Moon Director Promises Eclipse Will Be ‘Steamy’

By Michelle Tauber

Team Jacob, hold on to your sleeping bags.

Chris Weitz, who directed New Moon, the second installment in the Twilight series, says he has read the script for this summer’s third installment, Eclipse – and that one scene in particular is a scorcher.

“I’m looking forward to the sleeping bag scene, I gotta say,” Weitz tells PEOPLE. “That’s going to be very steamy.”

In Eclipse’s fan-favorite “tent scene,” – spoiler alert! – a freezing Bella, who is on the run from evil vamp Victoria, gets a warm-up from werewolf Jacob when he squeezes into her sleeping bag – while a jealous Edward looks on. The movie will open June 30.

Weitz also says he is eager to see Edward’s vampire “parents,” played by Elizabeth Reaser and Peter Facinelli, sink their teeth into Eclipse’s more intense action.

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‘New Moon’ director Chris Weitz: ‘This was made for the fans, and if you don’t get it, then you don’t get it’

by Nicole Sperling

Chris Weitz just joined the ranks of a very select group of directors such as Chris Nolan and Sam Raimi who have opened their films above the $100 million mark. The news is sweet revenge for a man who had his last film The Golden Compass complete re-cut by his previous studio bosses. Check out our Q&A with Weitz where he reveals his favorite cast moments and how he’s dealt with the fan adoration and the paparazzi intrusion.

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‘The final scene is extraordinarily emotional, and it leads to a very potent climax,’ he tells MTV News.

By Jocelyn Vena

NEW YORK — Fans pretty much know what they are getting themselves into when they head to theaters to see “New Moon” this weekend. If they have read the book, they have a good idea of how this part of the “Twilight Saga” comes to an end.

Still, director Chris Weitz hopes fans appreciate the way he has decided to craft the “New Moon” finale for the big screen.

“The final scene is extraordinarily emotional, and it leads to a very potent climax,” he told MTV News on the red carpet of the NYC screening of “New Moon.” “And it’s kind of a spoiler, which I hope people won’t give away.”

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From a bruise-inducing scene to a fake flight, spoiler-free goodies about the second installment in the ‘Twilight’ saga.

By Larry Carroll

As the number of days between you and “New Moon” continues to dwindle, you might think that you’re all studied up on the second novel in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series. But although we can’t review the film yet (let’s just say it rhymes with “Schmawesome!”), we have seen enough and spoken with the cast enough to offer a few fun, spoiler-free goodies that will make your November 20 viewing experience even more pleasurable.

From a bruise-inducing scene to house construction, a pivotal pamphlet to a fake flight, read on to learn five things you don’t know about “New Moon.” Then keep checking back here daily from now until the movie opens, as we unveil in-depth interviews, clips and coverage of the latest installment in Meyer’s screen saga.

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‘I can assure you we’re staying very, very close [to the book],’ Weitz says.

By Terri Schwartz

“New Moon” trailers have established fairly clearly the basic premise of the film: Edward leaves Bella. Bella is sad. Jacob helps Bella feel better.

For anyone familiar with “Twilight,” they know the central love story surrounds the human Bella Swan and the vampire Edward Cullen. It is the onscreen interaction between stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson that fans are paying their good money to see — to the point, Bella’s aural hallucinations in the novel have become visual onscreen, so that the two can have more screen time.

So fans were a bit concerned when they saw what looked to be a kiss between Bella and Taylor Lautner’s Jacob Black in the second theatrical trailer. As a quick spoiler, in the novel Bella and Jacob do have an almost-kiss, but it is interrupted.

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‘I’m excited to see finished stuff from ‘Eclipse’ rather than anything in progress,’ director says.

By Terri Schwartz

With filming on “Eclipse” wrapping up, we couldn’t resist asking “New Moon” director Chris Weitz whether he had seen any of the footage from next summer’s blockbuster. He hadn’t, he said, because he’s been busy working hard to bring fans “New Moon,” which hits theaters in less than a month. Surprisingly, he said he didn’t really want to see the footage yet.

