In a surprisingly candid interview with industry mag MovieMaker, “New Moon” director Chris Weitz talks about his disappointment with “The Golden Compass” (aka the Coca Cola Polar Bears movie) and the exhaustive enterprise that directing a film entails leading him to seriously consider directing one more film before calling it quits:
MM: Some elements appear consistently in your career, including working with young actors and adapting novels to the screen. Is that an unplanned coincidence, where people see what you’ve done and offer you more of the same, or does part of it come from you? CW: I do like working with young people but, weirdly, the young people here are experienced actors, so it was like working with adults. I can’t find any intentionality in my career other than hoping to get the chance to do another film, wanting to do something different from the previous one and trying to accumulate a set of skills. I still feel as though I’m learning. When it came to The Golden Compass, I really wanted that to be my masterpiece. And by that I don’t mean work of genius, but rather the piece that you do that says to your peers that you’re ready to stop being a journeyman and start being an actual craftsman. Unfortunately, the edit was taken from me and whatever chance I had at that was also taken from me, which is kind of sad. I still feel that I’m learning, and yet I also feel that the number of aspects that go into making a film of the sort that I’m making now have become so multifold that it’s really exhausting. Every time I make a movie I’m pretty much convinced it’s the last time I’m going to be able to do it and that really it’s a rather silly occupation to undertake. But I think I have maybe one more film in me.
MM: Only one? Are you serious? CW: Yes, I think so. I know this is for MovieMaker, but I don’t think that people have to do the same thing for all their lives. Giuseppe di Lampedusa wrote one great novel, The Leopard, and he didn’t have to write anymore.
Even though we like talk trash about certain films (*cough*AVATAR*cough*) we never root for a film to fail, and while “The Golden Compass” was a bit of a mess, it’s never cool to read that director had a final cut taken away from them. If you recall, Weitz has previously said he was under intense marketing pressure to deliver an “upbeat ending” that differed from the darker conclusion he had originally envisioned. The irony here is that while Hollywood has considered “The Golden Compass” a failure (even though it did solid box office numbers in every territory that wasn’t the United States), Weitz will probably be even more in demand once “New Moon” sinks its teenage fangs into the box office this weekend.
Some people are relishing his retirement, while yes, while he’s never quite directed a masterpiece (and some are far from it), “About A Boy” was solid and really evinced a similar tone to Jason Reitman’s films so he is capable of good work. We just think he jumped into/got sucked into the CGI fantasy world way too early. If he really is going to hang it up, we hope he does get a shot to make one more film and it’s something close to his heart and hopefully more back to basics.