ARE THEY TRYING TO KILL ME?

OK, so it's bad enough that they've replaced Catherine Hardwicke with the guy who did The Golden Compass for New Moon (BTW, according to anyone who actually read The Golden Compass, I did not, although I did enjoy the film, he butchered it) but now they're talking about replacing Taylor Lautner with Ben Barnes for Jacob!


NOOO!

Taylor Lautner was perfect. And I like Ben Barnes. I do, I mean, Prince Caspian...swoon. But he's not Jacob. And you can't do that. Recasting of a big role rarely works out. Like in Hannibal, I like Julianne Moore, but she's not Jodie Foster. Or Val Kilmer as Batman, yuck. (OK, I actually like Batman Forever, but because of Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman) Whichever Darrin Stevens was second, just not as good. If Ben Barnes wants in on Twilight, he can play Sam or something. Actually Ben Barnes would make a really good Sam, now that I think about it. Or maybe Embry. But not JACOB! You can't give me the perfect Jacob, who btw is actually Native American not British and bizarrely good at accents and then just take him away. Why does Robert effing Pattinson get a free pass? Edward is barely even in New Moon. He's in it as much as Jacob is in Twilight.

And don't even get me started on the Catherine Hardwicke thing. She did an amazing job on Twilight, with next to no budget and tremendous pressure. Not to mention part of what I love about Twilight is the feminine tour de force that it is. Think of Sci Fi/Fantasy/Horror authors who are household names. Guess what? Chances are they AREN'T WOMEN...with the exception of JK Rowling (who had to abbreviate her name because her publisher didn't think that if people knew right away Harry Potter was written by a woman they would buy it) there are very few women who are famous in that genre, and guess who the other two that I can think of are? Stefanie Meyer and Anne Rice. So having a woman direct the movie really meant something, especially to a young woman who has an interest in the entertainment industry. But now it's, "Oh, we can afford a man, so we're going to use him this time." It really puts me off, a lot. Luckily Stephanie said she's got her eye on him. I'm so glad they're letting her be involved. She better keep him from butchering it.

And the wolves better not look cheesy.