a better life - Movieline

Interviews || BY Jen Yamato || 06 23 2011 3:00 PM

Chris Weitz on Twilight Nods, Oscar Hopes, and the Politics of A Better Life

About three years ago, in the same year he landed the gig directing the second film in the Twilight film franchise, Chris Weitz fell in love with a script about a poor illegal immigrant and single father chasing the American dream in East Los Angeles. Entitled The Gardener, the project would feature no stars, shoot on location in gang-affiliated L.A., and would never in a million years enjoy a hundred million dollar opening weekend. Weitz had to do it.

Festival Coverage || BY Jen Yamato || 06 22 2011 3:30 AM

GALLERY: Twilight Stars Come Out to Support Chris Weitz's A Better Life

Chris Weitz's L.A.-set drama A Better Life features no stars (well, its lead is 'the George Clooney of Mexico') and no vampires, but it got a profile boost Tuesday night when two of the stars of Weitz's last movie, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, made a red carpet appearance in support of their former director. Fresh off of filming on November's Breaking Dawn, the Twilight duo posed for photos but left the media spotlight to Weitz and Co. to talk up their potential awards contender, about an illegal immigrant father and his teenage son struggling to make it in East L.A.