Name Chris Weitz | Years active 1998–present Children Sebastian Weitz | |
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Full Name Christopher John Weitz Occupation Film directorProducerScreenwriterAuthor Spouse Mercedes Martinez (m. 2006) Siblings Paul Weitz, Karen Weitz Curtis, Robert Weitz Movies The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Golden Compass Books The Young World, The Young World ‑ FREE PR, The New Order, The New Order ‑‑ FREE PR Similar People Paul Weitz, Dakota Blue Richards, Kenneth Branagh, Taylor Lautner, Philip Pullman Profiles |
Cinderella interview chris weitz allison shearmur and david barron
Christopher John "Chris" Weitz (born November 30, 1969) is an American film producer, screenwriter, author, occasional actor, and film director. He is the brother of filmmaker Paul Weitz. He is best known for his work with his brother on the comedy films American Pie and About a Boy, the latter of which was Oscar-nominated for adapted screenplay. Weitz directed the film adaptation of the novel The Golden Compass and the film adaptation of New Moon from the series of Twilight books, as well wrote the screenplay for Disney's 2015 live-action adaptation of Cinderella and co-wrote Rogue One: A Star Wars Story alongside with Tony Gilroy.
Contents
- Cinderella interview chris weitz allison shearmur and david barron
- Chris weitz from american pie to a better life an oscar nod power players part 1 of 3
- Early life
- Early career 19982006
- The Golden Compass 2007
- The Twilight Saga New Moon 2009
- Other projects
- Acting
- In development
- Author
- Personal life
- Films
- Television
- Documentaries
- As actor
- Controversy
- Works and publications
- References
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Chris weitz from american pie to a better life an oscar nod power players part 1 of 3
Early life
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Weitz was born in New York City, the son of actress Susan Kohner and Berlin-born novelist/menswear designer John Weitz. His brother is filmmaker Paul Weitz. Weitz is the grandson of Czech-born agent and producer Paul Kohner and actress Lupita Tovar on his maternal side. Tovar, who was from Oaxaca, Mexico, starred in Santa, Mexico's first talkie, in 1932, as well as a Mexican version of Drácula. Weitz' paternal grandparents escaped Nazi Germany, before which his grandfather was a successful textile manufacturer, with the family being intimates of writer Christopher Isherwood and actress Marlene Dietrich.
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Weitz's father and maternal grandfather were Jewish, and his maternal grandmother was Catholic; he was raised in a nonreligious household. He has also described himself as a "lapsed Catholic crypto-Buddhist."
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As a young boy, Weitz was a member of the Knickerbocker Greys, a long-standing New York City youth marching corps that has been in existence since 1881.
When he was 14 years old, Weitz went to the boarding school, St Paul's School, in London, which his father had attended. He graduated with a degree in English from Trinity College at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England.
Early career (1998–2006)
Weitz' early career involved many collaborations with his brother. Some of the work they have done as screenwriters has been both credited and uncredited.
Weitz began his film career as a co-writer on the animated film Antz (1998). He followed this with work on various sitcoms such as Off Centre and the 1998 revival of the 1977 TV series Fantasy Island. In 1999, he and Paul directed and produced American Pie, which was written by Adam Herz, and became a major box office success. Weitz returned as executive producer on the film's two theatrical sequels. In 2001, along with his brother, he co-directed his second film, the Chris Rock comedy Down to Earth.
In 2002, the Weitz brothers co-wrote and co-directed About a Boy, the Hugh Grant film based on the book by Nick Hornby. The film was originally set up at New Line Cinema with Robert De Niro producing, and the main character as an American. The brothers felt that it was important that the character is British. Inspiration came from the 1960 film The Apartment. They were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Weitz has produced a number of films including In Good Company and American Dreamz, both of which were directed by his brother, Paul.
The Golden Compass (2007)
In 2003, Weitz was hired to direct New Line Cinema's adaptation of the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, The Golden Compass, after approaching the studio with an unsolicited 40-page treatment. He was subsequently invited by director Peter Jackson to visit the set of King Kong, in order to gain insight into directing a big-budget film and advice on how to deal with New Line. In 2005, Weitz announced his departure from the film, citing the enormous technical challenges involved, and the fear of being denounced by both the book's fans and detractors; he was subsequently replaced by British director Anand Tucker. Tucker left the project in 2006 over creative differences with New Line, and Weitz returned to the director's chair after receiving a letter from Pullman asking him to reconsider.
