‘New Moon’ Gets a Director: Fans Probably Won’t Care
December 14, 2008 by Joe
I’ve just read from a couple places (Variety and The Brock and Roll Blog), that Chris Weitz has been tapped to direct New Moon. For those of you who haven’t caught onto the Twilight bandwagon, New Moon is the second in a series of books written by Stephanie Meyer. The basic plotline is that there are vampires among us, and the main character, Bella, falls in love with one of them, Edward.Crazy things happen to the two as various conflicts arise, werewolves, and other vampires come after Bella. Edward also has some sort of dark teenage angst where he can’t control himself cuz he wants to drink Bella’s blood, but at the same time doesn’t.
But let’s get to the point here. While its interesting news to me, being very interested in the film industry, will fans of the movies really care who directs them? Personally, I don’t think so. Yes, there are some film buffs out there who really care who directs their films, but a majority of moviegoers who will go out to see Twilight aren’t in that category. Summit had released Catherine Hardwicke from her duties for the second film because they were not happy with the way the film turned out; I can understand that. I saw the movie myself and was less than impressed with the way it looked. However, the movie has still brought in over $144 million domestically, and that’s no small feat.
As for Chris Weitz, this is obviously a good thing for him and a potential big payday. Like I’ve said, the fans of these movies will likely come out as long as the movie doesn’t totally suck, and even if it does they will see it at least once. His most recent work came in directing The Golden Compass. Weitz also wrote the film, which wasn’t a domestic success but performed well overseas, bringing in $300 million total.
What is most important to Twilight fans is that Robert Pattinson will be back to reprise his role as Edward Cullen, and Kristen Bell will be back to play Bella (though I’m not sure how many people were fans of her). The film should be released in 2010, with Melissa Rosenberg, who penned the first screenplay, also penning this one. While this series is definitely not as big as Harry Potter, you can’t deny that it has had some success, and a new director should have little impact on the second film. Now if he does a great job, then it will be good for him and the third film…. but I don’t really see people caring about Weitz at all.
Joe…I agree that the change in directorial leadership will have little to no impact on the overall outcome and reception of the second movie in this series. My family and I stumbled upon “Twilight” over Thanksgiving weekend as part of a holiday weekend movie gut stuffing. I anticipated the movie being the one dog of all the films we saw; however, it surprised me enough to rank among the top of the list. I enjoyed the story and the characters, and feel that the recipe for this series will likely drive the next in the series to the same level of success.
There is also a chance that a new director could actually improve “New Moon.” One of the drawbacks of “Twilight” for me was that the actors seemed to be following a mandate to deliver their lines in a rather mundane fashion. I do believe that these characters have slightly more depth, and I hope the new director encourages the actors to push their characters beyond the typical teenage realm of angst and apathy and add new layers to the people on the screen.
Overall, though, you’re right. When it comes to the opening weekend, I probably just won’t care who directed the film. I’ll care about the story, compelling characters and whether I enjoyed my 100 minutes in the theater.
Hi Kevin! I don’t disagree at all that a new director could improve New Moon over Twilight. Like you, I felt that the movie lacked depth, and it felt rushed. That being said, I didn’t think it was bad, and did enjoy watching it. I hope that a new director will improve on the series, as I think it has a lot of potential. Only time will tell though.
Hope to see you back here soon!