Tag: Chris Weitz
Taylor Lautner Returns for Twilight New Moon
Taylor Lautner will return to the role of Jacob Black for Summit Entertainment‘s “Twilight” follow-up “New Moon.”
“New Moon” director Chris Weitz recently sent this message over to Stephenie Meyer‘s official site, announcing that Taylor Lautner will, in fact, be back as Jacob Black for the sequel.
“New Moon” Gets a Release Date
Summit Entertainment has announced plans to get “Twilight” sequel “New Moon” in theaters on Nov. 20th, 2009, a day earlier than the film’s 2008 opening. After finding success with a November release this year, the studio is hoping that Thanksgiving time could once again push buffo numbers in 2009.
Last weekend, Catherine Hardwicke‘s vampire romance lifted its domestic total to $150 million. Despite the success of the movie, Hardwicke will not return, and Chris Weitz will direct instead.
Chris Weitz Will Direct New Moon
“Twilight” has generated domestic grosses of more than $150 million and another $50 million overseas. The vampire thriller’s a ready-made franchise for Summit with the four books in Stephenie Meyer’s series, already selling more than 17 million copies worldwide.
It’s official now: Chris Weitz will direct Twilight” sequel, “New Moon” from the script by Melissa Rosenberg (“Twilight” screenwriter). Summit Entertainment made the announcement Saturday, less than a week after it parted ways with “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke.
Here’s the studio’s official synopsis for the sequel: “In ‘New Moon,’ Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black. Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested. Production on ‘New Moon’ is scheduled to begin in the coming months and the studio is planning to release the film towards the end of 2009 or early 2010.”
Chris Weitz To Direct Twilight Sequel New Moon?
Summit Entertainment is wasting no time in finding a new director for “Twilight” sequel, “New Moon.” The studio has officially announced they will be moving ahead with the sequel without “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke.
The problem that stalled negotiations was that Hardwicke had strong opinions about what to do with the next installment, and so did Summit Entertainment.
Nikki Finke at DeadlineHollywoodDaily has a source that informs her the offer for the sequel is going out to Chris Weitz.
Yes, he’s had tremendous success working with tweens and teens: “About A Boy” as director and writer, “American Pie” as producer and uncredited director. But Chris Weitz also did “The Golden Compass” (as writer and director), and my source says Summit Entertainment liked the look of that even if it didn’t heat up the domestic box office (but did better overseas).
Despite this, Nikki Finke says that Chris Weitz is being tapped because he is friends with Summit’s president of production Eric Feig.
The source tells me Weitz is “still considering” the offer to helm “New Moon” and possibly also “Eclipse” if the sequel and threequel movie adaptations of Stephenie Meyer‘s series of vampire books are made back-to-back.
