Team-Twilight &#187; Chris Weitz

Chris Weitz

BooBoo Stewart

John Singleton

Jason Isaacs

Antonique Smith

Denzel Whitaker

Elizabeth Rohm

Abduction Soundtrack artist Superstar Shyra

Abduction Soundtrack artist Andrew Allen

Garrett Backstrom

Bella Thorne

EXCLUSIVE: Chris Weitz supports his ‘Twilight’ family, Taylor & Abduction

Lindsay — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:00:34 +0000

On the red carpet of the premiere of Abduction, we talked with New Moon director Chris Weitz about coming out to support Taylor Lautner and his film Abduction. He also mentions Taylor’s ability to kick some butt and brings up the Taylor Swift/Kanye West incident.

Click here to view the embedded video.

LOL “Thank God Booboo’s here!”

EXCLUSIVE Photos: Taylor Lautner and ‘Abduction’ Premiere

Lindsay — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 03:10:31 +0000

Our girl Angie was on the red carpet last night (interview videos forthcoming) but she and her partner-in-crime/camerawoman Rachael got some great pics of the stars on the red carpet, including Taylor Lautner, New Moon director Chris Weitz, BooBoo Stewart, John Singleton, and more!

Chris Weitz at the NCLR ALMA Awards 2011

Naira — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 22:25:31 +0000

New image of Chris Weitz at NCLR Alma Awards!

Chris Weitz attends the 2011 National Council of La Raza (NCLR) ALMA Awards held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on September 10, 2011 in Santa Monica, California.

The National Council of La Raza is the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. For more than 40 years, NCLR has been promoting the advancement of Latino families in this country, creating opportunities and opening doors. NCLR created the ALMA Awards in 1995 as part of its strategy to promote fair, accurate, and balanced portrayals of Latinos in the entertainment industry. The show was named “ALMA” (Spanish for “spirit”), which represents the determined spirit of the Latino people in an effort to reflect the spirit as well as the scope of the awards program.

Chris Weitz to be Honored for ‘A Better Life’

Angie — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 20:21:25 +0000

Chris Weitz will be honored for his film A Better Life by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute on September 13th in Washington DC.

There will be a special screening of the film along with an Exclusive Inside the Director’s Studio with Chris Weitz.

Head CHCI to read more details!

Via TwilightLexicon

Farewell Chris Weitz New Moon Yellow Pants

Arianna — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 05:19:23 +0000

Do you guys remember the pants? @chrisweitz Tweeted yesterday:

Did you make it to Burning Man this year? Looked to be quite spectacular//I did, just returned. Important yellow pants developments.

This year at Burning Man, I left the yellow trousers at the Temple. They burned on Sunday.

In front of Temple http://pic.twitter.com/iFKGs2p

Removed http://pic.twitter.com/4Ks7Fi8

Hanging on the Temple http://pic.twitter.com/qTlwORU

Farewell old friend http://pic.twitter.com/xMHnRHv

Temple Burn. R.I.P. — Rest in Pants, noble prince

RIP yellow pants. You will be missed. Sort of.

Source: Spunk Ransom

Chris Weitz talks about his ‘New Moon’ experience

Lindsay — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 04:14:32 +0000

Chris Weitz talked to Venice Magazine about his latest film, A Better Life, but he answered a couple of Twilight: New Moon related questions, including what it was like to take on such a highly visible film, complete with big action sequences, special effects, and a large budget.

What was it like when you started Twilight: New Moon, which was such a highly visible project?

For me, it was tremendously refreshing because I knew that people were going to go see it. So there’s no pressure on me, as far as I’m concerned. Instead of treating it in any way like a popcorn movie, I just decided to treat it like a big, widescreen romance. That conditioned getting Alexandre Desplat to write the score and getting Javier Aguirresarobe, who’s one of the great DPs in the world, to shoot it. I knew that if I was true to the spirit of the book, there were all kinds of things I could get away with in terms of what we were doing with the camera and the lushness of the colors and the design. It was a complete delight. Kristen Stewart is an amazing actress. Really, she’s an independent film actress of the highest caliber. So she will bring to what’s essentially a melodrama these very harsh emotions. Coming out the other end of it when we were marketing the film, that was madness — in a very enjoyable way for me because I kind of got to be the Ringo Starr of the group. We traveled around Europe, the big three and me, and the biggest it got was Munich’s Olympic Stadium with 23,000 screaming fans who were there just to see us say hello and answer a few softball questions. There were moments where you felt that this could get dangerous or this could get really weird, really fast. It was rather extraordinary.

