There will be a new director atop the Twilight franchise: and he’ll be a man. Sources tell EW.com that Summit Entertainment is about to hire Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass) as the shepherd for New Moon, the second installment of Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling Twilight series. Weitz is best-known for his work with his brother Paul. The two directed and produced American Pie and then were nominated for an Academy Award for best screenplay for About a Boy, which they also co-directed. Chris’ first solo directing gig, The Golden Compass, didn’t do well stateside but was a hit internationally.
Twilight, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, has grossed more than $141 million so far, but Hardwicke had clashed with the studio during production. It was announced early this week that she would not be making New Moon. Weitz has a solid relationship with Summit’s top brass; he’s considered easy to work with and has experience with special effects. “He’s the quality-of-life-choice,” says one source. While Summit insists “we have not yet signed Chris Weitz to do New Moon,” and Weitz’s agency says no deal has been signed, other sources say the deal is imminent, and that Summit has stopped negotiations with other potential Moon directors. Last weekend, Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily broke the news that Weitz was in consideration for the gig, and she reported on Dec. 9 that Summit had made an offer to Weitz. Summit plans to officially announce this hiring decision on Sunday, Dec. 14, and could have Weitz in Vancouver, B.C. as early as Monday to start pre-production on the film.
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This is good news. His resume has quite diverse array of films. He’ll do a good job.
They already started making, stupid! Haven’t you watched the trailer?
Sorry, This was meant to appear on the comment below. Sooorry!
Start. Making. It. NOW!!!
Cool! I really liked ‘About A Boy’ (which seemed like a great combination of relatable, touching, funny, serious, and introspective all in one…with characters that seemed rather quirky and rather freakish…but all in a good way that came off well), so I’m hoping that this will be a good fit!
He does have a varied resume, but as someone who loves The Golden Compass the book, I am a bit apprehensive about his ability to do New Moon. I have a relatively open mind, but this was certainly a “safe” choice.
I do not approve. I want Catherine.
UGH!!! I wish that summit wasn’t so obsessed with money that they had to fire Catherine because of it. That’s ridiculous. I’d rather the movie took forver to come out, with her directing it because then at least we know it would have been amazing!
Ugh!!
no no no no no!!!
About a Boy is one of my favorite movies ever, so I’ll cling to that.
I really enjoyed About A Boy.
His resume doesn’t prove to me that he’ll understand, or support the source material for the story. If Chris Weitz doesn’t have compassion for the love stories that are integral to the Twilight series, and carry into New Moon, then he will destroy the essence of them. It’s a travesty that Summit is pushing this so fast. I’m having trouble retaining confidence in them. I guess we’ll know nothing until Summit wants us to.
Hopefully Chris will decide quickly about Taylor. I’m really sorry to think of his not returning, but I can’t fault Summit for it’s reasons for not wanting to keep him.
It sucks that Catherina isn’t directing because she seemed truly passionate about the story. I can’t really talk about her actual work on the movie because I haven’t seen it yet (stupid argentinian realease date). I pretty much liked The Golden Compass as a movie, but when I read the book afterwards I was a little “WTF?”. but still like it as a movie (leaving aside all comparisons with the book).
I guess as long as they keep Melissa Rosenberg as the writer, the story will still be essentially the same. Good luck to Chris and don’t let us twilighters down.
I love About a Boy. I love the American Pie movies. Let’s home he can bring something special to New Moon. I hope he keeps Taylor Lautner as Jacob. I don’t think this film needs anymore shakeups.
The desicion to rush production of the film just to milk out as much money as quickly as possible is going to come back and bite them in the rear end. While this choice is not a terrible one, it’s far from great. The Golden Compass was a huge disappointment and I feel New Moon will be one as well. Pity.
Now, all this being said, and settled it’s time for them to get back to work. This guy IS capable of doing the right thing if nobody interfere (see Golden Compass), so back off and chill out.
Let him try to do it right.
Catherine, was so-so I supposed, but she made some crass directorial mistakes…and Twilight is suffering…a lot. Good casting when it comes to Bella and Edwuard. Thanks for that.
OMG NO!
he wont understand the concept of twilight!!
this is just soooo wrecked!!!!
I mean do they really think that the ‘american pie’ director can direct new moon?!
what are they filming…edward cullen doing things to a pie?! (that ought to be good though)
we should make a petition against this because:
THIS IS SO NOT WORKING
UGH! this is HORRIBLE! When catherine got the ax I was hopefull, thinking a better director might help the film. but this guy is CRAP! we all remember how sucky goldencompas was…and if my friends are right he didnt stick to the book at all.
New crap MALE director, filming in canada and no returning jacob?!
well summet went and screwed themselves along with all us fans over didnt they? ugh
I’m sad to see Catherine go; however, this is a move in the right direction. If this movie has at the most 50% of the CGI that the Golden Compass had, that would be a massive improvement. I’m all for making the movies better!
SWEETNESS!!! I think it’ll be great!!
I was extremely sad when I heard that Catherine wouldn’t be directing the Twilight sequels. I wish Summit wasn’t so obsessed with money and an early release date. I don’t know about all of the other Twilighters out there but in my opinion I would rather have a well acted and well directed movie than a movie that they had to rush through to get into theaters because they didn’t give the director enough time to do it right. I do wish Chris Weitz good luck and I hope the movie will be amazing.
To everyone upset about his ability to work with source material: The Golden Compass adaptation was a studio decision, not a directorial one. At this point, the studio knows the Twilight fanbase is a rabid one and won’t stand for major changes. They know there will be hell to pay if they screw it up. For a big project like this, remember that major changes start with the studio and the screenplay, not the director.
ok so if this is true..well im just going to wait and see if this guy can really do something with new moon…since dumb old summit is rushing all of this and once again they are giving the movie a low budget..
I hope he doesn’t mess it up. I don’t get why Summit Entertainment is RUSHING everything. I mean we fans don’t want a quick movie, we want a GOOD movie that has a good flow, and good chemistry.
Oh, and stop saying that The Golden Compass didn’t follow the book. There’s tons of things in Twilight that wasn’t exact to the book either. You twerds should know better than that.
I’m happy with Summit’s decision. I think his vision for New Moon will be great and I have faith it will be better than Twilight.
I hope he will be able to bring across all the emotion from the book to the big screen. I might be biased, he IS a man. New Moon for sure had my eyes watering a little from time to time, Good luck to Weitz. Maybe he can convince Summit to give him a bigger budget, eh?
I relaly hope he puts TIME and care into this, please don’t rush it, Chris! <3
Keep Taylor Lautner as Jacob. Sign the petition.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/keep-taylor-lautner-as-jacob-in-film-new-moon
I am sure he will be great. I was not totally impressed by the job Catherine did. I do think its too bad production has to be rushed, but I do understand these movies can’t take 10 years (assuming they do all 4) to make. The stars would be much too old. Anyway…please…DO NOT let them remove Taylor from the Jacob role. That would be very unfortunate.
Honestly I think the big rush is that Rob keeps pointing out that he’s gonna be too old to carry on with the role if the movies don’t get pushed out fast, and let’s face it no matter who ends up directing Rob’s the one who carried this movie.
this makes me, and im sure a lot of other fans, very unhappy. all summit cares about is MONEY, not what the fans want which is a great movie to match the greatness of twilight. catherine and the screenwriter butchered twilight and i was hoping for new moon to be better, although i love about a boy this director isn’t really well known … THANKS SUMMIT FOR RUINING WHAT COULD’VE BEEN A GREAT FRANCHISE
Who cares, it’s not like this movie is Oscar-worthy. A monkey could direct it.