Weitz, Chris 1970-

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WEITZ, Chris 1970-

PERSONAL:

Born 1970, in New York, NY; son of John Weitz (a fashion designer and writer) and Susan Kohner (an actress). Education: Trinity Hall, Cambridge, B.A. (English literature) and M.A. (English literature).

ADDRESSES:

Office—Depth of Field Productions, c/o Universal Pictures, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, CA 91608.

CAREER:

Screenwriter, director, producer, and actor. Depth of Field Productions (film production company), Los Angeles, CA, co-creator, 2002—. Executive producer of films, including American Pie, Universal Pictures, 1999; American Pie 2, Universal Pictures, 2001; Dylan's Run, Squeak Pictures, 2002; and American Wedding, Universal Pictures, 2003. Executive producer of television series, including Off Centre, Warner Bros. Television, 2001-03, and Cracking Up, 2004. Co-director of films, including American Pie, Universal Pictures, 1999; Down to Earth, Paramount Pictures Corporation, 2001; About a Boy, Universal Pictures, 2002, and Meet the Fokkers, 2004. Actor in films, including (as male voice in porn film) American Pie, Universal Pictures, 1999; (as Charlie "Chuck" Sitter) Chuck and Buck, Artisan Entertainment, 2000; and (as director) The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy, Sony Pictures, 2000.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Academy Award nomination, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Writers Guild of America nomination, both for best adapted screenplay, both 2003, both for About a Boy.

WRITINGS:

SCREENPLAYS; WITH PAUL WEITZ

(With Todd Alcott and Chris Miller) Antz, Dream-Works SKG, 1998.

(With others) The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Universal Pictures, 2000.

(And codirector with Paul Weitz) About a Boy, Universal Pictures, 2002.

(With James Herzfeld; and codirector with Paul Weitz) Meet the Fokkers, 2004.

Also author, codirector, and co-executive producer (with Paul Weitz) of telelplays for Off Centre, Warner Bros. Television, 2001-03.

SIDELIGHTS:

Filmmaking brothers Chris and Paul Weitz have fashioned a wide-ranging body of work that encompasses both feature films and television series. The brothers were born with an impeccable filmmaking pedigree. The Weitz brothers' grandfather, Paul Kohner, was an agent who represented the likes of John Huston, Billy Wilder, and Ingmar Bergman, and the brothers met Wilder on several occasions. Their parents, fashion designer and writer John Weitz and actress Susan Kohner—who received an Academy Award nomination for her role in 1960's Imitation of Life—continued the family's tradition in film.

The fact that the Weitzes went on to produce and direct the 1999 teenage hit American Pie might seem odd, given their background, but judging from their overall body of work as directors, that film—which grossed $100 million at the box office—seems to have been an aberration. Indeed, there is no easy way to characterize a career that has included the screenplays for such diverse films as the animated Antz, The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, About a Boy, and the 2004 boxoffice hit Meet the Fokkers.

Antz, described by Lisa Schwarzbaum in Entertainment Weekly as a "joyously subversive bug epic that, for all its snazzy computer animation, can claim the 1955 cartoon version of George Orwell's Animal Farm as a first cousin," features a love story set against the totalitarian backdrop of ant society. Antz was only the second fully computerized cartoon feature after 1995's Toy Story, and although it did not pack the same promotional punch as the Disney film, it won wide critical acclaim. Reviewers praised the vocal talent of Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, and Sylvester Stallone, but Schwarzbaum noted the "clever script by Todd Alcott, Chris Weitz, and Paul Weitz." Wrote Todd McCarthy in Variety,"The humor in the script … effectively counterbalances the potential silliness of a pro-individualist, anti-automaton theme in an ant context."

With About a Boy, adapted from a novel by Nick Hornby, the Weitz brothers, as cowriters and codirectors, faced challenging comparisons. Earlier, Stephen Frears had made a highly acclaimed adaptation of Hornby's High Fidelity, changing the setting from England to an American context. The Weitzes left About a Boy in its London setting, a task for which Chris was able to bring experience to bear, since he had earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in English literature at Cambridge University. Wrote Devin Gordon in Newsweek, "That's right, the directors of American Pie have never been to a prom. Or a band camp." Their educational background is another fact about the Weitz brothers that comes as a surprise to many who think the two can be judged purely on the basis of American Pie. Hugh Grant, who plays the lead role in About a Boy, told Gordon, "Chris and Paul are probably the most highbrow directors I've ever met. Bizarrely so. They sit around on the set reading Freud and Dostoevsky."

In About a Boy, Grant's character, Will, is a thirty-eight-year-old playboy who has discovered that sex-starved single mothers are an easy target for his charms. Befriended by Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), whose troubled mother (Toni Collette) has attempted suicide, Will discovers he can use the boy to his advantage by presenting him as his son. This attracts the notice of Rachel (Rachel Weisz), who is furious when she discovers the ruse. She leaves him, forcing Will to confront the shallowness of his existence.

"Oddly enough," observed Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post, "it might be the directors' experience with the coarser elements of human nature that make them so perfectly suited to About a Boy. Resisting the temptation to sentimentalize and soften Will's reluctant emotional growth, the filmmakers have wisely hewn to Hornby's original vision … which is of a cad who ultimately makes small adjustments, but refuses to capitulate entirely." Mark Adams in the Hollywood Reporter called the film "beautifully written and directed and packed with excellent performances." The film earned the Weitz brothers an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Boston Globe, May 17, 2002, Renee Graham, "Hugh Grant's Shallow Lout Almost Saves 'About a Boy': 'Boy' Gets Lost in Sentimental Ending," section C, p. 1.

Christian Science Monitor, May 17, 2002, Lisa Leigh Parney, "Brothers Move Past 'Pie' to Grown-up Film."

Entertainment Weekly, October 9, 1998, Lisa Schwarzbaum, "In the Charming 'Antz,' Woody Allen and Sharon Stone Give Voice to a Pair of Rebellious Bugs," p. 54.

Hollywood Reporter, March 26, 2002, Mark Adams, "'Boy' a Real Antidote to Big Summer Films: Hugh Grant Is in Excellent Form as Stylish Slacker Learning about Love," p. 64.

Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2002, Kenneth Turan, "Enthusiastic, Not Mad, About the Boy," section F, p. 1.

Newsweek, May 20, 2002, Devin Gordon, "Bye-Bye, 'American Pie': With 'About a Boy,' the Weitz Brothers Graduate from Gross-out School and Try Their Hand at Brit Wit," p. 62.

San Francisco Chronicle, January 17, 2003, Mick LaSalle, "Growing up Is Hard to Do: A Boy and a Man Face World with Wit," section D, p. 10.

Variety, September 21, 1998, Todd McCarthy, review of Antz, p. 104; June 17, 2002, Jonathan Bing, "Sibs Hang Shingle at U.: Chris and Paul Weitz Create Own Production Company and Ink Deal with Universal," p. 1; February 24-March 2, 2003, Michael Ventre, "Eye on the Oscars: Adapted Screenplay—Peter Hedges, Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz [About a Boy]," section A, p. 18.

Washington Post, May 17, 2002, Ann Hornaday, "'About a Boy': A Rake's Amusingly Slow Progress," section C, p. 1.