Exclusive Interview: Chris Weitz (New Moon Director) - Part I

Chris Weitz had a tough act to follow. The talented writer-producer-director had directed such films as American Pie (1999), About a Boy (2002), and The Golden Compass (2007), and now he's the man behind the camera on one of the year's most breathlessly anticipated movies, The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009). Just that title alone clues you into the myriad tasks and quandaries at hand for Weitz: he was stepping into an existing franchise that got off to a blockbuster start last year with Twilight (2008); he was taking over from another director (Catherine Hardwicke) with an entirely different style; he was inheriting a cast -- including Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner -- already intimately familiar with their respective roles, and he was directing a movie that was no longer just a sequel to a popular movie, but rather the next installment in a billion-dollar phenomenon.

PopStar recently spoke with Weitz by telephone and in our exclusive interview about New Moon -- which will open nationwide on November 20 -- he discussed the challenges he faced and the ways in which he met them. Part I of the interview follows; look for Part II tomorrow on PopStar.

Some people didn't love the first Twilight film even though it was a monster hit. They appreciated the idea of it, they loved the chemistry between Robert and Kristen, and they thought parts of the film clicked. But some moviegoers didn't love the film as a whole. So, how much of a risk was New Moon for you, coming into an existing franchise and possibly having to stick with elements initiated by a previous filmmaker?

Well, it wasn't really a big risk for me at all. I'm grateful to the first film for establishing the number of fans who are keen to see this one. With regard to the first film, I didn't feel particularly bound to anything except to the cast, which I liked very much and felt happy about. So that wasn't a problem. There were certain locations I knew we'd have to cheat, like when we went up to Vancouver instead of shooting in Portland. But other than that, not too much. The color palette is completely different on this film. It's a very richly colored film. And it's made with pretty much an entirely different crew. Javier Aguirresarobe is a Spanish cinematographer who's really amazing. He shot The Others (2001) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) and The Road (2009). He worked on this. Alexandre Desplat took over from Carter Burwell (as composer). There was kind of a change in mood from the first to the second, and the mode here is really epic romance. So, when I was speaking to Alexandre Desplat he said that his mentor was Maurice Jarre and I said, "Well, let's not be afraid to do something like Doctor Zhivago (1965). Let's go very romantic, very big."

And then there were a whole bunch of new atmospheres to introduce…

The world of the werewolves, and the CGI that it was going to take to do that. We traveled to Italy to shoot the (Volturi) sequence that's set there. So I knew that the film was going to expand into something much bigger. That, in terms of the visuals, made me feel very good. And in terms of the acting, it really involves the complications that set in after you fall in love with somebody. So those scenes are different as well (even though the actors are the same). I did feel bound by the responsibilities I had to Stephenie Meyer, because whenever I adapt a novel I really want to make as faithful an adaptation as possible. And, here, I went by the fans' expectations about the book, not about a continuity from the first film. I really felt bound to the readership rather than the viewership.

There is so much story and there are so many characters in Meyer's New Moon book. What did you feel you had to capture in the film in order to do the book justice?

I feel that, first of all, you have to capture the veracity of the characters. It's all written from Bella's point of view, so you have to get her feelings right and her perspective right. You have to give the characters their due, so they're not just sort of walk-on parts, but that every line of dialogue counts for something. And I think you have to get the sense that this is an expanding universe that we're dealing with, that space itself is expanding, that Bella is discovering more and more about the world that surrounds her, and it becomes more and more kind of... grand, I suppose.

A key set piece, as you noted, is the sequence in Italy with Edward and Bella confronting the Volturi. You're shooting in a tight space. You have visual effects and stunts. You have Robert and Kristen playing romantic and tough, Michael Sheen chewing the scenery as Aro and talking in a voice that he's described as being like a Blue Meanie from Yellow Submarine, and Dakota Fanning shot mostly in close-ups of her face and giving a minimalist, almost dialogue-free performance as Jane. How pivotal was that scene, and how complicated was pulling it off?

Oh, yeah. Sure. I mean, if it didn’t work that was going be a disaster. I think it's one of the things readers of the book are really looking forward to. It was crazy because you start in the world of small-town Washington and then suddenly you're in this 2,000-year-old vampire inner sanctum. And how on Earth are you going to get those performances to kind of blend? You've got Kristen's very naturalistic acting and then Michael Sheen playing a millennias old vampire king of sorts…

And hamming it up a bit, in a good way…

In a way he is, but in a delightful way, because I think it's necessary at that point in the movie to get a bit of a jolt. It's amusing and it's perverse and it's witty and quite strange.

(Check Back Tomorrow for Part II of Our Interview with Director Chris Weitz!)