I'm not sure how Twilighters (or is it Twi-Hards?) feel these days. Their movie didn't light the world on fire and now a somewhat underwhelming announcement has been made regarding the next entry in the series, New Moon: Chris Weitz has been named director. Now, I'm not here to poke fun or hate on this popular series. There's enough of that going around already. And I'm not here to dog Chris Weitz either, because I actually like the guy. I'm a fan of American Pie and I loved, loved, loved About a Boy. It's a smart, kind of romantic, comedy that is head-and-shoulders above the norm.

Here's the problem though: I know what it's like to be burned by this guy. I'm a big fan of the His Dark Materials trilogy. I eagerly awaited The Golden Compass and was heartbroken at the result. It's not that the film was terrible; it's that it was painfully mediocre and it shouldn't have been painfully mediocre. It should have been great and not absent of any real emotion. Yes, visually it worked. And he did his best not to wuss out on the bear fight. But those books were not dull. Yet he managed to make a movie about a bear with armor who talks, witches who kick ass, and demons who are a piece of each human's soul ... he managed to make all of these things boring. Where was the awe? Where was the magic?

And it's not as if Weitz isn't a huge fan of the series. He wasn't some mere gun for hire, helming a big-budget film he didn't have an emotional stake in. He worked on the movie on-and-off for years before it finally happened. At one point, when it didn't look like he would direct, he was going to stay on as a producer. Maybe things would have been better that way. (Sam Mendes flirted with the project at one point, but that was before Weitz became involved.)

I'm not sure who the real Chris Weitz is -- whether he's the guy who made one of my favorite comedies in the last ten years (About a Boy), or the man who buried a potentially huge trilogy. He is certainly a capable director, but did he learn from his mistakes? I genuinely hope so. Nothing would make me happier than seeing New Moon become The Wrath of Khan of the series. Or, at least, The Mummy Returns. Only time will tell. In the meantime, Twilighters, start biting those fingernails.

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