Taking a seat in one of the Caledonian Hotel’s function rooms, Edinburgh, Chris Weitz patiently awaits his double espresso with milk on the side. Faced with a whole morning of interviews, this is but the beginning of the director’s promotional campaign for new film A Better Life.

Due in London the next day, Weitz is well aware of the work which lies ahead. Opening in the same slot held by Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker two years previously, Summit are once again faced with a bumpy road ahead – even if Weitz is eager to point out that he’s not presuming to be on the same trajectory.

“It’s going to be the kind of movie that takes tender love and care throughout its lifespan. When you release a film about Mexicans with an unknown cast you have to stay in front of it as much as possible”.

A promise the director is more than happy to make. Despite a few frustrations at not having the time to sample the festival’s offerings (“I love movies but the more I make of them the less I get to see”), Weitz – who went to both Sixth Form and University in the United Kingdom – believes the story to be more than worth the effort. Attached to make A Better Life even before he agreed to helm The Twilight Saga: New Moon, it was the film’s script that initially won his heart.

“In 20 years of working on movies it was the best-written script I’ve ever read. Eric Eason is an exceptional writer – I think he deserves to be nominated. He had done so much research that he ended up with a document that was about 300 pages long, detailing the lives of the people we were portraying.”

“Also, my parentage is in part Mexican. That happens in America; it’s part German and Czech and Mexican. My grandmother came to this country when she was 17 years old and still lives here now – she’s one hundred. It was a chance to learn Spanish and get in touch with a part of L.A. I don’t know very well.”

It seems that being faithful to the subject matter was incredibly important to everyone involved, with the research often surprising Weitz as much as it might audiences even less familiar with the gang culture of East L.A. Fascinated by a part of the city that is supposed to be dangerous and is quite often avoided altogether, the director hoped to shed some light on the people largely responsible for the comforts enjoyed by those from the west of the city. The director even went so far as to hire ex-convicts, if convict is the right word, in the gang member roles.

“Oh no, they’re convicts. They’re ex-convicts. Any guy whose a gang member by the time he’s 25 has been in jail for drugs or violent crime or something like that. We’d interviewed all these actors looking to get the parts and they pretty much presented what they’d seen on TV and in movies which is actually a faked up version of what gang-members actually act like. The gang members in the movie are actually very warm; they are scary but not in a very boisterous, kinetic way. They’re not constantly brandishing guns and making drug deals, they also have home lives and stop to eat dinner and other things you don’t really think about.”

Shot across Los Angeles in 69 separate locations - incorporating detention centres, Hollywood villas and a bull ring which many don’t even know exists – the film certainly convinces entirely. Although you may not be massively familiar with the setting (I for one have never been deported), there is much to be said for Weitz’s belief that it is important to get such details right. Using the example of Andrea Arnold’s Red Road and its use of CCTV footage, the director describes a realistic texture which somehow transcends familiarity. Above all else, however, it is perhaps the strength of the relationship between father and son which ultimately sells the film, a drug crime drama which is far more uplifting than the genre usually dictates.

“There have been plenty of those movies made – and more power to them, I suppose – but the fact of life for most poor areas of America, as for most poor areas of the world, is not that it’s all about violence and pain but essentially about the love that still manage to exist in the face of that.”

Having now made movies set in Britain and America, from the blockbusting second instalment of the Twilight saga to About A Boy with Cambridge peer Rachel Weisz, it appears Weitz is eager to film elsewhere, unperturbed by the stress inherent in making a big budget film.

“I’ll tell you where I’d really like to make is a movie is Japan. I’m really fascinated by the culture and also with their classical films; what I’d really like to make is Chanbara – a Samurai film. I know some filmmakers and distributors in Japan and I occasionally tell them that. They kind of nod and stroke their chins but then I never hear back about it sadly.”

“I’m quite happy to go [to big budget filmmaking] for the next thing I feel like I have to do. Making films sort of drives you insane; it always leads me to the point of mental breakdown but that’s the only way I know how to do it. I give everything I have to it so it has to be something that’s so good I know I’ll regret it for the rest of my life if I don’t make it. So my next feature will be whatever that is.”

We can at least rule out the sequel to the director’s 2007 effort, The Golden Compass. Disappointed that he couldn’t do complete justice to Philip Pullman’s source novel (Weitz at last got to faithfully reproduce a fan’s experience of a book with Stephanie Meyer’s New Moon) Weitz rules out the chance that there might ever be a second movie in the series he started.