Having worked on these effects-heavy films, do you find it challenging to oversee both the big action scenes as well as the relationships between the characters?

Yes, it’s enough to drive you slightly batty. With Golden Compass, that was as big a movie as New Line had ever made. It’s certainly the biggest movie I’ve ever made. It cost a tremendous amount of money and we had all kinds of resources at our disposal. And at the same time it had to be an intimate story about the coming of age of a little girl, but it’s also about parallel universes and it was also about original sin and all kinds of stuff. And eventually, it became too much for the studio to want to deal with on straightforward terms. They realized that they had gotten into a story that was far more controversial than they had ever thought. They wanted Harry Potter and this story was inherently not. So to be honest, doing New Moon — even though it’s a very big movie and we had a big budget and a lot of special effects — this was, for me, technically easy.

Chris Weitz: Inspired by my father the refugee

Angie — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 01:02:59 +0000

Chris Weitz could have parlayed his success as the director of Twilight: New Moon into an even bigger film. Instead, he used it as an opportunity to make a small, intimate drama about a Mexican illegal immigrant called Carlos, who does back-breaking work to provide for his teenage son, Luis, while trying to keep him out of the gangs in their poor East Los Angeles neighbourhood.
On paper, A Better Life looks like an odd fit for the man behind American Pie (with his brother, Paul), About a Boy and The Golden Compass. It is, though, Weitz’s most personal film to date, reflecting not only his feelings as a father, but also as the descendent of assimilated Jews who fled Germany when Hitler came to power.
In the film, a crisis forces Luis to see for the first time what his father has given up and how he will never again experience his homeland and culture in the same way. This is essentially an “accelerated” version of something that Weitz went through. Except that in his case, it was not until after his father, John, died in 2002, says the director, “that I really began to understand the aspects of history and his background that had haunted him.”
Born Hans Werner Weitz in Berlin in 1923, John was the son of a wealthy textile manufacturer. He was awarded the Iron Cross after being wounded on the Eastern Front in the First World War,
In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, he was packed off by his parents to be educated in England, at The Hall Preparatory School in Hampstead, and then St. Paul’s School, and, finally, Oxford University. When war broke out, he was interned temporarily in a camp near Liverpool.
His parents accepted in the meantime that there was no future for them in Germany, and escaped to America as refugees. When their son joined them, “there was nothing”, Weitz sighs, the family business having been “sold for a pittance” in the rush to leave. “There is a country house in East Berlin that has been going through a legal process for 15 years, since the Wall came down. But it will probably never be returned to the family,” he says.

Head to JC to read the full article.
Source via Twilightish

Chris Weitz: Hollywood Chameleon

Angie — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:14:33 +0000

Here is a great interview with Chris by The Skinny!

Director Chris Weitz has one of the strangest CVs in Hollywood. Name a genre and likely he’ll have dipped in his filmmaking toe. Teen comedy? See his pastry shagging debutAmerican Pie, which he co-directed with brother Paul. CGI fantasy romp? Try The Golden Compass, his flawed adaptation of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights. There’s also whimsical Hugh Grant vehicle About a Boy (co-director), neurotic insect animation Antz (writer) and classy Oscar baitA Single Man (producer).

The Skinny met with the affable director at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where A Better Life had its UK premiere, to discuss, among other things, US immigration, avoiding making poverty porn and his Zachary Quinto hate campaign.

A Better Life is a change of pace from New Moon andThe Golden Compass. Did you consciously seek out a more modest project?

I wasn’t necessarily looking to do a smaller movie, but my friend, Christian McLaughlin (who’s of Scots heritage, I should say), gave me a copy of this script which sort of came out of nowhere. It was simply the best thing I’d read in twenty years, and if you see that, and you’re a director, you have to do it — there’s no other way. And, fortunately, because of the vampires, and various other things, I was able to get some backing.

Also, I’m from an immigrant family on several sides: my father came to America from Nazi Germany; my grandfather on my mother’s side was Czech; my grandmother [Lupita Tovar], who’s one hundred, came to America when she was seventeen-years-old to be in silent films. So for me, it was also a chance to speak Spanish and to get in touch with my roots.

