Photo Credit: Kimberley French
Chris Weitz just joined the ranks of a very select group of
directors such as Chris Nolan and Sam Raimi who have opened their films
above the $100 million mark. The news is sweet revenge for a man who
had his last film The Golden Compass complete re-cut by his
previous studio bosses. Check out our Q&A with Weitz where he
reveals his favorite cast moments and how he’s dealt with the fan
adoration and the paparazzi intrusion.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was your biggest fear going into [opening] weekend?
CHRIS WEITZ:
I didn’t have any particular fears. The tracking numbers were enough to
indicate that I wouldn’t be letting the studio down. But if one could
imagine their biggest fears, it would be complete rejection of the
movie, by the fans. What I’ve realized over the last week is I won’t
necessarily get good reviews for this movie. Having swallowed that,
this was made for the fans, and if you don’t get it, then you don’t get
it.
Did the negative reviews surprise you?
Nothing surprises me in terms of reviews. Having been a reviewer
myself, there are only two ways to spin this story. You can either be
the one guy who says this is a great movie, or more likely, take a more
jaundiced view of the whole thing. And given the media blitz that has
accompanied New Moon,
it’s rather unsurprising. I do wish there was more appreciation for
cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe. I think he’s a genius and I think
he made something beautiful.
A lot of fans say they like the movie more than the book, that New Moon was their least favorite book in the series.
New Moon takes a lot of time to read and you have a
lot of time without Edward in the picture. And here in the compressed
scenario of the movie, there is less time without RPatz. And the fact
that Taylor [Lautner] does such a great job, to the reading audience
who’s been very skeptical of him, here he is in the flesh, and it’s
quite something.
Were there moments that you felt constrained by the book? Anything you wanted to take out but couldn’t?
The studio, my editor, and I were all working off the same piece of
music. The only way I can make that interesting is to compare it to my
previous experience of The Golden Compass.
I don’ think the studio had read the book. Maybe they had heard the
audio book while sipping Zinfandel. Eventually, they were appalled and
frightened by it. At a certain point they considered cutting loose the
author. They considered and executed the complete regearing and
destruction of what I thought was going to be a pretty good movie. It
was a shame and pursued me through what should have been my sleep for a
good year.
Really, you didn’t sleep for a year?
Yes, I lost sleep over it. Literally. I stayed up at night pondering
how I could have saved it or turned it around or if I had acted
differently could I have made it what it ought to have been.
Unfortunately, my experience was I went down with the ship. I could
have quit at one point. In a parallel universe — and [author Philip]
Pullman is really big on parallel universes — I get up and say fine,
re-cut, but you won’t see me back again. At the same time, I loved the
book so much that if there was any way to abdicate for the better
version of it I couldn’t let go.
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