something like that. I can't say the name yet, but my fingers are crossed. It would shoot in Europe and would be a character piece.

Read the entire interview here. 

In The Director's Chair: Catherine Hardwicke

PW: Ok, with that out of the way, I know this was a rather hectic production, so how do you feel about "Red Riding Hood" with a little bit of distance?
Catherine: It was a very wild ride. You spend months trying to get a movie made and from the moment they said yes we had a very compacted, tight schedule. They cut a third of our schedule in post-production -- after we wrapped, they said, “it has to be out on this date!” We couldn’t even take a breath. It was one of the most exhausting things I’ve ever done – 110 hour work weeks just to get the movie finished. In a way, I never had time to take stock of what just happened. So I’m looking forward to watching the movie again and seeing it now that I have a little more time. Like every filmmaker I would have loved to have had more time to finesse it, live with it a bit more. I wish I could have, but there was a schedule I had to keep.

PW: I was also pleasantly surprised to see a Gag Reel on there -- something I feel like dramatic directors don't embrace as often as they should. I mean, who wouldn't want to see a "Schindler's List" Gag Reel?
Catherine: I wanna see that! [laughs] It’s funny because I had that dilemma on “Twilight” and I didn't end up putting the Gag Reel on the DVD, but this one has some fun stuff – mostly in regards to working on a period movie. Clanking around in the armor. Getting stuck on walls. It’s goofy fun stuff that I thought people would like.

PW: So what will be next for you?
Catherine: I think it’s a movie that will be shot in Europe – it’s back to my raw indie roots. I can’t say what it is, but it’s wild. We’ll probably announce it in a few weeks so keep your eyes out. 

PW: Now that you've sort of dabbled in both indie & studio fare, do you have a preference?
Catherine: It’s so interesting because there is something wonderful about both sides. Working for a studio, you’ve got all the support of these executives, marketing people, beautiful sound facilities and all the equipment. But you also have a lot of input from those executives who are busy on all their other projects. Juggling release dates is difficult. They want a movie to come out this day!So you have a beautiful machine to work within. With indie film, you have nobody telling you anything. No one says “don’t make it R rated” or “make that character nicer!” I'm free to do what I want to do, but in that freedom comes no money – which is why my car, furniture and clothes are in “Thirteen!” [laughs] After doing a few studio films in a row, I want to do another indie – I think it’s good for the soul to struggle a bit. To make something out of nothing.

Check out the entire interview here.

Catherine Hardwicke Includes New Ending on Red Riding Hood DVD

When filming Red Riding Hood Hardwicke admitted that although she puts her heart and soul into the moment of every scene, she does keep in mind what may show up on the DVD later. “As a director I try to stay in the moment,” she said. “But sometimes you do think about it like when something really crazy happens and you laugh at something or you’re just amused by something and you want to show people how something actually came to be. In the extras we included the scene where we had the dance numbers and as I was watching the DVD, I thought it was one of the more interesting things because it’s very raw looking and it shows how somebody was there with a stunt pad and another person there in a wolf costume that was bought online for $69 for a stand in.

“You see ways a director and a stunt coordinator start to line up shots and how to shoot the movie. So this DVD has interesting things I don’t think a lot people have seen before. As a director, it’s a great learning experience to watch how other directors work, too, so for film students I always say, ‘rent the DVD and watch the ‘Making Of.’”

Check out the entire article here. 

‘Red Riding Hood’ Director Catherine Hardwicke on Who the Wolf Is, and the Movie’s Alternate Ending

When you read David Johnson’s script, were you taken by surprise as to the identity of the wolf, or did he tell you beforehand?

Hardwicke: Oh, no no. I read it cold and I had no idea, either. I thought it was great; I thought David did a great job of layering in all these possibilities. I like the idea that it could be anybody, that there could be darkness inside anyone.

How did you match that misdirection as a director? Did you intend to make the suspicion more in the characters’ heads, or to influence the viewers as well?

Hardwicke: That was the fun thing, to figure out how to create that paranoia in the way Valerie loked at people—in the lighting, almost in the shadows and trying to understand, Is there darkness, is there evil in this person? I think that’s something kind of interesting, now that people do often have an identity online, a whole different life in chat rooms and having affairs, and we don’t know what the perons sitting next to us is doing. I love that whole “secret identity” thing; I thought it would be an interesting thing to play out. One minute somebody looks normal, then the next they look different in the shadows and you feel like, Oh my God, I’m not seeing this person for who they really are.

Can you talk about the alternate ending?
Hardwicke: It’s maybe a little bit sexier and a little bit more of a twist. If I’d had my way, I would’ve had one ending in one theater, and one in another!

Check out the entire interview here.

The site is also giving away a copy of Red Riding Hood on DVD. You can find all the details at the end of the interview.

"Meet the Filmmakers" Now Available on Itunes

While in London, Catherine, Max, Shiloh, and Amanda stopped by Apple Store to talk about the film. You can download the podcast episodes here.

Digital Spy Interview with Catherine Hardwicke

Cast Interviews from Empire

Laureate of Disaffected Female Youth

“When you are five years old, you just find it scary. ‘I don’t want to go into the dark woods alone.’ Then, when you are 12 or 13, you find there’s something there you hadn’t noticed. You go one way: straight to grandmothers. Or you go another and get in touch with your sensuality.” You don’t have to work too hard to find a theme in Hardwicke’s work. The superficial connections between Red Riding Hood and Twilight are obvious.

But the new film also has a lot in common with the movie that made Hardwicke’s name. In 2003, having spent years working as a production designer, she made her directorial debut with the brilliantly harrowing Thirteen.