How does it feel living in a city like LA, where there is such a disparity between rich and poor?

It feels great for me [laughs sheepishly]… I’m sorry, that’s a glib answer, but in a way it’s a very true one. At the opening of the movie, when you see Carlos working very hard and looking at the ocean, that’s where I live. Now twenty miles away, still within the same city, is Mexican Los Angeles, in which there are street gangs. So for Carlos’ son, such is gang turf that if he were to walk ten blocks in one direction he’d be in the territory of another gang and in mortal danger. He’s not taken care of by the school system, he doesn’t think he’s ever going to make anything of himself in white America, and so that kind of thing is exactly what fires the despair and nihilism that leads to someone joining a gang. Meanwhile his father is making his trip over to my side of Los Angeles, working seven days a week in order to keep food on the table. So the contrast is extraordinary, but in a way LA is analogues to the way that the world is heading, which is greater disparity between rich and poor in terms of nations, and as long as that happens there’s always going to be immigration, and illegal immigration.

Head HERE to read the full article.

Source via Twilightish

Chris Weitz: “I Was the ‘Ringo Starr’ of New Moon” (Video)

Ashley — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:53:20 +0000

Digital Spy talked with director Chris Weitz on what it was like being a part of the Twilight Saga: New Moon!

ReThink Interview: Chris Weitz, Director of “A Better Life”

Ashley — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:38:54 +0000

If you had just directed a movie that went on to gross over $700 million worldwide, what would you direct next? That was the question writer/director/producer Chris Weitz must have asked himself after directing The Twilight Saga: New Moon, the latest installment of the ultra-successful teen vampire/werewolf/romance series.

Many directors might’ve used their cache to do a bloated megabudget remake of their favorite children’s book, or maybe go for an Oscar by getting an A-list actor to play a historical figure with some sort of disability. But instead, Weitz chose to make a small movie from a screenplay that had been languishing for over 20 years and cast a Mexican actor unknown to most American audiences and a young actor making his movie debut in the leading roles. That film is A Better Life, the story of an illegal immigrant from Mexico named Carlos (Demian Bichir) who has been working as a gardener in Los Angeles for years as he raises his American-born teenage son, Luis (Jose Julian).

Last week, [The Huffington Post] had the chance to interview Weitz before A Better Life opened in Los Angeles. We talked about the challenges and rewards of making a film about illegal immigrants, whether it’s possible to make a non-political film about a group republicans are dead-set on demonizing, and a lot more. Check out my ReThink Interview with Chris Weitz below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Read the rest at Huffington Post

via Twilightish

Christ Weitz Shares Hopes for Rob, Kristen and Taylor

Angie — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:41:48 +0000

Rob, Kristen, Taylor and Chris are obviously all very supportive on one another which was demonstrated most recently in Kristen and Taylor attending the red carpet premiere of Chris’ new film A Better Life. Here is what Chis had to say about the three in a recent interview!

As for the future of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner after “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn” Parts 1 (to be released in November this year) and 2 (next year), here’s Chris’ wish for them: “For the three leads, they’re going to need to handle this last tsunami of publicity and distinguish themselves in other films.”

“With Kristen, she has always done terrific independent-film roles, and that’s great,” said Chris, who also directed the memorable “About a Boy,” “The Golden Compass” and, now, the acclaimed “A Better Life.” “Rob is doing that sort of thing, too,” Chris pointed out. “Rob is filming with David Cronenberg (‘Cosmopolis’) now. Taylor is carving a different path in action films.”

“I want to see them succeed,” Chris stressed. “I want to see them retain their essential humanity. I like them very much. What I also wish for them are happy lives that aren’t impinged on too much by the downside of the great things that have happened to them.”

Head over to Entertainment Inquirer to read more!

Source via Cullens_News

Chris Weitz to do Q&As in select NY & LA screenings of ‘A Better Life’ this weekend

Lindsay — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:35:59 +0000

New Moon director Chris Weitz and the star of his latest film A Better Life, Demian Bichir, will be making appearances at various screenings of the film in Los Angeles and New York City this weekend. Get more information here. Here are the theaters and showtimes!

