With Twilight: New Moon still a month from release, director Chris Weitz is already fielding questions about the series’ fourth film. So far, Weitz said there has been "no official offer" from Summit to helm any latter installments.

"We’ll have to see how people feel about the entire movie, not only the studio but the fans, before the verdict is out whether I direct Number 4," Weitz told The Hollywood Reporter. "David Slade is doing a great job on the third film, and by the time that comes out, he’ll be the flavor of the moment."

In the interview, Weitz said he interacted quite a bit with "Twilight" author Stephanie Meyer, and that the movie version of "New Moon" is faithful to the novel, despite the potential problem of heartthrob Rob Pattinson being absent for the first and second acts. Rather than try and shoehorn Pattinson in, Weitz said he used the Edward character’s absence to dramatic effect, and relied a lot on Kristen Stewart’s performance.

"I did alter the visuals of the story in the sense that in the book, Kristen's character has aural hallucinations — she hears his voice — and we've built in a very beautiful subtle effect so that we see him as well. But those are brief, if impactful, moments. A lot of the film is sustained by her loss and Taylor [Lautner’s] character bringing her back to life," Weitz said.

"The story is about loss and heartache; he is present as an absence. Bella is always thinking of him and affected by him. His return to the film is really powerful and made more so by not having millions of 'back at the ranch' scenes," Weitz said.

Finally, Weitz addressed expectations of a big, tent pole movie feel for New Moon, based on the first Twilight film’s success. He said the budget was not necessarily large, but the crew was resourceful.

"It comes down to being very efficient with special effects," Weitz said. "Also key was the construction budget and the scheduling of the Italian shoot. We squeezed everything we can out of that."


You can read the interview in its entirety here.