Detailing the wretched falling out between a mother and her increasingly wayward teenage daughter – the script was closely based on its star Nikki Reed’s own experiences – Hardwicke’s picture attempted a more explicit study of the allegorical dilemma facing Seyfried’s naive villager. Will she embrace the sinful wolf or morally upright grandma? “Oh it is similar. Yeah, I know. I was talking to somebody else about that today. When you’re young you have those feelings stirring inside you. Neither film would have a story without that dilemma. When you are trying things out, that’s when you learn things. That’s what is exciting about life.”

Hardwicke’s other two features also deal with adolescent confusion. The Nativity Story starred Keisha Castle-Hughes as a very human Virgin Mary; Lords of Dogtown dealt with skate-borders in hipper corners of Los Angeles. Hardwicke is fast becoming the laureate of disaffected female youth.

Read the entire article here. 

New Interview with Catherine and the Boys

Catherine Hardwicke Interview

How did you get involved with Red Riding Hood?

Leonardo DiCaprio's company had come up with the idea of going back before the Brothers Grimm to where there was a werewolf in the story, which added that extra layer of whodunit and the mystery and the darkness inside. So, they sent me the script and I thought this is quite intriguing and a challenge to see if I can keep that mystery the whole time, if I can build the paranoia; and then I liked the idea of just creating a world. I have an architectural background and have always wanted to make my own fairytale world.

Were you worried about comparisons between Twilight and Red Riding Hood?

I think other people love to talk about it. Twilight is a very polarizing thing. Some people love it, some people hate it, and some people love to hate it. I get all the positive negativity baggage people feel about that movie. So what can you do?

Where did you first see Amanda Seyfried?

I first saw Amanda, she did a benefit for autism, to cure autism, and she was up there and all the other actors were reading little poems and she just got up there and immediately leaped off the podium for me. I got drawn in by what she said. It was very simple but she just had so much heart and soul... eyes and everything. I just loved her.Then I started watching her in other movies, She came to my house and I loved her as a person and just thought she looks like a fairytale character, and looks like she is from another world. [She]'s a beautiful soul and she's brave and funny and she'll do anything. I also like to see, when I throw anything at an actor, whether they go with it or [just] freeze up.When you're filming something like this one - on a very tight budget and 42-day schedule - if it doesn't go your way, if the sun doesn't come out right or you have a lot of emergencies on the set, you have to be able to say to somebody, "We have to shoot over here now, we got flooded out" or something. We lost a couple of our locations... sometimes you have to have actors who can roll with the punches.

Read the entire interview here. 

Magic Meets Catherine Hardwicke

Magic's Jamie Edwards found out how [Catherine Hardwicke] handpicked the perfect cast, and got some insider info about how the film's fantastic landscape scenes were filmed.

Unfortunately, the interview is only available to UK based listeners. If that's you, click here to listen.

UPDATE: Video now available.

Twilight Director Returns with Red Riding Hood

One of the over-riding themes of Red Riding Hood, concedes Hardwicke, is paranoia.

“When Gary Oldman’s character comes into town, it’s kind of like in the US – homeland security makes you paranoid about all of your neighbours, and you must report somebody if you notice anything,” explains Hardwicke.

Should we see parallels in the cloistered, far-away world of Red Riding Hood and what’s happening in modern society?

“I think so, especially when you start to look at your own friends, and wonder about their motives,” says Hardwicke.

“We have the internet, and we don’t know what our husband or wife might be doing in the next room. Do they have a double life, or not?”

Read more here.

Catherine Hardwicke Talks Red Riding Hood

On the influences behind the film

I’m not so much of a person top go back and look at other movies as much, like when I did 13, I didn’t look at other teenage movies,  I looked at a couple of Martin Scorsese and Cassavetti’s to get that gritty reality, so actually in this movie I looked more at paintings, I looked more at paintings of Hieronymus Bosch,  from that time period, and try to find the spirit of the people, and the dance sequence you see in there, and The Garden of Earthly Delights, and Bruegel and other painters of that time.

On the music and dancing in the film

Strangely enough, if you look at the paintings of Breugel and Bosch from that time period, from the fourteen hundreds, I studied those two for the dance, they are wild. This is before the Victorian age, this is when people actually had spirit and life and kind of cut loose. Burning Man, which has roots in medieval festivals was, in a way, the inspiration, but it’s old/new, it’s circling back. And the Swedish band that did the music, Fever Ray, used  all the beautiful old instruments, the Hurdy Gurdy, all the things that were pictured in Bosch’s garden of earthly delights, they were recorded, and then processed again in the music.

On why she chose to make Red Riding Hood

Well, let’s see, Leonardo DiCaprio’s company came up with this idea, and as has been reported,  I had a several other projects I was trying to get made: Hamlet, I tried to get on the fighter (I couldn’t even get an interview for that), but this is the one the studio said, ‘yeah, let’s make it’ finally, so then you get excited about it, and think, ‘how could I make a whole world? A magical fairytale world?’, and just start building it, and turning it into something.

Check out the entire article here.

Total Film Interviews with the Cast

Catherine, Shiloh, and Max

Amanda

Also, check out Total Film's Gala Premiere Report

Catherine Hardwicke talks Robert Pattinson, Twilight & Red Riding Hood

RTE TEN's Cast Interviews

Amanda Seyfried revealed how she handles fame, while Max Irons and Shiloh Fernandez talked about the on-set fun and director Catherine Hardwicke praised her cast.

You can watch them all here.