Los Angeles

Friday, July 1

The Landmark

5:20pm showtime: Chris Weitz & Demian Bichir post-screening Q&A

8:00pm showtime: Chris Weitz & Demian Bichir pre-screening introduction

Friday, July 1

ArcLight Hollywood

7:40pm showtime: Chris Weitz & Demian Bichir post-screening Q&A

10:30pm showtime: Chris Weitz & Demian Bichir pre-screening introduction

New York

Saturday, July 2

Landmark Sunshine

7:15pm showtime: Chris Weitz post-screening Q&A

9:30pm showtime: Chris Weitz pre-screening introduction

Sunday, July 3

Landmark Sunshine

7:15pm showtime: Chris Weitz post-screening Q&A

9:30pm showtime: Chris Weitz pre-screening introduction

Chris Weitz talks ‘Breaking Dawn’ and his next project

Lindsay — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 02:40:33 +0000

Chris Weitz spoke with E! Online at the premiere of his new film A Better Life about what he’s looking forward to seeing in Breaking Dawn. He also talks about what’s next for him.

Via Twilightish

Chris Weitz Talks About Robert Pattinson At The Premiere Of “A Better Life”

Naira — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 11:40:08 +0000

New video of New Moon director Chris Weitz talking about Rob at the premiere of A Better Life

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chris Weitz explains decision to follow blockbuster ‘New Moon’ with smaller film

Lindsay — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:15:02 +0000

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.

Chris Weitz appreciates the support from Kristen and Taylor

Lindsay — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:39:44 +0000

Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner came out to support Chris Weitz in the release of his new film A Better Life at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Chris talked to Associated Press about the film, as well as about how much he appreciates Kristen and Taylor being willing to ”run the gauntlet” of fans in order to show their support. You’ll also hear Chelsea Rendom (who stars on the film) fangirling about Chris and Twilight!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via TwilightLexicon

Did ‘New Moon’ bring out Chris Weitz’s inner teenage girl?

Lindsay — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:47:32 +0000

Chris Weitz talks about his “romantic” side coming out when he took on the job of directing New Moon. From NPR:

Making New Moon involved creating CGI animals and fight scenes and working with teen stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. It also involved learning something about himself, says Weitz.

“I realized that I’m a bit of a teenage girl myself,” he says. “I think I spent most of my late teens and 20s pining after people who were never going to come back. I remember explaining this to Stephanie Meyer and, maybe she didn’t believe me … but I’d read too many 19th century English novels and I was very, very romantic, so having the book — and having Kristen who’s an exceptional actor — and then having that melancholic tendency in myself, I think we were all OK.”

More here.

Via GossipDance

Chris Weitz, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner at ‘A Better Life’ after-party

Lindsay — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:03:08 +0000

Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner showed their support for New Moon director Chris Weitz at the premiere of his new film A Better Life at LA Film Fest last night. Here they are at the premiere’s after-party.

EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Chris Weitz

Angie — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:00:25 +0000

Taylor Lautner, Demian Bichir, Chris Weitz, Kristen Stewart at LAFF premiere of "A Better Life"

Team Twilight, in addition to several other fansites, had an exclusive opportunity to interview Chris Weitz yesterday about his new film A Better Life. Fansites present included Twilight Lexicon, Twilighters Anonymous, Twilightish, TwilightMoms, Twilight Examiner and Twilight Series Theories.

We had a chance to talk with Chris about directing his new film, casting decisions and how it compares to filming a movie such as New Moon, as well as his Twitter-addiction. Enjoy!

Q: How were you able to get such amazing emotions out of the actors, especially [Jose Julian] – I just read on his page that he’s never done anything like this before. The movie’s so powerful; how did you get the actors to portray that on-screen?

Chris Weitz: Well, I mean Demian Bichir is a big actor in Mexico. He’s been in many movies; he’s incredibly technically accomplished and a brilliant actor so that was never in doubt for me. Of course, when you’re starting with a newcomer, you don’t really know what you’re going to get, but I think the thing that we managed to do was to schedule it so that the scenes which he was being a difficult teen and kind of a pain in the butt were early on, which is kind of easier for a sixteen-year-old actor to go to, and then the more emotional scenes, by the time we got around to shooting that, he had lived in our little circus for you know a couple of months. He had learned from Demian; he had learned how to focus; he had been through all this thinking about things, and so that helped him. And of course acting with Demian when he’s delivering that sort of final speech in the detention center, I would find it hard not to convey a hell of a lot of emotion myself.

