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[Starbuck73]

About A Boy Director Offered Twilight Sequel Job

 

The makers of Twilight, Summit Entertainment, has reportedly offered the sequel director job to Chris Weitz.

 

In addition to directing About a Boy, Weitz was also one of the producers of American Pie.

 

Hollywood insiders say Weitz scored the big job because he's super good friends with Summit's president of production, Eric Feig.

 

Summit also reportedly liked the job he did directing The Golden Compass.

[Gandalfia]

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/rumor...oon-and-eclipse

 

http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/12/09/rumor-...on-and-eclipse/

 

http://www.cinematical.com/2008/12/09/gold...wilight-sequel/

 

 

Chris Weitz for New Moon and Eclipse?

I can't think of anything worse. This is my worst nightmare.

This very man ruined my favourite book when he made it into a film.

I WANT HIM BANNED FROM FILM.

 

[Shirefruit]

This is the worst news in the world. I thought it was some kind of sick joke when I first heard it - take the man who screwed up one of the best works of children's fiction ever (and my bloody favourite book) and let him do it all over again.

 

All the reports suggest Summit are desperate for ANYBODY who can start straight away. Whoever does this isn't going to have the passion for it.

 

Twilight worked for me personally because everything felt "real" and natural. Northern Lights/Golden Compass is meant to be a world only slightly off kilter from ours, and he made it look like something from Phantom Menace. It was soulless. Oh god. Please don't let this happen.

[Gandalfia]

This is the worst news in the world. I thought it was some kind of sick joke when I first heard it - take the man who screwed up one of the best works of children's fiction ever (and my bloody favourite book) and let him do it all over again.

 

All the reports suggest Summit are desperate for ANYBODY who can start straight away. Whoever does this isn't going to have the passion for it.

 

Twilight worked for me personally because everything felt "real" and natural. Northern Lights/Golden Compass is meant to be a world only slightly off kilter from ours, and he made it look like something from Phantom Menace. It was soulless. Oh god. Please don't let this happen.

 

What's the bloody rush?!

If this film was with a big studio they would take their time. Summit being smaller and having got their hands on some money ... they've lost the plot.

 

I wouldn't have an issue with Chris if he hadn't done TCG. When he was announced for that I remember thinking "odd choice, but that could work actually"

I'm not falling for that again

[Amira]

A man. A controversial adaptation of another book. A disputable reliance on CG and standard blockbuster devices... Cassandra anyone???

After loosing Cath this franchise has lost its very soul. No surprise. She was big part of that soul...

[Betty]

I knew they'd replace Catherine with a fella but Chris Weitz? Dear God, we are so doomed. I didn't mind About A Boy, but Golden Compass was a steaming pile of poop.

 

I can't believe they're going to let him screw up another franchise. Why not get him to do the last Harry Potter and make it a hattrick.

[timpe]

I was hoping for Sophia Coppola, or at least someone who has an eye for detail and for character driven pieces. I don't want some huge CGI spectacular, I want something with heart. I personally would have preferred a woman, but would be happy with a guy if he was the right guy. I was thinking that maybe a European director would have had the right sensibilities.

 

Chris Weitz has a very good buddy on the board at Summit who is prepared to do him a favour. He's cinematic poison after The Golden Compass, and this is a hit handed to him on a plate. I'm beyond disappointed.

[Laurenx]

I loved the His Dark Materials books, and was gutted when The Golden Compass was released which I personally think was terrible and completely ruined such an amazing book series. I really hope that if Chris Weitz does direct New Moon, he stays true to the story and doesn't ruin it like I feel he did by making The Golden Compass.

[CompletelyCullenized]

According to Entertainment Weekly, the tentative release date for New Moon will be November 20, 2009.

 

Summit Entertainment has tentatively slated Nov. 20, 2009, as the release date for New Moon, the Twilight sequel, which means any director who signs on to replace Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke has to be in Vancouver by Dec. 15 to begin 12 weeks of preproduction before a mid-March start date.

 

They go on to confirm that Chris Weitz is in talks to direct the film.

 

So what director would want to take on such a big headache? Well, at press time, an offer was out to Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass), who put Summit on the map years ago when its foreign sales operation made tons of cash off of his first film, American Pie. (One source says Weitz has already had conversations with below-the-line crew for New Moon.)

 

They also have a bit to say on Taylor Lautner's role in the film and the Native Americans needed.