“No, there’s no way there’ll ever be a sequel and I’ll tell you why. First of all, it was recut so I can’t really claim full responsibility for the final product. I think that visually it was very beautiful and that the casting was right in many ways, but as far as the narrative is concerned I wasn’t able to fulfill Philip Pullman’s particular theological vision. And that kills me.

“We didn’t do very well in America, where we are often very puritanical and church groups came out against us, but we did very well abroad. However, all of the deals for the movie came from selling off the foreign rights so there’s no interest for an American studio to make another movie. What it would take would be something like a massive explosion in the British film industry – I mean, in a good way – that created a great amount of money and then maybe you could make a remake.”

Having taken much from his movies – a friendship with Weisz from About A Boy (he had found her unapproachable at university where he was occasionally misdelivered her mail, not because she was mean but because she was so beautiful people generally couldn’t put two words together in her presence) and a number of crew members from New Moon (though he will not be making anything similar any time soon, Catherine Hardwicke style) – it is impossible not to wonder what he might have taken from the American Pie franchise which started it all, the most recent instalment for which he returns as producer.

“I’ve been incredibly uninvolved actually, and it’s a shame because it’s kind of coincided with getting A Better Life out. I’ve seen some dailies and they actually look really funny. I think it’s going to be a really good one, which makes me happy because I really care about those kids and I haven’t seen them together for 12 years. [American Pie] was the first movie my brother and I ever did so it’ll always have a warm place in my heart.”

A Better Life is due for U.K. release on the 29th of July and you can find our review here.

Chris Weitz – director of big-budget adaptations The Golden Compass and Twilight’s New Moon – drops the fantasy element for new film A Better Life.

Set in eastern Los Angeles, the film charts one man’s pursuit of a better life for himself and his teenage son. A humble gardener, Carlos Galindo (Demián Bichir) has done his best to make a life for his family in America, struggling through his wife’s betrayal and the gang culture threatening to engulf his son, Luis (Jose Julian).

When his boss informs Carlos of his plans to leave the business, Carlos turns to his wealthier sister (Delores Heredia) for the means of buying the company vehicle for himself. However, when Carlos’ trusting nature is betrayed by a new employee, Carlos and Luis must set aside their differences in order to track down their ill-fated truck all the while remaining vigilent to the threat posed by the country’s deportation office.

Weitz brings his honed Hollywood sheen to a side of the City of Angels rarely glimpsed in multiplexes, working with cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe to create a studied portrayal of life in east L.A. Having spent months researching the city’s immigration culture and even going as far as to cast ex-gang members in relevant roles, Weitz paints a picture of resilience and integrity in the face of deprivation and isolation that is often incredibly moving.

Bichir is endlessly sympathetic in what amounts to quite a demanding role, earnest to a fault and painfully naive yet never at the price of audience empathy. His Carlos is a hard-working and dutiful citizen whose only insight into the so-called American Dream is from his perch atop one of his client’s trees. Jose Julian’s Luis is the stark opposite of his father – cynical, ungrateful and at times violent – and suffers accordingly with an unsympathetic, but no less powerful performance. Together they make for an engaging double-team, the less-is-more screenplay uniting father and son to humbling and tear-jerking effect – actions well and truly speaking louder than words.

A winning alchemy of poignant performances, impeccable set design and immersive realism, A Better Life is a welcomingly grueling experience that’s about as far from Northern Lights and the town of Forks as it’s possible to get. Utterly captivating and heart-warmingly tender, it is a film that deserves the widest audience it can get.

****~ (4/5)

The man who brought us Twilight: New Moon and About a Boy, Chris Weitz has a new movie coming out which looks like it might tug harshly on the heart-strings. It’s called A Better Life and stars Demián Bichir, Nancy Lenehan, Isabella Rae Thomas, Rolando Molina, Joaquín Cosio and Tim Griffin.

From the director of About a Boy and the producers of A Single Man comes A BETTER LIFE – a touching, poignant, multi-generational story about a father’s love and the lengths a parent will go to give his child the opportunities he never had.

Carolos Galindo always dreamed of a better life for his family when he crossed the border into the U.S. After years of hard work and trying to set an example for his son, he finds himself drifting apart from Luis, who has become an impressionable American teen, unwilling to work for the things that he wants in life and in jeopardy of succumbing to local peer pressure that could lead him down a dangerous path. Worried that Luis will soon be lost to him forever, Carlos takes what little money he has and invests it all into his own gardening business, with the hope that they will finally be able to control their own destiny.