Q: Twilight fans obviously, certainly we love our good-looking men and the abs, but we do like more than that, and one of the big themes in the Twilight series is family and relying upon your family. Can you speak to those similar themes in A Better Life?

Chris Weitz: Yeah, well that’s kind of why I started tweeting and why I thought it would . . . why I was really glad you all could see it early . . . because you know it’s not about vampires and werewolves and that sort of thing, but the great thing about Twilight, I think the revelation is that people will go see a movie that concerns itself with emotions, and that is very much about family. I mean, Carlos . . . like Charlie Swan is a great dad, he will always be there for his daughter. Carlos is a character who just keeps his head down and works hard to do everything that he can for his son, and he and his son are at odds because they don’t have the chance to be with eachother enough to understand one another, and, you know, part of the interest of the story is that it’s this terrible thing that has happened that allows them to learn more about one another. So, I mean, to me, it’s not so weird that we’re talking together about this. I mean, of course I want as many people as possible to see the movie, but I think that the great thing about the success of the Twilight films is that it’s not just going to be . . . it’s defined sort of the strength of movies about emotions in the marketplace. And that’s kinda what I do, so that’s something I’m very happy about.

Jose Julian, Chris Weitz, Demian Bichir at work on 'A Better Life." Source: Summit Entertainment

Q: With New Moon, I know you were pretty specific about your intent to bring on only First Nation or Native American actors for the wolfpack, and I was wondering if with A Better Life, you required all the actors to be from Mexico or of Mexican decent.

Chris Weitz: Yeah, I did. The reason is that people would tell the difference. You know, for instance . . . there are a couple of reasons I didn’t go after someone like Javier Bardem. Javier Bardem is Spanish, and that’s from the Conquistador culture. Mexicans are from the culture that has been dominated. And also there’s a difference between a Mexican Latino-American and a Salvadoran Latino-American. Just ask them. And they recognize those differences, just in terms of the accents and everything. And we wanted this to be as authentic as possible, so for instance, with the three characters who are supposed to have been born and raised in Mexico, those are all actors who flew up from Mexico in order to . . . those are three big Mexican actors who flew up in order to play those parts. And we’re proud to do so because they were sort of representing the experience of Mexicans who come to this country. And just as I thought it was somehow, I don’t know, karma-cally appropriate to cast First Nation actors in New Moon, it was in this case as well.

Q: Could you talk about the differences in how you prepare for a film like New Moon or The Golden Compass, where the characters are more fantasy-based versus A Better Life, where they’re obviously real-life type characters?

Chris Weitz: I think it’s actually strangely similar. Because in something like New Moon or Golden Compass, if you don’t believe that the characters believe what they’re going through . . . if the characters aren’t acting in their own real lives, then something’s going to be missing on the screen. So, sort of the way I prepare with the actors or rehearse with the actors is exactly the same way. Because we’re just talking about what emotions each character is evoking in the other. The one thing I didn’t have to prepare actors for on this movie was to say, ‘Oh, by the way, ninety percent of the time, you’re going to be acting with this green pillow, which is not going to give you anything back.’ I remember having to go through that with Nicole Kidman, this whole session with the technicians, just showing her what she was going to have to do to act with this imaginary monkey, and I’m really glad not to have to do that again.

Q: How do you feel about your recent popularity on Twitter?

Chris Weitz: I don’t know, am I popular? I keep noticing that a lot of people have more followers than I do. I mean, I’m very touched by it actually. It’s really, really cool to sort of revive this relationship with the fans which had kind of gone dormant. I think there was probably a time where I was Twittering too much for my mental health. I would go on these massive binges, and then I realized, cause I’d always been sort of a bit snobby about Twitter, like I would never do that . . . and then when I got my hands on the keyboard, you couldn’t stop me. I was in Twitter Jail twice a day. And now I’ve learned to just calm down a bit and to try to focus as much as possible, but it’s really cool however. I think it’s great to have like I think it’s 27,000 followers? It’s awesome. Sometimes I feel terrible that I can’t answer everybody’s questions, like no human being would be able to unless they had several clones, but it’s been a fun way to revive for me, the experience of that sort of enthusiasm.

