Coming hot on the heels of news that New Line Cinema was forcing His Dark Materials director Chris Weitz to remove references to God from the script over fear of offending religious groups, comes news that Weitz has flat out quit.
According to the BBC, the same people who broke the first Dark Materials story, Weitz will remain as the trilogy’s screenwriter of record. Weitz of course cites his own inabilities as a director as the reason for his departure, stating, “The technical challenges of making such an epic are more than I can undertake at this point. It will be an extraordinary film, but at this point in my life I am not the right director to bring it to pass...” Insert the words “because New Line wants me to compromise my vision and crank out a completely unfaithful adaptation just to pander to religious groups” and perhaps you have what may be his real reason for jumping ship.
In response, New Line Cinema is out looking for a new director, probably someone who is willing to dumb Weitz’s script down to pander to people who are easily offended.
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