However, after an unexpected turn of events, when everything he’s worked for is suddenly taken away, it is Luis, despite years of growing apart, who teams up with Carolos to take it back. Together, father and son embark on a physical and emotional journey where they discover that family is the most important part of the American dream.

As I start my review I have to remind myself that I am a big Twilight fan, perhaps not going so far as to call myself a Twihard, but I did really enjoy the Twilight Saga. After watching Twilight which I really loved, perhaps a 7/10, I was looking forward to seeing New Moon. I was excited to go to the cinema and see it, and am sad to say I was disappointed. I decided to give it a second watch (New Moon, out on DVD 22^nd March 2010) but was incredibly bored.

Twilight: New Moon stars Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart, Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning and is directed by Chris Weitz.

New Moon revolves around the self-absorbed Bella, whose character is in love with Edward, the whispering Vampire. It starts very slowly, and I’m afraid to say the pace doesn’t really improve throughout. I was really disappointed with the film overall, but have done my best to try and find some redeeming points. The film is set in Forks, a wet and cold town in North Western America. The contrast between this and the set used for the Volturi in Italy is stark. The costume and set design here are fantastic, and the drama increases as Bella and Edward have to interact with some more dynamic characters such as Aro (played by Michael Sheen), and Jane (Dakota Fanning). These two are excellent in the film, sparsely seen unfortunately, but their acting is superb. Sheen is exactly as I would have imagined in the book, down to  facial expressions and use of voice. The same cannot be said of Robert Pattinson, who is not as alluring as he is as Edward in Twilight, he actually comes across as quite serious and dull.

An interesting contrast between the intense and ridiculously serious relationship between Edward and Bella, is that between Jacob and Bella. New Moon is all about the drama of Edward leaving Bella as he fears for her safety all the while she is around him, and Bella almost dying of pain because she can no longer be with her beloved. Jacob provides some interesting relief in this movie, he is an attractive young guy, who happens to grow into his role as part of the local werewolf clan during the film, but also (sadly for him!) happens to be in love with Bella. They grow closer as he tries to help her get over the ‘pale-faced’ one, and you see him grow more mature.

There are some good scenes in the film, from the Cullen house where clumsy Bella cuts herself to the transformation of Jacob into a werewolf to the cool yellow Porsche and the Volturi fighting scenes near the end of the film.

Overall I would give this film a 3/10 which is extremely disappointing. Not much happens in the film and you get to the point where you wish Bella would just disappear because she is so boring, selfish and childish. The DVD offers some interest in the Extras, there are some deleted scenes, interviews with the main cast, Behind the scenes and a sneak peak at Twilight Eclipse which actually looks interesting.

Twilight: New Moon is released on DVD and Blu Ray today.

Here’s an interesting short video that I wasn’t really sure which category to put it under on HeyUGuys. The title of the short documentary is ‘How Far Would You Go?’ and it features short interviews with directors, producers and actors and is inspired by Sony Playstation 3′s new game, Heavy Rain. The game focuses around fate and what happens if…. and is a real bridge between real life and gaming.

The short 7 minute documentary is directed by the acclaimed filmmaker Neil LaBute, and was filmed in London, LA & Paris and asks leading luminaries, ‘How far would you go to save someone you love?’ Respondents to the question include: Nic Roeg, Hanif Kureishi, Nicholas Hoult, Samuel L Jackson, Stephen Frears, Peter Bogdanovich, Jean Marc Barr, Chris Weitz & Ben Chaplin.

The documentary has been commissioned to explore the ever-converging worlds of film and gaming and to highlight the processes that storytellers go through to imbue emotions through their respective mediums.

Example questions that have been posed include:

• How does emotion inform your work?
• Are you braver in your work than in your life?
• Would you inflict pain on another to achieve true love?
• Can anger be used creatively?
• Looking back over your life thus far would you say you fall in love easily, or not so easily?

Heavy Rain’s Writer & Director David Cage states ‘In Heavy Rain you don’t watch the story, you play it with unprecedented responsibility over the fate of the game’s characters the whole DNA of the game has been created to provide an emotional experience unlike any other. It dares you to tackle subject matter and themes rarely touched upon in video games’

Some of their replies are really interesting and although this doesn’t really cover any film that is coming out and more a computer game, I thought it was still worth highlighting on the site. I’ve embedded the bio below so have a watch and let us know what you think in the comments below. How Far Would you go for Love?