Q: You worked with a lot of your New Moon alums on this one like Javier Aguirresarobe, Alexandre Desplat, and Peter Lambert . . . I was wondering what made you bring them back on board for A Better Life and how did working with them compare and contrast with the two?

Chris Weitz: Well, you know, one of the great things about getting older and making more and more films is that you start to develop these kind of continuous working relationships with people, and that’s ideal . . . if you get used to working with someone and feel a great degree of comfort with them you don’t have to start from scratch every single time, so you know, working with Javier I just knew how beautiful his work was going to be, and the same thing with Alexandre, you know, when you listen to the score he did for this picture, it is absolutely gorgeous, and especially under the conditions – which was that we had about a month between starting the score and recording it in London. And you can’t do that kind of thing if you’re working with somebody for the first time. We’re trying to make a film that looks much more expensive than it actually was, and, you know, even working with Peter, just the degree to which we were able to understand what we were trying to get from the get-go helps a tremendous amount, as well as the fact that like any job, you like to work with your buddies. You know, that’s kind of one of the great things about working on films.

'A Better Life' movie poster

Q: One of the things that I noticed when I saw the movie was that I was so impressed with the soundtrack. I’m bilingual, and I really really enjoyed the soundtrack. Can you talk a little about how you decided to pick those artists and songs; you know, was somebody translating for you, or did you just come . . . cause they are just a fantastic fit?

Chris Weitz: Well, eventually, now I’m able to understand the lyrics to the songs themselves because I was learning Spanish throughout the whole process and it’s been quite a while now. I’ve realized, people have very little patience for Mexican music because they don’t realize that it’s very much about the lyrics and about the particular sense of melancholy that infuses a lot of the older songs . . . we very clearly wanted to define different musical territory between Luis, the son, and his more sort of aggressive Spanish hiphop and the kind of music that Carlos would listen to, which is very much more lyrical and melancholy and loaded with sorrow, and there’s so much to say about the position of people who come to this country to work . . . and of course the real sting in the tail for me, for people who can speak Spanish, is the music that was playing in the nightclub when Carlos goes into it because it’s Narcocorrido, and it sounds like it’s this very happy-go-lucky mariachi music, but it’s actually music about drugs and killings and shooting and grenades, and it’s really kind of the equivalent of gangster rap. It’s really very strange and particular kind of music, but to me at that moment, Carlos is in hell, and that music was just right for us.

Q: What do you want people to take away from this movie?

Chris Weitz: More than anything, I want people to take away a sense of the universality of the love amongst families, between parents and children. I mean, it’s obvious that this bears on a very hot-button issue on immigration, but it’s not really an issue movie, we’re not trying to forward any kind of political agenda . . . just to open a window to people’s lives that they may not know about and the kind of parallel worlds that people live in, that they’re not aware of. Whether it be in Los Angeles or any city in America.

Q: Even in just the early reviews, there’s been a lot of awards buzz, especially for Demian . . . he’s been compared to Javier Bardem in his role for Biutiful . . . how do you feel about the awards buzz? Does it add pressure or does it feel good at this point?

Chris Weitz: Well, I mean, of course it’s really lovely. I don’t want to make any assumptions or to get a big head or to get too excited about things except to say that I think that the awards buzz for Demian is really well-deserved. I think it’s an extraordinary performance by an extraordinary actor, and if there was anyone who deserves to get recognized for this, it’s Demian. So yeah I see it as much job to get him nominated at this point.

If you missed the trailer, watch it here!

Click here to view the embedded video.

A huge thanks to Chris Weitz for taking the time to talk with us and to Summit for the opportunity! Also thanks to Amanda Bell for the transcription.

Chris Weitz, Kristen Stewart & Taylor Lautner at premiere of ‘A Better Life’

Lindsay — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:55:34 +0000

Chris Weitz’s latest film A Better Life had its premiere this evening at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Along with Chris, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner were also in attendance!

Click here to view the embedded video.

New Pics of Chris Weitz at the 2011 LA Film Festival

She — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 02:24:18 +0000

Source : Gossip Dance

ArcLight Cinemas Presents: An Interview with Chris Weitz

Naira — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 05:44:59 +0000

New interview with Chris Weitz!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chris Weitz moves from ‘Twilight’ to ‘A Better Life’

Lindsay — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:15:01 +0000

IndieWIRE has a great new interview with Chris Weitz about moving from massive blockbuster Twilight to his next film A Better Life. The two are very different, so what led him to A Better Life? Read on to find out.

