* Okay, I’m going to sound off briefly here — so bear with me. When Summit first announced that Chris Weitz would be directing New Moon I wanted to cry with rage and horror. Not him. Not the guy who ruined my most beloved book of all time, The Golden Compass. I cherish that book series, but the movie adaptation directed by Weitz was atrocious in many ways.
Of course, that begs the question … was it really Weitz’s fault? Or did the studio get too involved? This article puts many of my fears to rest:
Weitz told Sci Fi Now: “Golden Compass didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to because I wasn’t allowed to be faithful to the book.
“They were afraid of the subject matter and they shouldn’t have been because it wasn’t that horrifically controversial.
“But what happened was that they wanted to turn it into Harry Potter or something and that’s not what it is.
“What it is, is one of the most imaginative works of the 20th century and it was as though they hadn’t even read it. So I had the miserable experience of having my movie completely re-cut.”
In a further interview, with Empire, he added: “I wouldn’t have made the film had I known that the final version put out on screens was not as I intended it. I didn’t get to show my version of the film.”
[…]
Weitz says he has had the opposite experience with New Moon, telling Sci Fi Now: “The studio knows that it’s the faithfulness to the book that’s really going to make the movie work.”
* More from Chris Weitz at MTV, where he talks about taking inspiration from Dr. Zhivago and Victorian paintings for New Moon
* In a new interview with MTV, Ashley Greene says New Moon will keep you on the edge of your seat
* Access Hollywood has a great new interview with Billy Burke
Anybody else a fan of The Golden Compass books? Did anyone else share my fears about Chris Weitz as director? Sound off in the comments!
Filed under: Uncategorized |
novelnovicetwilight.wordpress.com 
At first I was scared when I heard Chris was directing, but considering how faithful he wants to be to the book, I am really trusting him. The Golden Compass books are great, and I’m sure he wanted to do a lot more with them, but I can see the studio stepping in and saying he couldn’t because of the touchy subject matter. I was really disappointed with that movie. It could have been done really well.
When I first heard Chris was doing “NM” I was devastated. I too was hugely disappointed with “Golden Compass”. I was so looking forward to a new series of movies based on great books. I was very worried about all the bad press it was getting months before it was to come out. It seems the studio overreacted and ruined the movie. Even my husband (who didn’t read the book) just watched it on TV asked “what happened at the end, it just stopped”. The studio blew it. They could have made a lot of money. Hopefully Summit has learned from their mistake.