Jason Reitman is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter, and
producer, best known for directing the films Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in
the Air, and Young Adult. As of February 2, 2010, he has received one Grammy
award and four Academy Award nominations, two of which are for Best
Director. Reitman is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. He is the
son of director Ivan Reitman. Early life
Reitman was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the son of Geneviève Robert, an
actress sometimes billed as Geneviève Deloir, and comedy director Ivan
Reitman. Reitman has two younger sisters: Catherine, an actress, who is
three years younger than him, and Caroline, a nurse, who is 12 years
younger. Reitman's father was born in
Czechoslovakia, to Jewish parents who were Holocaust survivors. Reitman's
paternal grandfather ran a dry cleaner and then a car wash.
His mother is from a Christian background, and of French-Canadian
descent; she converted to Judaism. When he was still a child, his family moved
to Los Angeles. His father, Ivan, directed the films
Ghostbusters, Stripes, and Kindergarten Cop. Reitman grew up on set, and has
photos of himself as a baby on the set of Animal House in 1978. This showed him
that making movies is "a job that people do, that it's not just this piece of
magic that happens." 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. Reitman graduated from Harvard-Westlake
School in 1995; Reitman was a high jumper in high school.
Reitman attended Skidmore College and was going to major in pre-med studies
before transferring to the University of Southern California to major in
English/Creative Writing. At USC he performed with improv group Commedus
Interruptus. Film career
Reitman started out making short films during his time at USC. 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's first feature film, Thank You
for Smoking, opened in 2006. Reitman developed the Christopher Buckley novel
into a screenplay and, eventually, a film. The film was a commercial and
critical success. It grossed over $39 million worldwide by the end of its run,
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 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 was Roger Ebert's favorite 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 honored with the
"Cinema for Peace Award 2008 for Most Valuable Work of Director, Producers &
Screenwriter". The film 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 film, 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.
The company had an overall deal with Fox Searchlight Pictures, the company that
distributed Reitman's first two films. Reitman described 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 is a horror comedy written by
Diablo Cody and starring Megan Fox, about a cheerleader who is possessed by
a demon and starts feeding off the boys in a Minnesota farming town. In 2009,
Reitman left Hard C to form Right of Way Films.
In 2001, the year the novel Up in the Air was published, Sheldon Turner
discovered the book and wrote a screenplay adaptation, which he sold to
DreamWorks in 2003. Jason Reitman later came upon the novel while browsing in
the Los Angeles bookstore Book Soup. Reitman persuaded his father Ivan
Reitman to purchase the book's film rights, and the elder Reitman
commissioned a screenplay from Ted and Nicholas Griffin, who used some elements
from Turner's script in their own work. Jason Reitman then developed his own
screenplay, incorporating some of the elements from the Griffins' script that
had originated with Turner. Some of Turner's inventions that were utilized
in the final film include Ryan's boilerplate termination speech, a key
plot point involving a suicide, and the character of Ryan's partner.
Reitman initially attempted to claim sole credit for writing the film, and
later admitted to being confused when the Writers Guild of America ruled that
he should share credit with Turner. He and Turner later appeared at a WGA event
where both said they were happy to share credit now that the course of events,
and Turner's contribution to the final product, had been made clear.
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 corporate
downsizer who travels from city to city and is fanatical about collecting his
ten millionth frequent flier mile. The film features real-world characters cast
from the ranks of the recently downsized. "Hidden within a film that
seems to be about corporate termination and the economy is a movie about the
decision whether to be alone or not," noted Reitman," in an interview
conducted just prior to the film's nationwide release. Sheldon Turner and
Reitman's Up in the Air screenplay won the Golden Globe Award for best
screenplay in 2010. Reitman also executively produced the
erotic thriller Chloe, theatrically released by Sony Pictures Classics on
March 26, 2010. Reitman helped persuade Amanda Seyfried to star in the film. The
film had enjoyed commercial success and became director Atom Egoyan's biggest
moneymaker ever. = Other work=
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 III and
cast Howard, he said "Do you know how many times I get asked if I want to do
Ghostbusters III? 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, 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 two
episodes of The Office entitled "Local Ad" and "Frame Toby". Reitman also
directed a three-part pretaped sketch for the NBC show Saturday Night Live
called "Death By Chocolate," about a walking candy bar who murders people.
Since 2011, Rietman directs the Live Read series, a monthly live staged
reading of film scripts as part of the Film Independent at LACMA.
Personal life When Reitman was 16 and still in high
school he moved in with a woman 10 years his senior. They were together for 7
years until they separated. In 2000, when he was 23, Reitman met and
fell in love with his next door neighbor, eventually marrying writer
Michele Lee, with whom he co-wrote the 2004 comedic short "Consent." They have
one child, a daughter named Josie, born in 2006. After being together 10 years,
Reitman filed for divorce from his wife in June 2011 and stated he was divorced
as of 2014. Filmography
References External links
Jason Reitman at the Internet Movie Database
Interview with Jason Reitman about JUNO at the Telluride Film Festival,
September 10, 2007 EyeForFilm.co.uk - interview with Jason
Reitman about Thank You For Smoking and Juno
Ubben Lecture at DePauw University; March 15, 2010
Jason Reitman's Guest DJ Set on KCRW