Chris Weitz: Are They Insane?

Cracked Golden Compass Opinions are mixed on the choice of Chris Weitz as director. io9 is taking a particularly pessimistic stance and has asked “are they insane?”-

It’s not that we’re pulling for Hardwicke’s return to the franchise (despite finding the direction of Twilight one of its high points), but have Summit Entertainment’s decision makers forgotten that Weitz was the man behind the failure of The Golden Compass movie, the last pre-Twilight teen-book-phenomenon that was supposed to be the next Harry Potter? I’m not saying that the lightning of poor-choices-concerning-what-to-keep-and-what-to-cut-from-the-source-material, or even uninspired direction (un)inspiring lackluster performances from his actors, would necessarily strike again, but come on; look at the man’s resume: American Pie aside, there’s not a hit on there… nor anything to suggest that he’d bring anything interesting to the adolescent quadrology’s second chapter.
For Weitz, of course, it’s a chance to make up for his Compass failure, but for Summit, the reasoning is somewhat more obscure. Perhaps there was a lost bet involved.

Weitz did, however, direct About a Boy, which by most regards was a succesful romantic comedy. Roger Moore at the Orlando Sentinel notes that Weitz “will try to find his inner 17-year-old virgin girl. He’s managed some nice moments of empathy in his films, though you could say Golden Compass failed, at least in part, because he didn’t have a handle on the very young heroine.” Patrick Kevin Day at the LA Times has this to say–

On the one hand, Weitz has shown his skill at adapting popular modern novels for the screen — “About a Boy,” from the Nick Hornby novel, won Weitz and co-scripters Paul Weitz and Peter Hedges an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay. On the other hand, Weitz also directed last year’s “The Golden Compass,” which was an expensive mess that failed to capture the fan base of the books.

Our own poll indicates that fans are split almost evenly about the choice–we asked “Is Chris Weitz a good choice to direct New Moon” and so far 51% of our visitors think he is, and 49% think he is not. Now that the decision of Chris Weitz has had some time to sink in, be sure to cast your vote if you haven’t already–

{democracy:6}

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