“Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke says she walked away from the payday of a lifetime to direct the sequel “New Moon” because she didn’t want to make the movie under the deadline and budget constraints that would have been placed on her.

That’s one of the key revelations in an interview she did with Entertainment Weekly in which she also discusses the forthcoming “Twilight: Director’s Notebook,” inspired by the on-set journal she kept while shooting the smash-hit vampire romance.

Hardwicke says in the interview posted on ew.com that she was having dinner in Paris with the film’s young stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, when her cell phone rang. She’d been in negotiations with Summit Entertainment, which released “Twilight,” about directing part two in Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling series.

These days, ”Twilight”fans are so freaked out that you’d think James the nomad was on to their scent.

Even though their beloved vampire film keeps taking in big bucks at the box office, director Catherine Hardwicke has been yanked off the sequels, and names of potential successors are jumping around faster than Edward Cullen on a deer hunt.

As the future of the franchise hangs in the balance, and the fanbase splinters into various camps, we’ve set aside some cool news that should hopefully return a smile to the faces of Stephenie Meyer fans. It’s part three of what would become Hardwicke’s last in-depth interview as the “Twilight” captain. Following on the heels of her discussing record-setting box-office numbers and ”New Moon” hopes, we bring you brand-new details about Hardwicke’s final “Twilight” effort: the much-anticipated DVD.

Read the rest of this post for video.

“We just did the commentary,” Hardwicke grinned when she came to visit our studio right after “Twilight” opened, revealing that she had spent time in an audio booth with stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart that very morning. “We were like, ‘Is this the lamest commentary ever?’ We were just laughing! I was thinking, ‘Should we do something really serious with myself and the stunt guy and special-effects people and show aspiring filmmakers how we did those special effects?’ But nope. We did the giggle version. [Rob and Kristen were] remembering the funny stuff that happened and the crazy stuff. They make fun of how they look in the movie.”

Asked when the disc will arrive in stores, Hardwicke said, “I think spring. Maybe right after Valentine’s Day.” She then added even more information to the details she gave us about the DVD last month. “We have 10 deleted or extended scenes. There’s some juicy stuff in there,” she said, adding that one would correct an omission spotted by many Meyer fans. “I think in one of them, [Edward and Bella] do say, ‘I love you.’

“There’s a few crazy montages we made of every time someone gets bitten by a vampire that we didn’t show in the movie. There’s a lot more vampire biting,” she said of the more violent material held back to get “Twilight” its PG-13 rating. “One montage is called ‘Human Hijinks,’ and it’s all the human friends [including Mike Welch and Anna Kendrick] doing crazy stuff, more [from the field-trip scene] with the worms and the greenhouse. Just them totally messing around, going crazy. That’s kind of fun.”

A second montage will focus on the movie’s undead moments. “There is the very sexy vampire biting — that is not in the movie,” Hardwicke said of the bonus feature. “There’s [Rob biting Kristen in the dream sequence], and then there’s the nomadic vampires attacking. We have that in there too.”

As for other notable moments, Hardwicke said: “There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. We had a great guy, Jeff, who was [filming us] every day. He did some very creative interviews, so you can see us making almost every scene in the movie, which is kind of fun. I actually learned a few things I didn’t even know, listening to other people’s interviews!

“You can also see the orchestra in London performing ‘Bella’s Lullaby,’ ” she said of another bonus feature. “There’s a lot of neat stuff.”

Then there’s the moment that MTV’s “Twilight” Tuesday fans will perhaps be most eager to see, as explained hilariously last month by Edi Gathegi. ” That ‘Does a Baby Eat Candy?’ scene was in rehearsal, so I’m trying to get them to put that rehearsal scene in; that was hysterical,” Hardwicke laughed. “We literally fell on the ground, because [Edi's attempts at improv] can get pretty perverse. You have to see it!”

As for the other deleted scenes, “There are some scenes that are longer, and some scenes that we don’t have in the movie,” Hardwicke explained. “There’s one scene that’s not in the film where Rob and Kristen are walking alone, and he trips her and they fall back into these leaves, and then he takes a bite of her finger. … It’s Kristen’s favorite scene.”

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Catherine Hardwicke helmed the massively successful “Twilight,” making stars out of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, along with having the biggest opening weekend ever for a female film director, but she will not return for the vampire sequel, “New Moon.”

Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily first broke the news that Hardwicke would not return and on Sunday the director released a statement toVariety. “I am sorry that due to timing I will not have the opportunity to direct ‘New Moon,’” Hardwicke said in a statement released to the entertainment trade mag. “Directing ‘Twilight’ has been one of the great experiences of my life, and I am grateful to the fans for their passionate support of the film. I wish everyone at Summit the best with the sequel — it is a great story.”

It appears that Summit didn’t give her her offer for the sequel in accordance with her timeline and she opted out. It seems that Hardwicke and the studio had some friction and told Deadline Hollywood Daily that she was “difficult” and “irrational”.