 

Two sources tell EW the studio doesn’t want to rehire baby-faced Taylor Lautner (pictured) as Jacob, though Lautner’s agent has apparently reached out to the ­imaging company behind The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in an attempt to demonstrate to Summit how a digitally bulked-up Lautner could work. (Summit says it won’t make a decision until a new filmmaker is on board.) There’s also the matter of finding a cast of Native American actors to play Jacob’s werewolf clan — a difficult challenge Hardwicke was also faced with before ­settling on Lautner, who isn’t completely ­Native American.

[Amira]

I'm speechless. Shocked and quite a bit disgusted Hope this nonsense turns out to be groundless speculation (sure, sure... ). First Cath then Taylor. Maybe Sol and Krys from the Pack. Please, wake me up. That must be a nightmare...

[kayleighmarie]

Great, he trashed the Golden Compass now summit and their idiocy are set to ruin new moon.

[CompletelyCullenized]

I'm actually really upset about this

 

It's only a $50 budget for the movie too. The wolves are going to look crap

Summit just wants to squeeze as much money from the movie as they can, they don't care about the story at all

 

Why the rush too? I'd MUCH rather wait for the movie and know it's going to be good than have it in less than a year wondering whether they'll RUIN my favourite book!

 

And, replacing Taylor?!?! Yeah, good luck trying to get away with that..

[Betty]

Man, this is just getting worse and worse.

 

Bet Rob & Kris are starting to regret signing on for 3 movies now. I know I would.

[Gandalfia]

We might get some gobshi*e who directed my least favourite film in recent memory as the director on not one, but TWO films?

 

We might get Taylor (who was perfect as Jacob) replaced because he doesn't quite have the muscles for the role?

 

We get a crap budget even though Twilight made loads?

 

Oh this is just BRILLIANT!

 

You wouldn't have all this if Dreamworks, Fox or Paramount had made it. Summit have let the success go to their heads

Edited December 11, 2008 by Gandalfia

[kayleighmarie]

It isnt as if they HAVE to do this. Its just Summit being give us some creditholes, apparently Rob & Kristen are real mad at them and are now super nervous about doing the movies, so they've ticked off the fans & upset the cast, and AND their talking about sacking the youngest member!!

 

Their doing juuuust great!

[Charisma]

$50 mil budget and apparently Rob and Kristen r ment to be getting $12mill each!

[livyaa]

It's not even worth my rant aha

My parents just heard the whole thing

 

im just....

gutted over it all

[Betty]

$50 mil budget and apparently Rob and Kristen r ment to be getting $12mill each!

Their reputed fees for New Moon are a load of dog poop, according to Rob. However, I kinda wish it was true as he did say he'd walk around naked if he was getting $12m

[Starbuck73]

Rob has been named as Yahoo's Top Movie Heart Throb of 2008, Rolling Stone Magazine's Hottest Actor of 2008, Entertainment Tonight's (ET) top hunk of 2008 and he was at the top of Entertainment Weekly's breakout stars of 2008 list, and on People's Sexiest Men Alive list!

[Charisma]

Thats good news for Rob not that he will believe it lol, u know what he gets like when people say hes hot lol

[livyaa]

IF the hype about Twilight turns out to be true, the vampire love story will propel Kristen Stewart to stardom.

 

While it should be the stuff of dreams for young actors in Hollywood, it's not so for Stewart who, since making her debut opposite Jodie Foster in 2002's Panic Room, has chosen to steer away from big studio movies.

 

The petite 18-year-old's biggest roles to date have been a memorable small part in last year's Into the Wild, and in the excellent but overlooked kids' adventure Zathura.

 

Then Twilight came knocking. Yet Stewart, whose screenwriter mother hails from Maroochydore, had no interest in taking on the role of Bella, a schoolgirl who falls for a vampire.

 

"The script was forced on me. It was in a stack of studio movies of 'Smart options for Kristen'," she says dryly.

 

Her initial reaction to the synopsis was one of horror.

 

"I thought 'This is crap, you're going to present a completely ideological idea of love to 11-year-olds and that's so not right'.

 

"You're setting them up for total disappointment'."

 

But the full script eased her fears.

 

"I'm not OK with the idea of ideological men where they're perfect and you're not, but that's not what we have here. Our character is so tortured and not OK.

 

"So that changed that. And reading the book and spending time with Rob..."