Heavy Rain is available on PS3 now and you can purchase it here.

You can read a review of the game on Pixel Fury.

Four years ago, the first of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga novels was published. Four novels and one smash hit movie later, and Twilight has become a global phenomena every bit as huge as Harry Potter. Next week sees the release of the second movie in the Twilight Saga, New Moon. Based on the novel of the same name, also the second in the series, the story this time focuses on werewolves, in the shape of the Quileute tribe.

 At the end of the first film, Edward and Bella Swan returned to Forks, Washington together. As New Moon begins, Edward and his family leave town in an attempt to keep Bella safe. Feeling hurt and confused, Bella takes to an old motorcycle and hits the road. Bella has discovered that she can have visions of her love Edward whenever she get’s an adrenaline rush, so she goes out in search of danger. Actress Kristen Stewart returns as Bella. She has recently been quoted in the press bemoaning the amount of attention her personal life has attracted. Linked with Edward Cullen actor Robert Pattison during filming of the first film, there have been rumours this time around that she has been getting up close and personal with co-star and on screen love interest Taylor Lautner. This rivalry echoes the rivalry of the upcoming storyline of the movie, and serves as great publicity for it’s release.

 Lautner of course returns as old friend Jacob Black. Bella and Jacob strike up a deep friendship, and he swears to protect her. It turns out he is a werewolf, a member of the Quileute tribe. Seeing as there is a great rivalry between werewolves and vampires, Bella finds her loyalties are severely tested. There was some doubt as to whether Lautner would be allowed to return for New Moon. The producers felt that with his diminutive frame, Lautner wouldn’t be able to live up to the increased physical presence required, so were keen to recast the part. The young actor was determined to keep hold of the role, and hit the gym big time. Gaining thirty pounds of muscle, he secured the part. His new look is testament to his determination and hard work.

 Not returning this time around however is director Catherine Hardwicke, due to scheduling difficulties. This time around, Chris Weitz is at the helm. No stranger to movies adapted from books, his previous work has included About a Boy, based on Nick Hornby’s novel of the same name, and the first movie from the His Dark Materials series, The Golden Compass.

 In the source novel, Edward doesn’t play a very big part. Robert Pattison fans can be cheered however, at the news that the writers have added plenty of extra scenes for Edward, mostly in the form of Bella’s visions and dreams. Pattison also struggled with all the attention he received as a result of the last film, so may be happier that he is playing a lesser role in this one. Believing that Bella is dead, a distraught Edward travels to Italy to commit suicide. He hopes he can anger the peace loving Volturi, led by Michael Sheen, by revealing the existence of vampires, leading them to destroy him.

 Whilst the first Twilight movie was shot on a relatively low budget, the expanded locations and more epic nature of the second part has meant a cost increase. With the huge profit made from the last film, and the hype machine in overload this time around, the producers won’t be worried. With just last weeks opening 2012 as meaningful competition, and increased interest from both fans and non-fans alike, New Moon is set to smash the box office benchmark set by the previous film. Whilst those who hadn’t read the books didn’t know anything about the series last year, the huge attention drawn by the cast and the rabid fans will draw in many many more movie goers, to see what the fuss is all about.

With a production budget of just over $35m, the original Twilight made a worldwide gross of $385m. New Moon will probably garner close to $500m. After it’s release, fans can look forward to next year’s Eclipse, expected in July, where Jacob and Edward’s rivalry really hots up, as vampires and werewolves unite against a common enemy. Then the final story in the series, 2011′s Breaking Dawn, will round out the Twilight Saga.

 To get fans excited about the release of New Moon, a wealth of images and clips have been released in the last few months. We have featured many of these here on HUG, and you can find -

Posters 1 2 3 4 5

Images 1 2 3

Clips 1 2 3 4 5

And even listen to the soundtrack here

The Twilight Saga: New Moon is released in cinemas next Friday 20th November in the US and UK

Bazmann – You can now follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

Italian Twilight fan-site, TwilightsItalia.com have released some great new stills from the movie that we’re all desperate to see (!), Twilight New Moon. The images shows images of Bella (Kristen Stewart), Aro (Michael Sheen), Carlisle (Peter Facinelli), Edward (Robert Pattinson) and director, Chris Weitz.

The new stills are nice to see as pretty much everything we’ve seen in recent times has been rehashed from other images that we’ve seen before. Click the images below to enlarge.

