Kudos, I guess, to Nikki Finke for breaking the Twilight sequel director news (and by breaking I mean ‘Reading an email and telling us what it said’), but sort of fuck her source for forcing Summit to announce that Catherine Hardwicke is off the sequels during the European press tour. That’s hurtful and shitty.
I’m sure it’s the same source that has now fed the following info to Finke: Summit has made an offer to Chris (The Golden Compass, About A Boy) Weitz to direct New Moon, and possibly Eclipse if the two sequels shoot back to back. According to Finke Weitz is a buddy of Summit’s president of production Eric Feig are buddies, and Summit liked the look of The Golden Compass, even if nobody saw it.
The Weitz Bros have found themselves in fantasy-land lately, first with Chris on The Golden Compass and now Paul on Cirque du Freak. Could a Weitz-directed outing at Summit lead to a new home for these guys? Could Summit become the place where Paul finally gets to realize his dream of making a movie of Michael Moorcock’s Elric?*
At any rate, it could be a smart move for Weitz to jump on board these sequels. They’ll make money, which brings him back from any post-Compass director probation, and they can’t be worse than the first one, since there will actually be money to spend on the films this time.
* I honestly don’t know. I know that Universal was in the mix at one point, but I’m not sure who has the rights at this point – the Weitz’s Depth of Field production company or the studio.