Twilight May Have Found Director Who Doesn’t Bite

Posted by Adam Sweeney (adam@filmschoolrejects.com) on December 11, 2008

Summit Entertainment is looking for a director to appeal to teenagers and they may have found their man, Chris Weitz, who helped direct American Pie.

Word is that Weitz, who has to take credit for The Golden Compass whether he likes it or not, is being given serious consideration for the chance to direct the second installment of the Twilight series, New Moon. Catherine Hardwicke directed the original but was let go after Summit was less than impressed with the results. If Nikki Finke, who was great enough to spread the word, is right about this then Twilight may go 0 for 2 on directing choices.

Could this be a case of cutting off your nose to spite one’s face? Hardwicke couldn’t handle the special effects challenges that came with Twilight, so now their answer is a guy who was known for being equally incapable of handling said duties on The Golden Compass? Hmm … I don’t know if this is a good idea. Weitz certainly can handle the scenes where the characters are in normal teenager mode. I liked American Pie and give him thumbs up for producing Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. It’s when vampires and werewolves come on the scene that I start to cringe.

Memo to Summit. Throw as much money at Joss Whedon as you can. That will solve all your problems and bring a whole new legion of fans to the Twilight series.

What do you think of Chris Weitz as director of New Moon? Who would be your ideal choice?

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David G

Hardwicke seemed to rush through editing to release the movie too soon. Special effects wasnt the prob to me, it was the scenes they chose to make it to film. Some scenes were done well and others showed the actors with less than 100 percent acting. But whether that fell on her or Summit putting on the pressure to finish...dunno. Can any light be shed on this or will it be another Terrence Howard vs Iron Man2??

toorandom

Um, why are you talking about these Vampire movies like it's something overly complicated to handle? The Golden Compass was a big undertaking. A stupid movie based on a stupid book... not so much.

jesrick

Half of New Moon is Bella being depressed and running around with Jacob Black doing "stupid and reckless" things and Edward is only in the last 6 or 7 chapters of the book (where it gets interesting). Len Wiseman would be a good choice, especially with his background in the art department and special fx. But this is the Twilight series not Underworld...so maybe Gabor Csupo? (Bridge to Terabithia) or Andrew Adamson (Chronicles of Narnia) who also has a background in visual effects. I guess we'll see soon but I'd think the latter would suffice.

Twilight May Have Found Director Who Doesn’t Bite

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