 

The man of whom she is speaking is co-star Robert Pattinson, a Brit whose striking good looks and portrayal of undead heart-throb Edward Cullen have earned him the adulation, and hysteria, of teenage girls around the world.

 

The hysteria became frighteningly apparent to Stewart during promotional appearances ahead of the film's release, with thousands of teenage fans turning out to meet, well, mainly Pattinson.

 

"Some are rabid and just look at me with disdain," she says.

 

"I remember we did a signing at a bookstore and, after being there a couple of hours, we had to leave, but there was still this wall of people waiting to get Rob's autograph.

 

"I saw people looking at Rob and the prospect of not getting to meet him after waiting for so long, they just wanted to die. It was scary. I thought: 'If we leave, there is going to be a riot'."

 

Stewart first met Pattinson at director Catherine Hardwicke's Los Angeles home to see if they had on-screen chemistry and was immediately hooked on her leading man.

 

"He's a good actor and has a really insane work ethic. He is really sensitive. He's perfect. He's my perfect Edward."

 

Not surprisingly, reports hinted at an on-set romance between Pattinson, 22, and Stewart, then 17, during the shoot in the Oregon wilds. Their off-screen chemistry was enough to concern Hardwicke, who revealed she was worried the duo's obvious closeness would mean the end of Stewart's relationship with her boyfriend of five years, actor Mike Angarano.

 

Angarano is a close friend of Hardwicke's since she directed him in 2005's Lords of Dogtown.

 

Stewart takes a breath and looks at the floor when told of Hardwicke's comment.

 

"We were fine. I have not left my boyfriend for Robert Pattinson," she says quietly.

 

"But we went through a lot together. It is crazy to go through something that heavy in real life. At the end of it you are inevitably going to have something.

 

"I know a version of him better than anybody else in the world because I did this movie with him."

 

And they will do more. Both have signed contracts to appear in at least two Twilight sequels.

 

While stardom does not excite Stewart, the idea of being in a film franchise does.

 

"I would love to follow the character for that long. It would be an experience that I've never had before. I'm low-profile and I know everybody's like 'well, wait until the movie comes out', but it (fame) still doesn't really matter.

 

"You pull that to you. If you want that, you will get it. But if you don't want it, you will repel it at least a little bit.

 

"Sure, Twilight is really huge right now and everybody's freaking out over it, but it will go away soon and I will be back to doing what I'm used to doing - which is weird little movies that nobody sees."

 

For now, Stewart is looking forward to working unhindered by child actor laws, which limited the amount of time she was on set, meaning her co-stars on Twilight often had to do their scenes without her there.

 

"I will do better work now because of it," she says. "They're doing it to protect you, but you feel as if you are being deprived of something. I was 17 and I hated it."

 

 

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0...5006346,00.html

[kayleighmarie]

"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. Summit had planned to 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. "

 

Despite "Twilight" success in digging gold at the box office upon its release, its sequel "New Moon" may lose one of its actors, Taylor Lautner. Entertainment Weekly (EW) reported that the actor who takes the role of Jacob Black in "Twilight" may not return to the sequel because Summit Entertainment won't rehire him.

 

On the possibility of Lautner not coming back to play Black, EW hinted that the reason of Summit unwillingness to bring Lautner back was because the studio consider the teenage actor to be too "young-looking and slight of frame to play the maturing werewolf". Still, the studio have yet to give out statement regarding the speculation.

 

EW has also reported that Summit are about to hire rumored director Chris Weitz. Despite strong denial of the signing in of Weitz from both Summit and Weitz's agency, the publication noted that sources claimed that the deal is imminent and that negotiations with other potential Moon directors have been stopped.

 

An adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's second novel in her Twilight series, "New Moon" will be penned by "Twilight" screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. Both Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are expected to reprise their roles as Edward and Bella, while the pre-production of this sequel has been slated to start on December 15 for a tentative release on November 20, 2009.

[Charisma]

Just seen Rob introduce twilight nearly had a fit! haha am soooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!

[leanne marie barden]

Just seen Rob introduce twilight nearly had a fit! haha am soooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!

That was really cool Although the poor thing looked exhausted when he filmed it...Awww!!

[JaneDoe]

I saw the add....the Twilight blog said it would be shown at 8.10 last night but it was on at 7.15, during the first ads for X Factor.

 

Later, there was a Twilight exclusive on channel 157 Film 24, which showed interviews with the cast and clips of the movie. A similar thing was aired late last night on 35mm on Sky!