Up in the Air

Jason Reitman (born October 19, 1977) is an Academy Award-nominated Canadian-born/American-based film director, screenwriter, producer and actor, best known for directing the films Thank You for Smoking (2006), Juno (2007), and Up in the Air (2009).

Reitman was born in Montreal, Quebec, the first of three children of comedy director Ivan Reitman and actress Geneviève Robert, sometimes billed as Geneviève Deloir. He has two younger sisters, Catherine and Caroline. His father, Ivan, directed the successful films Ghostbusters, Stripes, and Kindergarten Cop. Jason described his childhood self as “a loser… a movie geek… [and] shy.” In the late 1980s, Reitman began appearing in small acting parts and serving as a production assistant on his father’s films. He spent time in the editing rooms of his father’s movies, learning the process. Throughout his 20s, instead of accepting offers to make commercial feature films, Reitman began making his own short films and directing commercials. Although he was offered the opportunity to direct Dude, Where’s My Car? on two separate occasions, he declined.

Reitman graduated from the Harvard-Westlake School in 1995 and majored in English/Creative Writing at University of Southern California.

In 2005, Reitman’s first feature film _Thank You for Smoking opened. Reitman developed the Christopher Buckley novel into a screenplay and, eventually, a film. The movie was a commercial success. It made $24 million, and was nominated for two Golden Globes. After the success of Thank You for Smoking, Reitman mentioned in an interview that his next film would be adapting another book (a “white collar satire”) into a film. He also mentioned that he had plans to work with Buckley again on an original project. Although the first of these projects would eventually become Up in the Air, this second project has not come to fruition.

His second film, Juno, generated great buzz after it premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival and was released in December 2007. It received tremendous critical acclaim (it was Roger Ebert’s favourite film of 2007) and received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Ellen Page’s performance as the title character, Diablo Cody’s original screenplay, and Reitman himself for Best Director. Reitman did win other awards for his work on Juno, including Best Director at the 2008 Canadian Comedy Awards; he was also honoured with the “Cinema for Peace Award 2008 for Most Valuable Work of Director, Producers & Screenwriter”. The film thus far has grossed over $140 million at the U.S. box office, making it the largest success of Reitman’s career and more successful than any of his father’s films since
Kindergarten Cop.Brad Silberling was originally attached to direct the movie, but he dropped out over casting differences. Reitman was in the middle of writing a screenplay when he came on board to direct Juno and, at one point, he expressed intent to finish writing and to direct this screenplay.

In March 2006, Reitman formed the production company “Hard C Productions” with producing partner Daniel Dubiecki, and they have several projects in the works. The company has an overall deal with Fox Searchlight Pictures, the company that distributed Reitman’s first two films. Reitman describes his production company’s goal as being to produce “small subversive comedy that is independent but accessible”. Reitman states that he and Dubiecki “want to make unusual films, and anything that turns a genre on its ear”. Through Hard C Productions, Reitman is set to produce and direct Banzai Shadowhands, a comedy about “a once-great ninja who is now living a life of mediocrity”. Shadowhands will be written by The Office’s Rainn Wilson. Reitman met Wilson on the set of his father’s film My Super Ex-Girlfriend, in which Wilson had a supporting role. No start date for filming has been set, and it is unclear as to whether or not Wilson is finished with the script.

Hard C Productions produced films The Ornate Anatomy of Living Things and Jennifer’s Body. Anatomy has been written by Matthew Spicer and Max Winkler, and will revolve around “a Gotham bookstore clerk who discovers a museum devoted to his life”. Jennifer’s Body, a horror comedy, was written by Diablo Cody and starred Megan Fox. It revolved around a cheerleader who is possessed by a demon and starts feeding off the boys in a Minnesota farming town. Her “plain Jane” best friend must kill her, then escape from a correctional facility to go after the Satan-worshiping rock band responsible for the transformation.

Before his feature film career began, Jason Reitman wrote and directed six short films. He financed his first short film, “Operation”, with money he made by selling ads in desk calendars. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998.

He was a guest on The Howard Stern Show on April 10, 2008; when he was asked if he would direct Ghostbusters 3 and cast Howard, he said “do you know how many times I get asked if I want to do Ghostbusters 3? Looking at my career so far, I mean if you just looked at my two films, I would make the most boring Ghostbusters movie. It would just be people talking about ghosts, there wouldn’t be any ghost-busting in it.” Stern, a friend of Ivan Reitman, also revealed that he had seen Jason’s early short films and was impressed enough to offer him the opportunity to direct an episode of Son of the Beach (a TV series he produced, a goofy parody of Baywatch), which Jason declined, citing that he was busy obtaining financing for Thank You For Smoking at the time.

Reitman produced and directed the 2007 holiday season commercials for Wal-Mart with advertising agency Bernstein-Rein. He has also directed ads for Burger King, Nintendo, BMW, and Buick. In television, Reitman directed an episode of The Office entitled “Local Ad”. Reitman also directed a three-part pretaped sketch for the NBC show Saturday Night Live called “Death By Chocolate,” about a walking candy bar (played by episode host Ashton Kutcher) who murders people (stabbing a homeless man, shooting a doctor, cutting off a life support machine on a coma victim, and slicing Andy Samberg [dressed as a lumberjack] with a chainsaw).

In the spring of 2009, Reitman directed _Up in the Air _starring George Clooney. Up in the Air is based on a novel written by Walter Kirn about a traveler who is fanatic about collecting his ten millionth frequent flier mile. Along the way, he experiences crazy adventures.

Reitman cites directors Hal Ashby, Stanley Kubrick, Kevin Smith, Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Alexander Payne, and Paul Thomas Anderson as his influences.—Wikipedia