Paul and Chris Weitz
Chris and Paul Weitz were the directors of the wildly successful AMERICAN PIE. I was suitably impressed that they were able to switch successfully from broad farce to an insightful, even sensitive, comedy about a man who refuses to grow up and a boy who had no choice in the matter. Talking with them, it quickly became apparent that their keen sense of comic timing, not to mention absurdity, is something that comes naturally to the pair. When I spoke with them in April of 2002, my first question about about the legacy of AMERICAN PIE for them professionally and personally.
ABOUT A BOY stars Hugh Grant as Will Freeman, the heir of a Christmas jingle fortune who has planned his life in carefully allotted parcels of time. It’s an orderly existence, and one he thoroughly enjoys, and one that is forever complicated by Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), the precocious son of single mother Fiona, played by Toni Collette. The utter chaos of Fiona’s life, coupled with the slightly unnerving poise Marcus evinces, seeps into Will’s orderly routine, despite his best efforts to resist, until Will can’t imagine life without the pair. The Weitzes directed from a script that they co-wrote with Peter Hedges and based on the novel by Nick Hornsby.
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