Chris Weitz Not Giving Up On Directing
Looks like rumors that surfaced this weekend that Chris Weitz would direct one more film and then give up the business were blown out of proportion. According to Variety:
“Weitz said he plans to go to work for Summit right away on “The Gardener,” with deals in the works for Weitz and Eric Eason (“Manito”), who wrote the screenplay. The picture is about a hard-working immigrant who lives in Los Angeles and his efforts to protect his son.
Weitz said he will begin production in March or April.
“There are no werewolves or vampires, just a Mexican gardener in Los Angeles,” Weitz said.
Weitz also dispelled reports that he would stop directing movies after “The Gardener,” an assertion that came from an interview he gave to Moviemaker magazine. The retirement angle got picked up by the New York Post’s Page Six late last week.”
FearNet: 20 Differences Between New Moon the novel and the movie
Jen Yamato, one of the most Twilight savvy reporters out there, has a comparison of New Moon the movie vs. the book and how “changes” in her opinion work.
“If you’re a diehard Twilighter, you might wonder just how different New Moon the film is from the book. Below, we name 20 ways the movie deviates from Meyer’s tome – and works all the better for it.
Twilight scribe Melissa Rosenberg faced an enormous challenge adapting Stephenie Meyer’s 500+ page novel for the screen, but it’s clear that the filmmakers chose to remain steadfastly faithful to Meyer’s book. (Perhaps to a fault, considering the reviews.) Still, for fans, New Moon should feel just authentic enough to drive it toward an enormous opening weekend. So how do Rosenberg’s additions, changes, and omissions from the text affect New Moon on film, and which ones work the best?”
See Jen Yamato’s analysis on Fearnet.
Here’s Melissa Rosenberg on the red carpet talking with us about one such change.
Jet Set Jen: New Moon Photo Gallery
Christina Radish has some great photos shot on the New Moon red carpet.
See them all on Jet Set Jen!
New Moon Continuing to Break Records
According to Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood (at 10:30 pacific time Saturday night):
“SATURDAY 10:20 PM UPDATE: Hollywood insiders tell me that, based on NEW MOON’s early Saturday numbers, the phenomenally performing pic opened with a gargantuan $140 million first weekend.
The Twilight Saga franchise moviemaker Summit Entertainment won’t report official North American, international and worldwide totals until Sunday. But the sequel’s vampires and werewolves shattered the All-Time 3rd Biggest Opening Weekend record of $135.6M (see below).”
Now what does that mean? Hands down the best number analysis that fans can understand right now is coming from Larry over at ProNetworks (3:00 am Eastern Time Sunday):
“For those who are new to the box office numbers game, it may seem odd to have these figures this early in the weekend. But it is standard procedure to have early Saturday totals come in late Saturday night. Most theater chains have already filed their reports at that point and many studios have access to them and unofficially release the information. Once those figures arrive they always estimate Sunday and come up with a weekend projection. Then, several hours later on Sunday, the official numbers are issued for Saturday. At that point they predict Sunday numbers again and come up with a revised weekend projection. This is always done on Sunday. Of course, Sunday and weekend figures can only be estimates at this point. The actual Sunday numbers aren’t known until Monday. But many years and literally thousands of projections have yielded formulas that allow the industry to predict fairly closely what Sunday will be based on Friday and Saturday’s numbers and, therefore, what the weekend will look like. The actual numbers that come in on Monday are usually not too far off from the estimates made on Sunday. They usually adjust slightly up or down but are rarely far off.
No matter what the totals turn out to be, this is already the widest opening of all time for an independent film and guaranteed to be the biggest ever box office opening for an indie. The top four places are held by major Hollywood studio films: The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) at $158.4M, Spider-Man 3 (Sony/Columbia) at $151.1M, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Disney/Buena Vista) at $135.6M, and Shrek the Third (Paramount/Dreamworks) at $121.6M. “
New Moon Breaks Openning Day Record
According to Variety.com New Moon has beaten The Dark Knight’s openning day record. After having the best midnight showing ever New Moon has now made $72.7 million in 24 hours.
Summit Entertainment’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon tore up the box office record for best opening day, grabbing the title away from Warner Bros. The Dark Knight, and earning a spectacular $72.7 million yesterday at 4,024 theaters.
An exceptional feat for a film playing outside the summer frame.
Dark Knight had minted $67.2 million from 4,366 runs on July 18, 2008 before making a three-day opening weekend of $158.4 million.
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