Weitz discusses 'New Moon' filming frenzy

Chris Weitz has spoken out about the challenge of directing New Moon amid the massive fan frenzy that follows the vampire franchise.

The filmmaker, who took over helming duties from Catherine Hardwicke, told Movies Online that some fans "had a hard time distinguishing" between the actors and the characters that they played.

"You need security and you need people to protect them from the love of the fans, which is different from being the bodyguard for someone that someone is trying to assassinate. It’s a good thing, but sometimes you do worry about people getting crushed," he said.

Weitz went on to say that the immense interest in the film finally became apparent when the production moved to the small town of Montepulciano in Italy, and was immediately overrun by Twilight fans.

"It became harder and hard to get to set, and it became harder and harder for me, and I’m used to going unnoticed, to get anywhere from the production office to the set, without heads looking up and people wanting to take photographs," he explained.

"Eventually, entire roads were jammed, so that we couldn’t get from one location to another... We decided to work around it. We decided that it was a good thing and, karmically, it was best to just thank them for being there, ask them to be quiet when we were shooting, and just try to find work-arounds to still get what we wanted to."

New Moon is released in November.