When you have just released a blockbuster film that made gazillions of dollars like New Moon, you might be expected to follow up with another giant film. Instead, Chris Weitz stepped it down a bunch of levels with small film A Better Life, also released by Summit Entertainment.  In a new interview with Movieline, Chris discusses his relationship with Summit, and explains their support.

Many directors might see a Twilight gig as a stepping stone to getting bigger and bigger films, but you sort of did the opposite following New Moon, which was interesting, and it’s your second film in a row at Summit. What’s the secret of the relationship you have here?

I didn’t have the Inception kind of thing in my mind, that Dark Knight was going to allow me to do. I had A Better Life, that New Moon was going to allow me to do — not so much because it was a quid pro quo, because Summit didn’t see the script for The Gardener until we were halfway through New Moon. They just liked it. I said, “You do understand that I’m not going to do anymore vampire movies?” And they said, “Yeah, we get it, it’s OK — we love this script, let’s do it!” I think there was just this degree of trust established between me and Summit, whom I’ve known for a long time. I’ve known the people there for a long time, Patrick Wachsberger and Rob Friedman and Eric Feig, and they trust that I can deliver what I say I’m going to when I show them a script that they like, and I trust them in terms of keeping their promises and what they want, and also how avidly they’re going to try to market something.

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