Chris Weitz Photo by: Jim Smeal / BEImages
New Moon Director Quitting Movies
Well, you can't say he isn't going out on top.

Chris Weitz, the Oscar-nominated director of New Moon, will leave all the glitz and glamour behind after he finishes one more film, he tells MovieMaker magazine.

"Every time I make a movie I'm pretty much convinced it's the last time I'm going to be able to do it and that really it's a rather silly occupation to undertake," says Weitz, 40, whose Oscar nod was for the adapted screenplay of 2002's About a Boy. "But I think I have maybe one more film in me."

The director, who says he's still saddened by what he calls the heavyhanded studio tactics that derailed his big-budget flop The Golden Compass, says his final flick will be an homage to the Italian classic The Bicycle Thief called The Gardener.

"I feel that if I were to do this one film, I'd feel okay just sitting back and reading. I'd really like to read some books," he says.

And engaging in the lifestyle of an international bon vivant with two-thirds of a blockbuster movie series to his name, of course.

"You know, it sounds ridiculous, but I'd really like to be a better surfer," he says, laughing. "I'd like to learn to speak Spanish fluently; I'd like to travel around, live in Italy; I'd like to learn kung fu ... It's nice to make movies, but it's also really hard."

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