Oscar-nominated director. Jason Reitman has established himself as a unique, intelligent, and humorous storyteller recognized for his spot-on social commentary.
Jason Reitman film Up In The Air was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film, which Reitman wrote and directed, stars George Clooney and Vera Farmiga. The script received Golden Globe, WGA, and BAFTA Awards for Best.
He made his feature film directorial debut with the 2006 success Thank You For Smoking, based on Christopher Buckley’s famous novel and adapted by Reitman for the screen. The film made its international premiere at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture and a WGA nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2006, the National Board of Review named Reitman Best Debut Director.
Early Life
Jason Reitman was born on October 19, 1977, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to actress Geneviève Robert and filmmaker Ivan Reitman. He has two younger sisters, Catherine and Caroline. Reitman is Jewish, and his paternal grandparents are Holocaust survivors. Reitman and his family relocated to Los Angeles, California, while he was pretty young.
He spent much of his youth on the sets of his father’s films. As an adolescent, Reitman attended Harvard-Westlake School and graduated in 1995. He then attended Skidmore College in New York before transferring to the University of Southern California.
Reitman’s father was born in Czechoslovakia to Jewish Holocaust survivors. Reitman’s paternal grandpa owned a dry cleaning and then a car wash.
His mother, French-Canadian, was raised Christian but later converted to Judaism. When he was a child, his family relocated to Los Angeles.
His father, Ivan, directed the movies Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, Stripes, and Kindergarten Cop. Such encounters taught him that creating movies is “a job people do, not just this piece of magic that happens.”
Jason Reitman describes his younger self as “a loser… a movie geek… [and] shy.” In the late 1980s, Reitman began starring in minor roles and working as a production assistant on his father’s films. He spent time learning the procedure in his father’s film editing suites.
Jason Reitman education
Reitman graduated from Harvard-Westlake School in 1995. He was a high jumper in high school and was coached by Occidental College
Hall of Famer Phil Sweeney.
Jason Reitman attended Skidmore College and planned to major in pre-med studies before switching to the University of Southern California (USC) to study English/Creative Writing. While at USC, he was a member of the improv ensemble Commedus Interruptus.
Films Career
Reitman began creating short films during his tenure at USC. Throughout his twenties, instead of accepting offers to helm commercial feature pictures, Reitman started to develop his short films and commercials. He turned down the opportunity to direct Dude, Where’s My Car? Twice.
Thank You for Smoking, Reitman’s debut feature picture, premiered in 2005. Reitman adapted Christopher Buckley’s novel into a screenplay and, ultimately, a film. The film achieved economic and critical success. By the conclusion of its run, it had made more than $39 million worldwide and received two Golden Globe nominations. Following the success of Thank You for Smoking, Reitman stated in an interview that his next project would be to adapt another novel (a “white collar satire”) into a film.
He also said he intended to work with Buckley again on an original project. Although the first of these projects finally became Up in the Air, the second has yet to be completed.
Juno and its Acclaim at the 2007 Toronto International Film
Juno’s second picture received much attention after it premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Picture Festival and was released in December 2007. It was Roger Ebert’s favorite film of 2007, earning Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Elliot Page’s portrayal as the main character, Diablo Cody’s original screenplay, and Reitman for Best Director. Reitman received numerous accolades for his efforts on Juno, including Best Director at the 2008 Canadian Comedy Awards.
The picture made over $140 million in the United States, making it Reitman’s biggest hit and the most successful of his father’s films since Kindergarten Cop. Brad Silberling was initially attached to the picture to helm it. However, he stepped out due to casting disputes.
Reitman was writing a script when he was hired to shoot Juno, and he once stated that he intended to complete writing and direct the screenplay. In March 2006, Reitman established “Hard C Productions” with partner Daniel Dubiecki.
The business had an overall arrangement with Fox Searchlight Pictures, which distributed Reitman’s first two films. Jason Reitman stated that the purpose of his production firm is to create “small subversive comedy that is independent but accessible.” Reitman says he and Dubiecki “want to make unusual films and anything that turns a genre on its head.” Reitman will produce and direct Banzai Shadowhands, a comedy about “a once-great ninja who is now living a mediocrity” through Hard C Productions. The Office’s Rainn Wilson will write Shadowhands. Reitman met Wilson on the set of his father’s film, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, in which Wilson played a supporting part.
HardC Project
There is no scheduled start date for filming, and it is uncertain whether Wilson has completed the script.
Hard C Productions produced flames from Jennifer’s Body and The Ornate Anatomy of Living things by Anatomy, created by Matthew Spicer and Max Winkler, would follow “a Gotham bookstore clerk who discovers a museum devoted to his life.”Diablo Cody’s horror comedy Jennifer’s Body stars Megan Fox and tells the story of a cheerleader who becomes possessed by a demon and begins feeding on the males in a Minnesota rural community. In 2009, Reitman departed Hard C to start Right of Way Films.
Sheldon Turner found the novel Up in the Air in 2001, He released, and developed a screenplay adaptation that he sold to DreamWorks in 2003. Jason Reitman discovered the work while shopping at the Los Angeles bookstore Book Soup, originally drawn to the Christopher Buckley blurb on the cover. Reitman convinced his father, Ivan Reitman, to buy the book’s film rights, and the older Reitman commissioned a screenplay from Ted and Nicholas Griffin, who used parts from Turner’s script for their effort.
Jason Reitman then created his screenplay, including aspects from the Griffins’ work that, unbeknownst to Reitman, originated with Turner. Ryan’s boilerplate termination speech (“Anyone who ever built an empire or changed the world sat where you’re sitting right now…”), a key plot point involving a suicide and the character of Ryan’s partner (written by Turner as male).
The Screenwriters Guild of America (WGA) decided that Jason Reitman had to split credit with Turner despite his attempt to take sole credit for the script. the choice, surprised the Reitman but he later recognized Turner’s efforts at a WGA function, when both men stated that they were willing to share credit and that Turner’s work had a significant influence on the finished film.
What is Jason Reitman’s net worth?
Jason Reitman is a filmmaker with a fortune of $50 million. He has directed films including “Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno,” “Up in the Air,” “Young Adult,” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” He received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for “Juno” and “Up in the Air.” Reitman has also directed television shows such as the NBC sitcom “The Office” and the Hulu series “Casual.”