Chris Weitz, riding high on the mammoth success of New Moon, certainly can't be accused of resting on his laurels. No sooner had the printer ink dried on his record-breaking box-office take for the **Twilight **sequel than he was sat straight back down again in the deal-making chair at the films' studio, Summit Entertainment, where he was signing on the dotted line for his next project, The Gardener. And sorry to disappoint you Twi-hards, but there's nary a mopey supernatural teen in sight.
This will mark a considerable change of pace from Weitz's last two films (before New Moon, he was put through the ringer on visual effects Oscar-winning The Golden Compass), involving as it does... well, a gardener. A Mexican gardener, to be specific, who according to Variety, lives in Los Angeles and takes measures to protect his son. At this point we don't even know if this is a thriller, drama, comedy or rom-zom-com, but we're guessing it'll be some flavour of drama.
The screenplay has been written by Eric Eason, who is himself an award-winning director (his 2002 film Manito picked up first prize at the first Tribeca film festival, fact fans).
There's no word on casting yet (give the guy a chance!), but Weitz has said that he intends going into production in March/April of 2010.