Christopher John "Chris" Weitz is an American film producer, screenwriter,
author, actor, and film director. He is the brother of filmmaker Paul Weitz. He
is best known for his work with his brother, Paul Weitz, on the comedy films
American Pie and About a Boy, for which the brothers, who co-directed, were
nominated for an Oscar. Weitz directed the film adaptation of the novel The
Golden Compass and the film adaptation of New Moon from the series of Twilight
books. Early life
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. On the paternal side, Weitz' grandparents escaped Nazi
Germany, before which his grandfather was a successful textile manufacturer,
with the family close intimates of Christopher Isherwood and Marlene
Dietrich. 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." 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 where his father went. He
graduated with a degree in English from Trinity College at Cambridge University
in Cambridge, England. Career
= Early career= 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 1998 animated film Antz. He followed this with work on
various sitcoms such as Off Centre and the 1998 revival of 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 he 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= 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
It was a terrible experience because I was able to shoot what I wanted to — and
then the cut of the movie was taken away from me and any reference to religion or
religious ideas was removed. And the darkness and threat at the end of the
story — anything that made it not a happy, popcorn-type movie — was removed.
The voice of the key character was redone, all of this against my will. And
the fact of the matter is the people that the studio was afraid were going to
raise up arms against the movie did it anyway.
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 economic recession and protests from religious
groups it appears that subsequent production for the series is at a
standstill. Its worldwide box office gross stands at $372,234,864.
= The Twilight Saga: New Moon= 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 as well as his own
vision. Weitz has been hired to script the first
Star Wars stand-alone film, replacing Gary Whitta, titled Rogue One: A Star
Wars Story, which will be directed by Gareth Edwards.
= 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. A live-action adaptation Michael
Moorcock's Elric saga, which Weitz said he enjoyed as a child. Weitz's Depth of
Field production company was meant to create the films as a potential trilogy
for Universal Pictures. In a May 2007 interview with Empire magazine he
announced that he had met with Moorcock, who trusted him with the films, and
described his wish for Paul to direct the film.
Shield of Straw – producing an English remake of the 2013 Japanese action
thriller, Shield of Straw Ghost Train – producing a remake of the
2006 Japanese horror film, Soul Reviver Birthright – producing a remake of the
2010 Japanese thriller Like Father, Like Son – writing an
adaption of a remake of the 2013 Japanese drama for Steven Spielberg
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.
Filmography = Films=
1998: Antz – co-wrote screenplay with his brother Paul Weitz and Todd Alcott
1999: American Pie – producer, co-director with his brother, Paul
Weitz, actor as Male Voice in Porn Film 2000: Nutty Professor II: The Klumps –
screenplay with Barry W. Blaustein, David Sheffield, and Paul Weitz
2001: American Pie 2 – producer 2001: Down to Earth – co-director with
his brother, Paul Weitz 2002: About a Boy – screenplay with
Peter Hedges and Paul Weitz; co-director with his brother, Paul Weitz
2003: American Wedding – executive producer
2004: See This Movie – executive producer, actor as Panel Discussion
Moderator 2004: In Good Company – producer
2006: Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas – producer, actor as Sheldon Schmeckler
2006: American Dreamz – executive producer
2007: The Golden Compass – director, screenplay
2008: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist – producer
2009: A Single Man – producer 2009: The Twilight Saga: New Moon –
director 2011: A Better Life – producer, director
2012: American Reunion – executive producer
2015: Cinderella – screenplay 2016: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story –
screenplay 2016: Good Kids – producer
TBD: Boogeyman Pop – executive producer = Television=
1998–1999: Fantasy Island – co-executive producer, 13 episodes; story, 2
episodes; teleplay, 1 episode 2000–2001: Off Centre – executive
producer, 28 episodes; creator, 19 episodes
2004–2006: Cracking Up – executive producer, 9 episodes; consultant, 11
episodes; writer, 1 episode 2010: Lone Star – consulting producer, 2
episodes 2014–2015: About a Boy – based on the
screenplay by, 27 episodes = Documentaries=
2002: Dylan's Run – executive producer 2007: Living with Lew – executive
producer 2012: Is This Alabama? – director of
four short films 2013: Spark: A Burning Man Story –
executive producer = As actor=
2000: The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy – as Director
2000: Chuck & Buck – as Charlie "Chuck" Sitter
2005: Mr. & Mrs. Smith – as Martin Coleman
Works and publications Weitz, Chris. "Lights! Camera! Fiction!"
New Statesman. May 8, 2008. ISSN 1364-7431 OCLC 228044383
Weitz, Chris. The Young World. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2014.
ISBN 978-0-316-22629-5 OCLC 852031210 Weitz, Chris. The New Order. New York,
NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2015. ISBN 978-0-316-22630-1 OCLC 895301586
See also Paul Weitz
Susan Kohner John Weitz
Lupita Tovar Paul Kohner
References External links
Chris Weitz at the Internet Movie Database
Chris Weitz on Twitter