What a difference a weekend makes: Chris Weitz and New Moon

Last week, New Moon director Chris Weitz was moments away from pulling the plug on his illustrious directing career. Sighing like a teenager missing her vampire love, the browbeaten helmer said to industry mag MovieMaker, “it’s a rather silly occupation to undertake. But I think I have maybe one more film in me”. But fast forward past the record-breaking opening of New Moon, and what does Mr Weitz have to say about his career?

Well, apparently, that was all a bit hasty and now he’s had time for a sit-down and a cup of tea, he might be able to hang in there a bit longer. Yesterday, Variety announced that he is in talks with Summit to direct The Gardener. The film is about a Mexican gardener who lives in LA with his son, and tries to protect him (from societal ills, presumably). Info is a bit thin on the ground right now but we know the screenplay was written by by Eric Eason, who has tackled similarly socially-aware material in his award-winning 2002 film Manito.

There’s a rumour that The Gardener will be an homage to Vittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thieves, which is a bit of a head-scratcher: the type of people who are fans of that flick consider it damn near perfect and unlikely to need much homaging by the likes of Mr Weitz, or indeed anyone else.

Still, as of this morning, what Mr Weitz wants, Mr Weitz gets. (God help you if, as he is chauffeured around Beverly Hills today, he takes a liking to your car or your dog or your sister – because you will never see them again. Ever.) The opening day of Twilight Saga: New Moon broke The Dark Knight’s previous record to take an estimated $72.7 million on its first day. The film’s takings slowed towards the end of the weekend, meaning that analysts believe the film will end up with the third biggest opening weekend of all time, after The Dark Knight and Spiderman 2.

So, what does this mean for everyone involved? Well, the cast of New Moon will all be eating solid gold breakfast cereal this morning, especially breakout star Taylor Lautner, who will now have a trained monkey to polish his abs. Hollywood execs are going to have to wise up to the fact that making movies for girls makes money for them. Chris Weitz will be able to find a sympathetic ear for his Golden Compass horror stories (“I was treated badly, it was almost like they never read the books. They seemed frightened of offending the Right” – there, there Mr W, have some money pie).

And somewhere, on a floating platform, surrounded by fire-breathing dragons and wingéd werewolves, as lightning strikes the giant chessboard-patterned surface on which they stand, Stephanie Meyer is challenging JK Rowling to a duel between billionaire sorceresses. So, a happy ending for all.