In Contention

Tag: Chris Weitz

  • Summit hits the ground running with first screener of the season: Chris Weitz’s ‘A Better Life’

    Deadline’s Pete Hammond already reported that this was imminent, but since it arrived on my doorstep this morning, it seemed worth conveying here. Summit Entertainment is first out of the gate this year with FYC screeners aimed at drawing attention back to Chris Weitz’s “A Better Life.”

    I was a big fan of Weitz’s film, which hit the counter-programming slot this summer, particularly Demián Bichir’s affecting lead actor performance (which Mark Harris recently spotlighted in his first on-going season column). You’ll recall I spoke to Weitz about the film back in June, around the occasion of the film’s Los Angeles Film Festival bow. He noted at the time that he was very keen on pushing for some year-end kudos recognition for Bichir.

    I started to get worried that the film would be lost in the shuffle after it failed to find much life at the box office. But Summit is really smart to push this out there now, after such campaigns for Melissa Leo (“Frozen River”), Jacki Weaver (“Animal Kingdom”) and Fox Searchlight’s “Once” in recent years got a big leg up by being first on the doorstep. Oscar recognition will be tough but I definitely think some Indie Spirit attention could be in the cards. Any awards season attention at all is a big win, of course, as it just means more people will see the film.

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  • INTERVIEW: ‘A Better Life’ director Chris Weitz

    Filmmaker Chris Weitz has taken a ride on a rather inconsistent career path since making a splash (along with brother Paul) with 1999’s “American Pie.” He followed that raunchy comedy with the critically mauled Chris Rock starrer “Down to Earth” before bouncing back with the beloved intimate romantic comedy “About a Boy.” He then fled to the arms of big budget filmmaking with 2007’s “The Golden Compass” and last year’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” This year brings an effort hearkening back to the character-driven work of his early career, “A Better Life,” which premieres at the Los Angeles Film Festival next week.

    The film could be read as a riff on Vittorio De Sica’s “The Bicycle Thieves,” though transplanted in Los Angeles with a heavy dose of Mexican-American culture. But it’s unfair to hold it up to that agreed-upon masterpiece of neorealist cinema. Yes, the films share some plot details — “A Better Life” tells the story of an undocumented Mexican landscaper who purchases a truck and equipment to start his own business, hoping to make a better future for him and his street-smart son, only to have it stolen — but it is a successful piece of slice-of-life dramatic filmmaking that was a breath of fresh air for Weitz after his blockbuster detour.

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  • Making the werewolves of ‘New Moon’

    I’m only posting this because it cracks me up how, I don’t know, disinterested Chris Weitz appears at the beginning of this clip (courtesy of MakingOf).  “One more big pay day before hanging it up.  Just get through it.  Go through the motions.”  Probably the wrong read, but anyway:

    And this thing bitch-slapped “The Dark Knight”‘s opening day record with something like $70 million. Sadness…

  • ‘New Moon’ director says he might hang it up

    Chris WeitzGeez, are the “Twilight” films really so bad that poor Chris Weitz would call it quits?

    Of course I’m being facetious.  The real reason Weitz is giving for “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” being his penultimate film, according to MovieMaker Magazine, is the heavy studio influence on “The Golden Compass,” a film the director says he wanted to be his masterpiece, during post-production.

    (P.S.: I loved that movie, Chris.)

    Anyway, MovieMaker has even sent out a “look what we have!” press release, turning idle conversation into cut-and-dry fact.  At the end of the day, maybe Weitz will keep chugging along.  Then again, it’s difficult to argue with what Weitz actually says about his next project, I guess.

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