Twilight New Moon is released 20th November and also stars Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene and Dakota Fanning.

OK, don’t ever say that I haven’t embraced the Twilight love after this! It borders on hilarious but after just finding out that there is no UK Premiere for Twilight, I needed a fix! With Halloween here tomorrow, this is the perfect time to don your Twilight persona!

We’ve just been sent a load of ‘goodies’ for the upcoming movie, Twilight New Moon which stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. In amongst said ‘goodies’, we have masks for the three main characters (as demoed by me in the post photo!), bunting that you can hang around your bedrooms, bookmarks, party invites and door hangers!

What more could you want?! I’ve tried to categorise all the items below so please pass onto your friends and get downloading. If you want to send us photos of you wearing your masks, please do and we’ll create a post specially for all you mad Twilight fans out there! While you’re here, you can also pick your side between Jacob and Edward by using the widget below.

Twilight New Moon is released 20th November.

The good news about Twilight is that it’s only 23 days until it’s released which then means we won’t need to post anything about New Moon. The bad news however is that there are a whole two more films after this one!! I’m just joking! I love Twilight!! Honest!

Here’s a couple of new posters released by Summit Entertainment. I’ve also found an image of the Cullen family which I thought you Twilight fans out there might like!

Twilight New Moon stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Rachelle Lefevre, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning, is directed by Chris Weitz and is released 20th November.

Source: New Moon Movie

Here’s your Sunday fix of Twilight. Entertainment Tonight have released a 2nd TV spot for the second installment, New Moon. It gives us quite a bit more footage that we’ve not seen before. All this does seem like a lot of work to keep Kristen Stewart’s character, Bella out of trouble. She seems to attract it wherever she goes!

Twilight New Moon stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Rachelle Lefevre, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning, is directed by Chris Weitz and is released 20th November.

A new clip has been released on Yahoo from Twilight: New Moon. For those wondering, it’s now under a month until the 2nd installment is released into cinemas. I’ve embedded the clip below or head over to Yahoo for the HD version.

This new clip is called ‘She Knows too Much’:

Aro (Michael Sheen) decides Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) fate, but Edward (Robert Pattinson) stands in his way.

Twilight New Moon stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Rachelle Lefevre, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning, is directed by Chris Weitz and is released 20th November.

Entertainment Tonight have posted a new clip from Twilight: New Moon which was shown to the audience at the Scream Awards the other day.

The footage has made it’s way to YouTube and I’ve embedded it below. The scene shows Kristen Stewart confronting The Wolf Pack before slapping one of them in the face. Said ‘wolf’ gets a little angry and goes Incredible Hulk on her arse before Taylor Lautner comes to her rescue. I’m excited already! Honest!!

The second installment from the Twilight Saga is directed by Chris Weitz and is released 20th November. The cast includes Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Rachelle Lefevre, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Michael Sheen and Dakota Fanning.

It’s been at least 24 hours since I last posted images from the Twilight Saga so that surely must mean it’s time for there to be some more!? Sorry to all those of you who hate this saga with a passion but Beyond Hollywood have posted loads, and I do mean loads of new images from Twilight New Moon. There are many new ones with Taylor Lautner with no top on you lucky ladies but my favourite of the lot is the one where Kristen Stewart and Lautner are in the cinema and she’s completely bored out of her head…. or she’s missing Robert Pattinson or something like that! Either way, it made me laugh!

I’ve posted a fair few of the images below but you can see the full batch over at Beyond Hollywood.

Twilight New Moon is our 22nd November and the cast includes Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Bronson Pelletier, Alex Meraz, Billy Burke, Edi Gathegi, Rachelle Lefevre, Michael Sheen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Dakota Fanning, Anna Kendrick, Tinsel Korey, Cameron Bright, and it’s directed by Chris Weitz.

If you’re a big fan of Twilight: New Moon and from what we can tell, there a quite a few of you out there who are, we know that you not only love the cast and the movies themselves but also the soundtrack. In my opinion, other than the baseball scene in the original movie, ‘Twilight’, the soundtrack was one of the best things about it!Bt what do I know eh?!

Anyway, the Twilight: New Moon official Myspace page has just been updated to have the brand new soundtrack for New Moon which you can listen to for nothing here (just scroll on past the trailer). ENJOY!

Twilight New Moon is directed by Chris Weitz and stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen to name but a few.  It’s out 20th November. Not too long to wait now!