Nikki Finke has reported and many others have hopped aboard news that Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke is off the franchise. The most interesting piece of the story comes in Finke noting that Summit (who owes its newly-flush coffers to the movie that Hardwicke directed) is positioning her as "irrational" and "difficult to work with" (I'm paraphrasing the second there), similarly to how Julie Taymor was described on Across the Universe.

Why does this sound like a man breaking up with a woman with no good reason other than some one else waiting in the wings? I'm not saying I know anything about the production, Catherine, or any of the people involved, but this could be the new standard of writing off female directors. Didn't we hear something similar shot around about the studio's perspective on Lexi Alexander on Punisher: War Zone? Is this the conversation that goes on when studios look to hire directors:

"Jesus, Bill, we can't let a broad direct the picture, just think how irrational, difficult to work with, and out of control all those lady feelings are gonna be! Let's go get smashed, grab a couple hookers, and a brick of coke, whaddaya say?"

Any outspoken "artiste" or "auteur" type is going to butt heads with a studio that has anything less than complete trust in the director in question. No one will definitively, without a shadow of doubt, convince anyone that they're right in a he-said she-said on this thing. There are so many cooks in a studio kitchen, it's a matter of who owns the IP and who makes the hiring/firing choices...they control the spin, no question.

Is Summit trying to P.R.-wise wash its hands of the one undesirable regarding the first movie, its critical reception? "It isn't our fault, it's that bloody hard-headed woman!"