Advertisement
New Moon Rising
Chris Weitz takes a bite out of Twilight
Chris Weitz directs Kristen Stewart in New Moon (2009).
Something striking has occurred in the career of Chris Weitz. Once the self-described “techie” half of a low-key directing duo with brother Paul, Chris has now gone solo in a very big way: First with his ambitious adaptation of Philip Pullman’s epic The Golden Compass, and now with the second installment of Stephenie Meyer’s wildly popular Twilight blood-romance, New Moon.
This latest incarnation of Weitz—whose co-directing work includes a successful debut with American Pie and the beautifully crafted About a Boy—finds him painting on a larger canvas. But his themes and concerns remain human and relatable, whatever the scale. If there is a through-line in Weitz’s work, it may be a lack of cynicism—a willingness to trust that audiences are smart enough to want stories that go a step beyond formula.
A graduate of the University of Cambridge, where he studied English Literature, Weitz is also the product of a storied cinema family. Claiming that he had no early inclination toward film, it was nonetheless in his blood.
“My family has been in moviemaking for a long time,” he says. “My grandfather was John Huston and Ingmar Bergman’s agent. My grandmother was a silent film actress. My mom was in Imitation of Life; she was nominated for an Academy Award. However, there was then a generational break. My brother and I grew up in New York; we didn’t assume that we were going to work in films.”
But this soon changed. “We decided to write something together; we did a pitch, we got hired and we were screenwriters, sort of,” Weitz remembers. “It took us a while to earn our first screen credit, which was on Antz. Then the chance to become directors was one we snatched up, because it was the logical next step to get as much control as possible.”
FLASH FORWARD 10 YEARS: Weitz is now an A-list director. Here, he talks about his approach to helming New Moon, the influences which informed his vision and why this moviemaker with such a promising future may be about to direct his last movie.
Phillip Williams (MM): How did you come to be involved in New Moon?
Chris Weitz (CW): It was rather random. When things didn’t work out between Summit Entertainment and [Twilight director] Catherine Hardwicke, they came to me—I presume because I have some experience working with CGI and young actors, and I’ve adapted books. Like many males, I had not read anything in the Twilight series, so I got myself up to speed as quickly as I could.
I saw the first movie and was really taken with Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart and their performances. And the script worked. It’s not just that the book has this monumental appeal to people on a sort of Jungian level, but I felt that this was a book that I could do properly because it had a lot of depression and darkness in it… and I’m a very brooding sort of person. I’ve been dumped many times, so I could sympathize with Bella. (laughs)
MM: The project really has its own history and certain expectations attached to it. Did that play into your consideration as to whether or not to do the project or your approach to the film? Did it scare the shit out of you?
CW: It didn’t scare me terribly. All the baggage here is good: The fans are crazy about the series, they’re crazy about the actors—that’s all good stuff. I just try to find a touchstone, and in this case, it’s the book. I think of the Mark Twain quote, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” As long you are being faithful to the book, you can’t go wrong.
Then it was important for me to conduct a personal media shutdown. I withdrew from Facebook, I didn’t go to any fan sites; I didn’t want to know what people were thinking of me as the director selected for the film, because it’s really easy to be influenced.
MM: What sort of learning curve did you experience in adapting to the world of CGI? How do you direct something that is not there?
CW: The first thing is to make some allowances for the actors and to keep them informed as to what they are supposed to be interacting with and reacting to. The second thing is to provide as many real props as possible. In some ways, it’s drawing upon things you used to do as a kid, which is to dream up scenarios and keep them in mind. It takes a lot of patience to wait for completed shots to come in; it takes some trust, too. In this case, I got the band back together from The Golden Compass. These are the guys who won the [Visual Effects] Oscar.
It’s just hoping that the studio and producers are going to make allowances for things that aren’t there when they are first shown footage. With New Line [on The Golden Compass], this really wasn’t the case, which is astonishing because they had done three Lord of the Rings movies; but the mucky-mucks up there had no imagination to understand the process.
With Summit I found a tremendous amount of trust in my ability to deliver. Of course, that’s probably because of the success of the effects in The Golden Compass. I don’t mean to sound blasé about it, but by now, for me, 450 effects shots is no big deal.
MM: Is it just a matter of showing the storyboards to supervisors and leaving it to them to imagine it?
1 of 2 |
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Del.icio.us
Reddit
YahooAdvertisement
COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Sassy on 11/20/09 at 5:51 am
i just saw the movie and i personally think it was horrible. it was super cheesy and to me it made a joke out of a book i love when it should be serious and romantic. I would say that if you make Eclipse please make it more like twilight and less like the joke of New Moon
- Comment by Judith on 1/08/10 at 11:15 am
Despite the focus on young, shirtless werewolves and well coiffed vampires, the second installment of Stephanie Meyer’s immensely popular series comes off as a tepid adventure in Zombieland.
Iberostar Grand Paraiso Hotel- Comment by Kaya on 1/12/10 at 1:20 pm
i honestly think Twilight is one of the best films made :)
- Comment by Kamyanets on 1/18/10 at 7:41 am
WOW!!!
just with exclamation I can give hearing Twilight!!!
I’m in love with the main hero, with film and plot///
in my opinion it’s the best film of the year about pure, true and beautiful love. And different “monsters” in the film, just make it crisp…- Comment by Interior Design Ideas on 1/27/10 at 9:44 pm
Personally i didn’t like the movie, I enjoyed the book more than the movie, the script is not up to the mark. But some of my friends had mixed reactions regarding this.
- Comment by Online Banking and Financing on 2/09/10 at 11:08 am
Around about here, Pattinson gets to bare his own chest—a bad idea in a movie that also features Taylor Lautner- and we notice that while his face is heavily pancaked, his torso is of a normal human hue. Whatever, I suppose.
- Comment by event planning on 2/12/10 at 4:31 pm
I agree. The book was better.
- Comment by Used Bus for Sale on 2/17/10 at 8:59 am
Bella could go down in literature as one of the dullest, most self-obsessed geeks of all time. Pick a wolf, pick a vampire, pick someone in the animal kingdom, and get on with it.The first film was tolerable. “New Moon” just needs to go away quickly.
- Comment by Bus Sales on 3/09/10 at 5:16 am
I agree, but I believe that Catherine Hardwicke would have been the better directer based on Twilight.
- Comment by security+ notes on 3/15/10 at 4:53 pm
I think book and movie both are good.
- Comment by Make a Promise on 3/29/10 at 9:03 am
I do agree that books and movie are both nice but I think book is also better because it makes you work out your imagination and design your own character.
- Comment by kami on 8/20/11 at 3:00 pm
I agree, but I believe that Catherine Hardwicke would have been the better directer based on Twilight
- Comment by cricket equipment on 10/28/11 at 4:10 am
Iam a fan of the series, a super set of films and am looking forward to the last two , however bit miffed that I have to wait a whole twelve months between the split films.
- Comment by cricket equipment on 10/28/11 at 4:11 am
Iam a fan of the series, a super set of films and am looking forward to the last two , however bit miffed that I have to wait a whole twelve months between the split films.
- Comment by GulfPearls on 11/10/11 at 11:51 am
- Comment by Helga on 12/25/11 at 10:46 am
More like twilight and less like the joke of New Moon
This story was published in the Fall 2009 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
New Moon Rising/Chris Weitz takes a bite out of Twilight
Order this issue | Subscribe to MM
posted 02.1.12
posted 01.31.12
posted 01.25.12
posted 01.24.12
SITE DELIVERY OPTIONS
