Chris Weitz

As a young boy, Weitz attended Allen-Stevenson School with his brother and was a member of the Knickerbocker Greys, a long-standing New York City youth marching corps that has been in existence since 1881.

When he was 14 years old, Weitz went to the boarding school St Paul's School in London, which his father had attended.

He graduated with a degree in English from Trinity College, Cambridge.

Weitz' early career involved many collaborations with his brother.

Some of the work they have done as screenwriters has been both credited and uncredited.

Tovar, who was from Oaxaca, Mexico, starred in Santa, Mexico's first talkie, in 1932, as well as a Spanish language version of Drácula. Weitz' paternal grandparents escaped Nazi Germany, before which his grandfather was a successful textile manufacturer, with the family being intimates of writer Christopher Isherwood and actress Marlene Dietrich.

Weitz's father and maternal grandfather were Jewish, whereas his maternal grandmother was Catholic; he was raised in a nonreligious household.

He has also described himself as a "lapsed Catholic crypto-Buddhist."

Inspiration came from the 1960 film The Apartment. They were nominated for 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.

Christopher John Weitz (born November 30, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor.

He is best known for his work with his brother Paul on the comedy films American Pie and About a Boy; the latter earned the Weitz brothers a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Weitz began his film career as a co-writer on the animated film Antz (1998).

He followed this with work on various sitcoms such as Off Centre 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 producer 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 brothers co-wrote 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.

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

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 US$180 million budget, although it was a "stellar performer" outside the U.S. with a "stunning" box office likely to hit $250 million.

When questioned about a possible sequel, New Line studio co-head Michael Lynne said that "The jury is still very much out on the movie..."

In December 2008, Weitz was announced as the director of the sequel to Twilight, the film adaptation of the novel New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.

Weitz said he felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to live up to the expectations of the passionate fan base.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon opened in November 2009, one year after the first movie was released.

New Moon set records as the biggest midnight opening in domestic box office history, grossing an estimated $26.3 million in 3,514 theaters, previously held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The film grossed $72.7 million on its opening day domestically, becoming the biggest single-day opening in domestic history, beating the $67.2 million tally of The Dark Knight..

This opening strongly contributed to another record: the first time that the top ten films at the domestic box office had a combined gross of over $100 million in a single day.

Among his other main works, Weitz directed the film adaptation of the novel The Golden Compass and the film adaptation of New Moon from the series of Twilight books, wrote the screenplay for Disney's 2015 live-action adaptation of Cinderella, and co-wrote Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with Tony Gilroy.

Weitz was born in New York City, the son of actress Susan Kohner and Berlin-born novelist/menswear designer John Weitz.

His brother is filmmaker Paul Weitz.

Weitz is the grandson of Czech-born agent and producer Paul Kohner and actress Lupita Tovar on his maternal side.

The second and third screenplays have been written but because of the economic recession and the protest by the Catholic Church, the two sequels never got made and was later rebooted into a television series that was released in 2019.

Its worldwide box office gross stands at $372,234,864.