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Chris Weitz Biography
Chris Weitz ( Christopher John Weitz) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer.
He is best known for his work with his brother Paul Weitz on the comedy films American Pie and About a Boy; the latter earned the brothers a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Chris Weitz Age
Weitz is 49 years as of 2018. He was born on November 30, 1969, in New York City, New York U.S.
Chris Weitz Family | Sibling
Weitz was born to actress Susan Kohner and Berlin-born novelist/menswear designer John Weitz. Weitz is the grandson of Czech-born agent and producer Paul Kohner and actress Lupita Tovar on his maternal side.
Chris Weitz Education
Weitz was 14 years old, he went to the boarding school at St Paul’s School in London, which his father had attended. He graduated with a degree in English from Trinity College, Cambridge.
Chris Weitz Marriage | Children
Weitz is married to Mercedes Martinez, who is Cuban Mexican, and with whom he has one son, Sebastian Weitz and a daughter, Athena Weitz. Weitz said he met Martinez at the Burning Man festival.
Chris Weitz Career
Weitz’ early career involved many collaborations with his brother. Some of the work they have done as a screenwriter has been both credited and uncredited.
Weitz began his film career as a co-writer on the animated film Antz in 1998. He followed this with work on various sitcoms such as Off Center and the 1998 revival of the 1977 TV series Fantasy Island. In 1999, he and Paul directed and produced American Pie, which was written by Adam Herz, and became a major box office success. Weitz returned as executive produced on the film’s two theatrical sequels. In 2001, along with his brother, he co-directed his second film, the Chris Rock comedy Down to Earth.
In 2002, the Weitz brother co-writer and co-directed About a Boy, the Hugh Grant film based on the book by Nick Hornby. The film was originally set up at New Line Cinema with Robert De Niro producing, and the main character as an American. The brothers felt that it was important that the character is British. Inspiration came from an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Weitz has produced a number of films including In Good Company and American Dreamz, both of which were directed by his brother, Paul.
In 2003, Weitz was hired to direct New Line Cinema’s adaptation of the first book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, The Golden Compass, after approaching the studio with an unsolicited 40-page treatment. He was subsequently invited by director Peter Jackson to visit the set of King Kong, in order to gain insight into directing a big-budget film and advice on how to deal with New Line. In 2005, Weitz announced his departure from the film, citing the enormous technical challenges involved, and the fear of being denounced by both the book’s fans and detractors; he was subsequently replaced by British director Anand Tucker. Tucker left the project in 2006 over creative differences with New Line, and Weitz returned to the director’s chair after receiving a letter from Pullman asking him to reconsider.
During post-production, New Line had Weitz’s editor replaced, and the studio made the final cut with severe differences from Weitz’s vision, trimming the originally unhappy ending and watering down the religious theme.
Weitz declared that
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- It was a terrible experience because I was able to shoot what I wanted to — and then the cut of the movie was taken away from me and any reference to religion or religious ideas was removed. And the darkness and threat at the end of the story — anything that made it not a happy, popcorn-type movie — was removed. The voice of the key character was redone, all of this against my will. And the fact of the matter is the people that the studio was afraid were going to raise up arms against the movie did it the anyway
- The film was released in 2007 and was met with mixed reviews. Its U.S. grosses have been described as disappointing
in relation to film’s $180 million USD budget, although it was a “stellar performer” outside the U.S. with a “stunning” box office likely to hit $250 million.
As Author, Weitz wrote a young adult novel trilogy series that began with the Young World, in 2014, and The New Order, in 2015. Weitz said that he used the concept of natural intelligence theories called Society of Mind created by Marvin Minsky to creat the stories that were loosely autobiographical about growing up in New York City.
Chris Weitz Net Worth
Weitz has an estimated net worth 3.5 million Dollar.
Chris Weitz Movies | TV Show
Television Show
- 1998–1999: Fantasy Island – co-executive producer, 13 episodes; story, 2 episodes; teleplay, 1 episode
- 2000–2001: Off Centre – executive producer, 28 episodes; creator, 19 episodes
- 2004–2006: Cracking Up – executive producer, 9 episodes; consultant, 11 episodes; writer, 1 episode (pilot)
- 2010: Lone Star – consulting producer, 2 episodes
- 2014–2015: About a Boy – based on the screenplay by, 27 episodes
Chris Weitz Photos
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Chris Weitz Interview
Chris Weitz News
Chris Weitz Shares How ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ Morphed From Initial Script To Screen
‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘ was a fun romp that gave us a look into some of the darker aspects of the Rebellion when it comes to “Star Wars” but writer Chris Weitz has shared how things changed from the initial script and the feature film release.
Weitz knew that writer Tony Gilroy would be making changes to his work but didn’t know precisely what they were until he sat down at the premiere. While some might be shocked to learn that the amazing Darth Vader scene where we finally saw the Dark Lord of the Sith show off what we’ve been told he could do all these years was added later in production, it sounds like the overall story had some massive changes.
A major one being that the audience wasn’t initially intended to learn that the Rebels were trying to get their hands on the plans for the Death Star near the start of the film but instead near the end. As Weitz tells it:
“It wasn’t clear at the beginning of the film that the Death Star was going to be the Death Star. It was just the sense in the rebellion that something bad was going down and we need to find out about it. There was this developing sense of dread throughout the [original script].”
It sounds like the change where the audience learned about this “planet killer” from an officer, in the beginning, was due to executives wanting to tie audiences into the movie from the start as fans all know what the Death Star already is. Weitz “was pushing for something that had more of a sense of dramatic irony” by not sharing what the Rebels were after right away.
That being said, he doesn’t mind the changes:
“I feel great about the final cut. I really liked the movie…I had no idea what it was going to look like until I sat down at the premiere. It was like watching a movie I had written and a new movie at the same time. I really, really liked it.”
Audiences clearly liked it too! As to what else changed the writer stated:
“If you can imagine the beginning of the second act and the end of the second act swapping places, that would not be an inaccurate way to portray how it structurally was changed. The Darth Vader kicking ass I cannot take credit for. That was a later invention. That was different…A lot of the deaths were put in different locations when they were shot. I’m not sure why K-2 died in a different place, for instance.”
What Weitz didn’t reveal is when and where K-2 was initially going to die! Now we can all spend half the morning searching online to see if it was shared in a previous interview.
Do you think the changes to ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ likely worked or would you have rather the Death Star plans be a reveal near the end of the film? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: ScienceFICTION.COM