Sofia Coppola Explains Why She Passed on Directing the Final Twilight Film: ‘Too Weird’

Fans of the Twilight franchise may recall a decade ago when rumors circulated about which director would be selected to helm the final film in the fantasy saga. At the time, fingers pointed to Sofia Coppola, though the Academy Award winner just dished that her candidacy for the role was extremely short-lived.

In an Oct. 24 interview with Rolling Stone on a press tour for her latest film, Priscilla, Coppola explained that it only took one meeting to realize making the next Twilight movie wasn’t a part of her career trajectory.

“We had one meeting, and it never went anywhere,” the Lost In Translation writer-director said. “I thought the whole imprinting-werewolf thing was weird. The baby. Too weird!”

For those unfamiliar with Twilight lore, “imprinting” is an involuntary phenomenon that occurs when werewolves become tethered to their forever soulmate. As for “the baby” that Coppola’s referring to, Breaking Dawn – Part 2 introduces Renesmee, the infant daughter of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen.

“Part of the earlier Twilight could be done in an interesting way,” Coppola conceded. “I thought it’d be fun to do a teen-vampire romance, but the last one gets really far out.”

Coppola was among a pool of esteemed contenders for the gig that included Stephen Daldry, Gus Van Sant and Bill Condon. Ultimately, Condon took the director’s chair for the concluding Twilight film — a follow-up to his directorial work on Breaking Dawn – Part 1.

I thought it’d be fun to do a teen-vampire romance, but the last one gets really far out

As for the future, Coppola hasn’t entirely ruled out breaking into other genres: “I think it’d be fun to do sci-fi and I think it’d be fun to do, not like gory, but I like gothic horror,” the filmmaker said. A glance through Coppola’s past filmography affirms this, given her work on haunting films like The Beguiled, a gothic thriller from 2017.

Sofia Coppola on why she resigned from The Little Mermaid

Later in the interview, the 52-year-old director also revealed why she backed out of the live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid, which she was previously in talks to direct. Coppola started developing the movie in 2014 alongside Universal Pictures and Working Title, but she resigned from the project after a heated quarrel with studio executives over the film’s budget.

“I was in a boardroom and some development guy said, ‘What’s gonna get the 35-year-old man in the audience?’ And I just didn’t know what to say,” Coppola said, reflecting on the breaking point that drove her to abandon the project. “I just was not in my element. I feel like I was naive, and then I felt a lot like the character in the story, trying to do something out of my element, and it was a funny parallel of the story for me.”

Unfortunately, the experience isn’t new to Coppola as a female filmmaker in an industry where women account for less than a third of the people employed, according to a 2022 Statista survey.

“It happens a lot because usually the people financing things are straight men,” Coppola continued. “So it’s not the same point of view, but you’re trying to explain, like, ‘People, not everyone’s gonna be into what you’re into,’ but I just wanted to make things that appeal to me and express that.”

Back in 2017, Coppola told IndieWire that her intention was to put a darker spin on the beloved Disney story, similar to the original Hans Christian Anderson fairytale. Coppola also had voiced a desire to actually shoot underwater for the production, which she admitted “would have been a nightmare” — logistically and financially.

Up next for Coppola is the debut of her latest feature, “Priscilla,” a docudrama that chronicles the relationship between Priscilla and King of Rock ‘n’ Roll Elvis Presley. The film is based on Priscilla’s 1985 memoir, entitled “Elvis and Me,” and is being released less than a year after the passing of Lisa Marie Presley, the couple’s only child.

A24’s Priscilla will hit theaters across the nation Nov. 3.

To learn more about the upcoming film, read how Sofia Coppola Puts Elvis’ Wife Front and Center in Priscilla or take a look at IGN’s Sept. 4 review of the biopic.

Katie Reul is a freelance writer at IGN.