The last two movies I directed, “The Golden Compass” and “New Moon,” had the combined budgets and box office of the GDP of a small country in the Caucasus. This is something you’re meant to feel sheepish about, as though you were a dealer in, say, ground-to-air missiles rather than cinema. In fact, the experience of making these films was emotionally grueling rather than glitzy.

When I turned in my director’s cut for “The Golden Compass,” the studio concluded that I was trying to turn a popcorn movie into the world’s most expensive art film; they fired my editor and took the cut from me.

“New Moon” was all about getting back on the horse for me and working with some very talented people – Kristen Stewart, Alexandre DesPlat, the great Spanish cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe. I wanted to make a lush widescreen romance out of a ‘tweener phenomenon and I knew the audience would come. I would say, “They’re expecting a cheeseburger, but I’m going to give them foie gras.”

Read the full interview here.

Chris Weitz Talks ‘A Better Life’ (Video)

Ashley — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 01:35:27 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chris Weitz Wouldn’t Know How to Approach ‘Breaking Dawn’ Birth Scene

Ashley — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:42:45 +0000

Before any official announcements were made as to whom would direct The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (let alone that it’d be a two-parter), many fans thoughtThe Twilight Saga: New Moon director Chris Weitz should’ve helmed the last installment of the Saga.

Of course, since then, Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Kinsey, Gods And Monsters) took the job, and Chris Weitz has gone off to work on his newest project (A Better Life), but it’s still fascinating to hear Weitz’s insights on the forthcoming film, since there’s no doubt he at least considered the work.

Speaking to Box Office Magazine, Weitz explained that one part of Breaking Dawn he did not feel comfortable in doing was the birth scene.

When you were shooting New Moon, did you think about how on earth you would shoot the birth scene if you had to?

[Laughs] No, I wasn’t because I knew that I wasn’t going to do Eclipse and I thought, “No way can I figure this one out.” I thought, “Well who could do it? David Cronenburg?” I have no idea how they’ve managed to get around all of that. I would imagine, you know, since I’m a coward it would be a lot of quick cutting, dissolve-y misdirection. I don’t know. It’s a tough one. I’m not sure how I would have figured that out.

Chris Weitz Named as Possible Contender to Direct ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 5′

Ashley — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:06:00 +0000

The majority of critics seem to agree that from a creative standpoint, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has turned into a sinking ship. Nevertheless, the series remains an unrivaled cash cow for Walt Disney Pictures and they’re understandably anxious to see it carry on. In fact, they had a script fora fifth film in their hands before On Stranger Tides was even released.

The domestic box office gross for the latest entry might be lower than that of its predecessors, but the studio has little reason to worry that audiences are starting to grow impervious to the charms of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). To date, On Stranger Tides has amassed more than $472 million outside of the U.S. and is on track to earn close to $1 billion before it hits DVD and Blu-Ray. The foreign market has become increasingly important to Hollywood and with numbers like that, another voyage aboard the Black Pearl seems all but inevitable.

It sounds like the job is still Marshall’s if he decides he wants it, but Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, Shawn Levy, Chris Weitz, and Alfonso Cuarón are now in the mix as well. CB‘s “most reliable source” has indicated that Burton is currently the top pick (and was also sought for On Stranger Tides before Marshall landed the gig, apparently) – but they theorize that even though he has a longstanding working relationship with Depp, it’s extremely unlikely that he’d actually commit to the project.

So let’s take a look at the other contenders…

Weitz, who started out his career co-directing hits like American Pie and About a Boy before moving on to big-budget fare like the ambitious misfire The Golden Compass and the second Twilight film, New Moon. He’s probably one of the most realistic options, but again – would he be capable of reinvigorating the Pirates series?

Read the full article here!

Head HERE for more info!

L.A Film Festival will Hold Gala Screening of Chris Weitz’ “A Better Life”

Ashley — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:25:05 +0000

A Better Life – (DIRECTOR Chris Weitz WRITER Eric Eason PRODUCERS Paul Junger Witt, Christian McLaughlin, Chris Weitz, Jami Gertz, Stacey Lubliner CAST Demián Bichir, José Julián, Dolores Heredia, Joaquín Cosío, Carlos Linares – ‘A Better Life’ is the poignant, suspenseful tale of an illegal immigrant in LA struggling to build a better life for his beloved son. World Premiere.

via

Time.com’s Summer Movie Preview

Lindsay — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:39:35 +0000

Time has listed their Summer Preview of Movies, TV, Music, Books and Fine Art. Featured among the movies they are looking forward to this summer are a number of films starring various members of the Twilight cast, or, in one case, from a Twilight film director!

