Facebook Revives ‘Twilight’

Sabrina Petrafesa ‘18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Lionsgate has partnered with Stephenie Meyer, Facebook and Women in Film to release a series of short films based off the Twilight series. The short films will be exclusively released through social media as part of an initiative called, “The Storytellers – New Creative Voices of The Twilight Saga.”

The idea is to choose five aspiring female directors to create short films based off of the Twilight novels. To help choose and mentor the five directors, an all female panel has been created for the process. Panelists include, Kristen Stewart (Twilight Series), Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight Director), Kate Winslet (Divergent), Octavia Spencer (The Help), Jennifer Lee (Frozen writer), Julie Bowen (Modern Family), Stephenie Meyer (Twilight Author) and Cathy Shulman (Women in Film president).

The short films will be released on Facebook where fans will then get to vote for their favorite short film. The fans will be included in the production, development and judging processes. Facebook is a pivotal part of this creating the best possible way to bring back the beloved series. A TV series or reboot would seem tacky and too soon after the release of the last installment of the film series. It’s even better that they are using this as a stepping-stone to help young women in film.

It’s admirable to give this chance to aspiring young female directors to give them a foothold in such a competitive and male dominated industry. Facebook is taking advantage of the unfulfilled feeling that most Twilight fans felt after the movies came out and to get some money out of it. The social media aspect of this project will probably end up being incredibly successful because it will be free to fans and they wont even have to leave their house to see the new short films. It’s much more convenient than going to see a new Twilight movie that might be a disappointing eleven dollars at the movie theater.

There is not date set as to when the project will begin, but it’s exciting news for fans to get a second chance with the series seen through a different lens than the original films.