'New Moon' Director Chris Weitz Tells EW: 'If You Stay True To The Book, You Win'

"This was made for the fans, and if you don't get it, then you don't get it," "New Moon" director Chris Weitz told Entertainment Weekly when they interviewed him for their December 4 "New Moon"-focused cover story.

When EW went to meet Chris at his beach house after the film's release, they said he looked "like a wilted rose. He’s unshaven, pale and wearing clothes he appears to have found wadded in a ball on his bedroom floor." The man has been exhausted by the recent press tour insanity surrounding the record-breaking film (“I’m at the point of physical collapse,” he told the mag, and recently admitted he wants to retire after making one final movie), but at least he is not letting the film's negative reviews get him down.

"What I’ve realized over the last week is I won’t necessarily get good reviews for this movie," he admitted. "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."

Chris admitted that this was the movie he wanted to make, though the way he explained it to EW was that he was more concerned about the look of the film than its content.

"In terms of what I wanted to do with the gloss of the picture, the look of the picture, I’m very satisfied with it," he said. "And satisfied to touch back with the crew and the actors and to feel we made it under humane conditions as well. No actors were harmed in the making of this movie."
He added, "I had this theory that if you stay true to the book, you would win. You would not only win with the fans, but other people will get what the fans care about. If the box office tells us anything, then it’s a win."

He was quick to draw comparisons to his last attempt at a book-to-film adaptation, "The Golden Compass." Chris noted that in its opening weekend, "New Moon" made more money than "The Golden Compass" made in its entire run. But the bad experience with the studio destroying his vision for "Compass" wasn't enough to keep him away from this story and these actors, he said.

"The studio, my editor, and I were all working off the same piece of music," said Chris in regards to "New Moon." "The only way I can make that interesting is to compare it to my previous experience of "The Golden Compass." I don’t 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."
As for the main heartthrob of the box office smash, Robert Pattinson, he says he now thinks he understood how the Beatles felt back in the day. "I imagine it was close to this," he said. "Very few human beings will ever get to experience the love we feel at 'Twilight' events.”
To read the rest of the interview with Chris and learn more about how the movie became such a success, check out the EW story here and buy all three covers of the magazine when it hits shelves Nov. 27!

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Entertainment Weekly on stands 11.13.09

“I swear to you I’ve never experienced anything like this. It’s every single day,” says New Moon star Robert Pattinson of the constant on-set fuss surrounding his character Edward’s signature mane. During a break from shooting Eclipse, the next film to be adapted from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels, Pattinson — sitting alongside costars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner — recounts the continuing saga. “In Twilight, they wanted me to have extensions down to my hips.” (“He’s a liar,” Stewart interjects playfully. “He doesn’t remember. He’s remembering how they made him feel, but they were just, like, down to here [pointing to her shoulders].”) Pattinson continues. “So I told them ‘Look, that’s just not going to happen.’ I said, ‘It looks like this already, I’ll come to set like this.’”

“I sound so stupid, but in a lot of ways the hair is 75 percent of my performance,” the 23-year-old actor admits, his locks now comfortably hidden under a Yankee’s cap. “So in the second one I said, ‘Listen, I need to tone down the hair. Let’s make it a little more real, a little bit more…Method,’” he says with a laugh. “And then in the third one, I’m doing fight scenes and there’s a strand going down my forehead and they’re like, ‘We need to do it again because no one will recognize you! No one will know who it is!’ I have to look like the poster at all times. Just in case they want to use any clip for the trailer. Any clip at all! There were about five people in different departments who, because of my forelock, ended up in tears.”
For more of our interview with the stars of New Moon, plus a look at which actors they view as role models, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands November 13, or order one now with a free New Moon poster.

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The luckiest girl on the Planet

Enter­tain­ment Weekly, Nov 20 Issue

 

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Portrait shots from Entertainment Weekly

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