Beautiful Boy [Michael Sheen]

A shooting on a college campus leaves 17 people dead, including the killer, whose parents grieve, blame and are blamed. An unwavering view into an almost unimaginable agony, with indelible performances by Maria Bello and Michael Sheen as the mother and father. 6/3 (Limited)

X-Men: First Class [Edi Gathegi]

First class? This Marvel prequel — make that pre-prequel, since it antedates most of Wolverine — may suffer from too much class. Genteel Scottish heartthrob James McAvoy plays the young Professor X, and Teutonic-Irish demon lover Michael Fassbender is the man who will become Magneto. Next, expect the pre-pre-prequel, in which the two antagonists are brilliant infants dueling each other from adjacent speeding prams. 6/3

A Better Life [directed by Chris Weitz]

New Moon director Chris Weitz gets serious with a moving drama about the plight of an illegal immigrant (Demián Bichir of Weeds) in Los Angeles who works as a gardener but fosters bigger ambitions for his contemptuous teenage son (José Julián). After the truck Carlos needs to make a living is stolen, father and son unite to search for it. 6/24

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 [Jamie Campbell Bower]

As the movie series comes to an end, prepare for revelations about those last horcruxes, some epic sacrifices and Harry’s finally going nose-to-not-nose with the Dark Lord. Saying goodbye will be brutal. 7/15

See the full list at Time.com.

Film Journal: Chris Weitz helms drama of father struggling to make ‘A Better Life’

Angie — Mon, 30 May 2011 22:20:09 +0000

Chris Weitz is having one of those “mind the baby” days, he explains at the outset of this phone interview. “My wife went off to yoga, and I’ve got Sebastian,” the filmmaker says. Sebastian is three-and-a-half, and “he doesn’t understand about deadlines.”

Thrown together, like it or not, for this particular occasion, Weitz pere et fils are a real-life reflection of a bigger picture—A Better Life—which the 41-year-old director just finished and which Summit Entertainment will release on June 24 in essentially the same slot it gave to its Oscar winner, The Hurt Locker, two years ago.

The reason for this prestige positioning is the film’s sleeper potential, which could bloom from strong reviews and word of mouth into hit status. In essence, it is a Mexican update of The Bicycle Thief, Vittorio De Sica’s 1947 neo-realism classic about an estranged father and son united in an effort to find the thief who robbed the father of his livelihood. Back then, it was a bicycle; now, it is a truck which Carlos Galindo (Demián Bichir)—an illegal immigrant—uses to carry his gardening equipment to the manicured and pampered lawns of Los Angeles’ wealthy elite.

The film is the first produced by Jami Gertz, the actress (“Entourage”), and Stacey Lubliner, the ex-agent, and it is, says Weitz, “a real triumph” for their senior producer, Paul Junger Witt, “to see this movie finally realized after 20 years of trying to get it made. Twenty years ago or so, the gardener of a friend of his had his truck stolen, and the man said, ‘Well, you have to go straight to the police,’ and the gardener said, ‘I can’t go to the police. You don’t understand.’ This was the first time that the man had realized that his gardener was undocumented, that he didn’t trust the police, that he was afraid, that he was living his life in a parallel universe to him.”

Basically, that’s the plot—something TV Guide used to handle in a single sentence—but, for the gardener, so much is riding on that stolen truck in terms of survival and human dignity and his son’s respect, which is already on the wane from a miserable track record and is now drifting dangerously toward gang culture to find a hero.

Head to Film Journal to read the entire article.

via Twilightish

Chris Weitz’s “A Better Life” premiering at Los Angeles Film Festival

Naira — Sat, 21 May 2011 19:34:47 +0000

Chris Weitz’s new film “A Better Life” will be premiering at the Los Angeles Film Festival!

Chris Weitz Tweets About Twilight Ending

Ashley — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:30:41 +0000

I absolutely love reading all of Chris Weitz’ hilarious tweets, click HERE to follow him on twitter!