MTV interviewed Chris Weitz by phone for the New Moon DVD release. You can see part of the interview below. Please be advised that the video on the same page was shot several months prior to the DVD commentary track being recorded and the the information in there is not current!

“Our Lord?: In its Italian-set portions, “New Moon” features a significant amount of religious iconography, and Edward certainly suffers a great deal. Is he supposed to be a Christ figure?

“I think that he is in a sense he’s doomed to suffer eternally,” Weitz said. “He actually thinks of himself as a damned figure, but he’s wrong about that. So in some senses, yeah, he is a martyr figure.”

Black Eyes: In Stephenie Meyer’s book, Edward’s eyes go black in Italy. Why don’t his eyes turn in the film?

“It’s because I screwed up!” Weitz admitted.

Really? He just forgot?

“Well, yeah, I kinda did,” he said. “Well, there are two reasons. One is that I messed up. The other reason is that I actually thought that onscreen it would be quite bizarre to see his eyes go completely black, and that it would be more satisfying and less jarring to have that moment of reunion be a reunion with revivified Edward. But probably, the long and the short of it, there are many details that I did not drop the ball on, and there are some that I did.”

See more on MTV

Hit Fix has their version up of Chris Weitz talking about the New Moon DVD and future projects:

“Speaking to Weitz earlier this week, the director laughed about the moment and admitted that he discovered the mistake a bit too late.

“I think it could have been less than an Arcadian fairy tale running through the foresty movement and more of an abstract at Kristen flash on her face,” Weitz says of what he would have changed. “That would have avoided laughter, which wasn’t only heard at the premiere where there are cynics and jaded Hollywood types, but the most packed fan screenings.”

Weitz, who is currently prepping his independent drama “The Gardner ” for Summit Entertainment (the same company that shepherds “Twilight”) was taking time out of his busy schedule to talk about the release of the highly anticipated two-disc DVD on March 23.  It’s clear one of the reasons he’s doing more publicity for the film is because he feels “tremendously grateful” for the support of the “Twilight” fanbase which helped “New Moon” hit $706 million worldwide and revitalize his career.  He notes, “I feel like it was two-way street. The reason the fans have been kind to me is i really approached it from step one as ‘What would I want as a reader of the book?’ I didn’t concern myself with making a four quadrant movie or any overall effect other than to be true to the nature of the book. To be able to entertain people and give people joy in that way is something a director looks for his whole life.”

See the rest on Hit Fix

Not really sure what’s going on here. They might have released their interview material ahead of an embargo, may be having technical problems, or gone with a re-edit. The link to the interview on Buzz Sugar is now dead, but you can see a bunch of the content of the interview on Twilighters Anonymous.

“There are lots of different editions of the New Moon DVD. Which bonus features are you particularly excited about?

I’m excited that my voice will finally be heard! For me, the fun thing was doing the commentary with Peter Lambert, my editor, because it kind of re-created the atmosphere in the cutting room. Peter’s a really funny guy, and we were able to delve into not only the behind-the-scenes moments, but to explain why certain things were shot or cut together in certain ways. So that, for me, was the most fun.

When you go back and watch it again, are there things you’d like to change if you could?

I would like to never have shot Rob and Kristen running through the forest and Kristen’s just turned into a vampire. Because everybody always laughs and it makes me feel terrible. [Laughs] I would have shot it a different way so it wouldn’t get that response. But otherwise, I’m very happy with things.”

On a personal note, we agree with Chris on the forest commentary. We spoofed the wide-spread, giggling, fan reaction on our Christmas video.