Director brothers are tied by blood, and then some

To pile on the coincidence, “The Vampire’s Assistant’’ opened on Chris’ 40th birthday, while “New Moon’’ launches the day after Paul turns 44. And then, of course, there’s the fact that on a recent early fall afternoon, they’re seated together at a table on the Universal lot, the same place where their grandmother, Mexican actress Lupita Tovar, shot her starring role in the studio’s 1931 Spanish-language version of “Dracula,’’ produced by their grandfather, Paul Kohner.

Vampire blood, you might say, runs in the family.

Still, the brothers insist it was happenstance that they found themselves working on films that prominently feature the undead. They don’t have any particular insight into why vampire-mania is thriving in pop culture at the moment - “I usually just mumble something about metaphor,’’ Chris Weitz said - and neither one is the brooding, loner type with a widow’s peak and a wardrobe full of black satin capes.

In fact, for two guys who have logged a lot of hours worrying about the exploits of immortal blood drinkers, they’re downright sunny.

Paul Weitz said it was the opportunity to explore the rich, vibrant world presented in the “Cirque du Freak’’ novels, penned by Irish author Darren O’Shaughnessy under the pseudonym Darren Shan, that made directing “The Vampire’s Assistant’’ such an appealing prospect.

The film, which combines elements from the first three books in the series, tells the story of a 16-year-old named Darren Shan and his best friend Steve, who after sneaking out to watch an underground freak show performance, find themselves on opposite sides of a long-prophesied vampire war.

In Darren’s case, he also discovers a place that’s far more visually captivating and ethnically diverse than his pastel-saturated suburban home.

“The German Expressionist painters that I like, like Otto Dix or Max Beckmann, their vision was dark and somewhat humorous but also incredibly colorful,’’ Paul said. “That was part of the reason I wanted to make the film . . . to do something that was gothic but completely packed with color.’’

When Chris Weitz was approached to direct the sequel to last year’s hit teen romance “Twilight’’ - which sees high school student Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) struggling to cope with a broken heart after her vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) leaves her - the filmmaker said he connected with that sense of loss.

He’d been profoundly saddened by his experience making his last film, a special-effects-laden adaptation of Philip Pullman’s acclaimed novel “The Golden Compass.’’ He said that his inability to persuade New Line Cinema to allow him to move forward with the bleaker ending he’d originally planned for the $180 million fantasy left him feeling that he’d failed to do justice to Pullman’s work.

That Chris considers himself “a slave to the text’’ of the projects he adapts could work in his favor with “New Moon.’’ The books in author Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight’’ series have a wildly devoted following that helped push Catherine Hardwicke’s 2008 movie to record-breaking box office grosses.

Of course, Paul Weitz is pretty comfortable with the written word as well. After graduating from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he began his career as a playwright, and he’s continued to work in theater - his upcoming play, “Trust,’’ will be produced by the off-Broadway Second Stage Theatre next year.

That Paul and Chris found their way to creative careers was perhaps inevitable given their upbringing. Their father, men’s fashion designer John Weitz, wrote several books before he died in 2002; and growing up in New York, the brothers were constantly surrounded by luminaries of all stripes, friends of John and his third wife, actress Susan Kohner.

“We grew up around a lot of eccentric actors and directors with thick accents,’’ Chris said.

That upper-class pedigree might not have been immediately recognizable in their first film, 1999’s raunchy teen sex comedy “American Pie,’’ or its follow-up, 2001’s “Heaven Can Wait’’ update “Down to Earth.’’ But it began to emerge in 2002’s “About a Boy,’’ which earned Paul and Chris (and writer Peter Hedges) an Oscar nomination for their screenplay.

When asked what they’ve learned from each other, there’s no hesitation from either:

“I learned how to work with actors from watching Paul,’’ Chris says.

“Although Chris often expresses ambivalence about all the things that directing requires,’’ says his brother, “I think he’s got a huge degree of courage, which I find inspiring.’’