Twilight Director Reinvisions “Riding Hood”

I’m a more than a little divided about Catherine Hardwicke. She seems to be a very capable director, and I approve of any female presence on the directing scene, period. She crafted one of my favorite underrated films, Lords of Dogtown, as well as Thirteen. Yet she also directed the first Twilight film, which is just death and dismay at 24 frames per second.

But with the news that she’d be taking on a “Gothic retelling” of the Little Red Riding Hood tale for Appian Way and Warner Bros., I’m absolutely intrigued and excited.

The film will be written by Orphan scribe David Leslie Johnson, and centers around a werewolf and a teenage love triangle. This, with Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, marks the rise of a return to older tales for re-imagining — if this means less remakes of films under 30 years old, I’m all for it.

The film is one of many on a list of potential Appian Way productions, including Aquaman, Akira, and Ninja Scroll. Let’s hope that this film will set Hardwicke back on the track of being an interesting and diverse filmmaker. If she indeed remains on the project, she’ll handle it after her adaptation of Hamlet.