During post-production, New Line had Weitz's editor replaced, and the studio made the final cut with severe differences from Weitz's vision, trimming the originally unhappy ending and watering down the religious theme. Weitz declared that
The film was released in 2007 and was met with mixed reviews. Its U.S. grosses have been described as disappointing in relation to film's $180 million USD budget, although it was a "stellar performer" outside the U.S. with a "stunning" box office likely to hit $250 million. When questioned about a possible sequel, New Line studio co-head Michael Lynne said that "The jury is still very much out on the movie..." The second and third screenplays have been written but because of the economic recession and the protest by the Catholic Church, the two sequels never got made. Its worldwide box office gross stands at $372,234,864.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
In December 2008, Weitz was announced as the director of the sequel to Twilight, the film adaptation of the novel New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. Weitz said he felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to live up to the expectations of the passionate fan base.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon opened in November 2009, one year after the first movie was released. New Moon set records as the biggest midnight opening in domestic box office history, grossing an estimated $26.3 million in 3,514 theatres, previously held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The film grossed $72.7 million on its opening day domestically, becoming the biggest single-day opening in domestic history, beating the $67.2 million tally of The Dark Knight.. This opening strongly contributed to another record: the first time that the top ten films at the domestic box office had a combined gross of over $100 million in a single day.
The opening weekend of New Moon was the third-highest opening weekend in US domestic history with $142,839,137, and the sixth-highest worldwide opening weekend with $274.9 million total. With an estimated budget of just under $50 million, New Moon is the least expensive movie to ever open to more than $200 million worldwide. Over Thanksgiving weekend, the film grossed $42.5 million, and including Wednesday and Thursday ticket sales it grossed $66 million. It earned $230.7 million in its first ten days, $38 million more than the previous installment grossed in its entire theatrical run. Internationally, the film grossed roughly $85 million over Thanksgiving weekend, adding up to a total worldwide gross of $473.7 million in ten days. Weitz decided not to continue to direct the next film in the franchise.
Other projects
In June 2011, Summit Entertainment released his film A Better Life, written by Eric Eason about a Hispanic gardener and his son in Los Angeles searching for their stolen truck. This film is unusual among Hollywood productions in that it is set in a Hispanic community and features an almost entirely Hispanic cast. Weitz said that working on the film allowed him to explore his Hispanic heritage—his grandmother is from Mexico—and learn Spanish. The film was nominated for an Oscar.
In 2012, he worked with journalist Jose Antonio Vargas on a series of four documentary shorts directed by Weitz called Is This Alabama?, about the effects of the state of Alabama's anti-immigration legislation, 2011's Alabama HB 56. The project was a collaboration between Weitz, Vargas, the Center for American Progress think-tank, America's Voice Education Fund, and Vargas' Define American campaign, with Vargas doing the interviews.
Weitz wrote the screenplay for Disney's 2015 live-action adaptation of Cinderella, which was released in theaters on March 13, 2015. Weitz said he went back to the many different versions of the story (Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, as well as the 1950 animated Disney original) as well as his own vision.
Weitz scripted the first Star Wars stand-alone film, director Gareth Edwards' Rogue One (2016). Replacing Gary Whitta, Weitz shares writing duties with acclaimed filmmaker Tony Gilroy.
Weitz will be writing the screen adaptation of 21 Years to Midnight, a movie about same-sex marriage documented in the legal case Obergefell v. Hodges, as well as Mountain Between Us for Fox 2000.
In February 2016, Weitz' name was attached to an MGM movie based on Mossad and Shin Bet teams that captured Adolf Eichmann.
Acting
Weitz has also occasionally worked as an actor, playing the lead role in the 2000 comedy film Chuck & Buck and a bland suburbanite in Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
In development
Weitz has a production company with his brother Paul Weitz and producer Andrew Miano called Depth of Field. In March 2016, Weitz and his brother signed a two-year first look deal with Amazon Studios.
Author
Weitz wrote a young adult novel trilogy series that began with The Young World, in 2014, and The New Order, in 2015. Weitz said that he used the concept of natural intelligence theories called Society of Mind created by Marvin Minsky to create the stories that were loosely autobiographical about growing up in New York City.
Personal life
Weitz is married to Mercedes Martinez, who is Cuban Mexican, and with whom he has one son, Sebastian Weitz. Weitz said he met Martinez at the Burning Man festival.
In 2004, Weitz was a co-investor with Paul Devitt in the Japanese restaurant and club called Tokio on N. Cahuenga in Los Angeles.
Films
Television
Documentaries
As actor
Controversy
On November 11, 2016, after Donald Trump won the presidential election, Weitz tweeted out "Please note that the Empire is a white supremacist (human) organization." Although he had apologized and deleted the tweet, several Trump supporters have used the hashtag #DumpStarWars and claimed that Rogue One contained an anti-Trump scene.