Brothers move past 'Pie' to grown-up film

Outside the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, brothers Paul and Chris Weitz are joking around while posing for a photo. They're wrapping their arms around each other and making funny faces like two boys who can't sit still in a classroom.

They look and act like a couple of ordinary guys – except for the fact that they have directed the teen comedy "American Pie" – which has grossed about $200 million worldwide – and the new comedy-drama "About a Boy," starring Hugh Grant and Toni Collette. Opening in theaters today, "Boy" is the only major film competing against "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" this weekend.

While lunching on chicken tacos and empanadas at a dimly lit Latin steakhouse inside the hotel, Chris and older brother Paul express amazement that they were able to make "About a Boy."

"If you get a shot at making a comedy [that] could potentially be mainstream, but is still an adult film, you really have to count your blessings," says Paul, the more talkative brother during this interview.

Especially since director Iain Softley of "K-Pax" was originally pegged for the project for New Line Cinema.

"A couple of years later, as things happen in Hollywood, everything fell apart," Paul says. Chris and Paul shopped it around to different studios, and Universal and Working Title Films banked on the brothers.

"Fortunately, there was a writers' and actors' strike [looming]," says Chris, between bites of a soft taco. "[The studios] felt like they had to make as much product as possible, so they rushed it into production."

Chris and Paul read the best-selling 1998 book by British novelist Nick Hornby a few years ago, and they loved its combination of humor, cynicism, and a hopeful ending.

In the film, Grant plays Will, a shallow bachelor in London who attends meetings of single moms and invents an imaginary son in the hopes of meeting someone. But instead of the typical boy-meets-girl romance, the film takes a detour. Will meets Marcus, a 12-year-old boy who is made fun of at school and has problems at home. Marcus soon changes Will's perspective on life.

"It's about how one can cobble together a family ... out of an unlikely set of connections," Paul says. "None of these people have a nuclear family and they end up relying on each other."

On the surface, Chris and Paul might seem an unlikely choice for a mature comedy, given their "American Pie" background. Even Grant initially expressed some concern. In December, he told premiere.com: "When their names came up, I thought, 'That's insane....' Then I met them. They have a hugely juvenile humor streak, but they're also these scholarly, erudite guys. I've never worked with directors who read Trollope between setups."

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