“As a fan and a filmmaker, I’m excited to see finished stuff from ‘Eclipse’ rather than anything in progress,” Weitz said. “When you see works in progress, there’s always some guy standing in front of some big green curtain, and it’s all terribly disappointing. You really want to see the good stuff once it’s all finished.”

After “New Moon” was finished filming , Summit Entertainment announced that David Slade would be directing “Eclipse.” Weitz said he had some early chats with Slade to let him know what “New Moon” was going to look like and how he had filmed the story, and then let Slade decide how he wanted to film the series’ third installment.

“It was like the transition team, so I could kind of let him know where things are going,” Weitz said. “The transfer of power was very successful. The transition teams coordinated extremely well.”

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Taylor Lautner’s wolf in the first teaser trailer ‘wasn’t the full-fledged, pimped-out wolf,’ Weitz says.

By Terri Schwartz

For fans paying attention to the new “New Moon” TV spots that came out over the past week and a half, they would notice that the wolf Taylor Lautner’s Jacob Black transforms into looks a bit different than the original wolf in the first teaser trailer.

Well, that’s because it is different — about 500 times different.

“Every CGI shot goes through sometimes hundreds of iterations,” director Chris Weitz explained. “Like, for instance, that first shot we put out was a work in progress. It was probably version 150 or something. That shot itself is now at version 550, I think.”

Lots of tinkering went on in the four months from when the first trailer was released until the most recent teasers, but that’s not even the final version that’s going to be seen in theaters. “We’re still tweaking them to the last possible day,” he said.

With the release of “New Moon” less than a month away, that day looms ever closer. Fortunately, the wolves are looking significantly more terrifying than they did the first time around.

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‘She had some fun playing, really, the most evil of all the bad guys,’ Weitz says of the actress.

By Terri Schwartz

Next month’s “New Moon” release features a number of changes from its sequel’s debut this time last year. There’s new director Chris Weitz; a new cast of characters, including bad vampires and a wolf pack; and Taylor’s Lautner’s 30 pounds of muscle.

But one of the most exciting changes from last year’s “Twilight” is purely visual in nature: shooting the third act of the film on location in Italy.

“Wow, am I glad we were able to shoot there,” Weitz said with a laugh in a recent phone interview with MTV News. “We went to about 12 different hilltop towns in Tuscany, which was both delightful and exhausting, because it had to be done relatively quickly. Montepulciano had the most symmetrical main square that I could find, so that was the winner for that reason.”

Fans can expect about 20 minutes of the film to be spent in Italy or in interior shots set in Italy. While trailers released for “New Moon” show hints of flashbacks featuring the Volturi, Weitz said most of the time is dedicated to the present day.

The use of color in the film is a big change from “Twilight,” especially with the striking use of red shown in the trailers during a festival in Italy.

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‘No official offer has been made,’ he says of fourth ‘Twilight’ movie.

By Eric Ditzian

Unlike so many film franchises with ultra-loyal followings, the “Twilight” series has roped in a new director for each successive installment. After Catherine Hardwicke steered the first flick to over $380 million in worldwide ticket sales, Chris Weitz took over for “New Moon,” which is already getting plaudits for its impressive CGI-enhanced action. “Eclipse,” meanwhile, will soon be wrapping principle photography in Vancouver under the watchful eye of director David Slade.

All of which raises a compelling question: Who will be tapped to helm “Breaking Dawn,” the expected adaptation of the fourth and final of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire book series? According to Weitz, it just might turn out to be him, as he hinted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“No official offer has been made,” the director said when asked about directing “Breaking Dawn.” “The fans have been enthusiastic about the ['New Moon'] footage and the trailer, and the studio responds to that by feeling good about me. We’ll have to see how people feel about the entire movie, not only the studio but the fans, before the verdict is out whether I direct # 4.”

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