is camera-ready, Jason Reitman advises creative young crowd.
These may not be the best times for the film industry, but director Jason Reitman says it’s still a good time to make movies
Jason Reitman recalls asking his dad, Ivan Reitman, why he had never attended any Oscar galas. To which the elder Reitman, director of such smash hits as Ghostbusters and National Lampoon’s Animal House and lest we forget, the Canadian classic Meatballs, responded: “Because I’ve never been nominated.” To which Reitman fils replied: “Well, will you come if I get nominated?” To which Pa said: “Sure.”
Son went one step further. Jason had his dad co-produce with him his 2009 stirring recession dramedy Up in the Air, which garnered six nominations, including one for best film. Which meant both father and son would have picked up statuettes had the flick won in that category. It didn’t, but father and son did attend the ceremony together.
Jason Reitman has disproved the adage that one can’t come back home again. Reitman, who was born in Montreal but later moved to L.A. with his family, returned last weekend to his hometown where he was keynote speaker at hors-Jeu, a conference organized by gaming giant Ludia at the Phi Centre. He not only enthralled the audience of mostly young video-game creators with tales of his beginnings but also by encouraging them to make their own movies.
“I’m not going to tell anyone that it’s a good time to join the film business, but it’s definitely a good time to make movies,” stated the articulate Reitman, 35. “Visual storytelling is going through enormous change. People are becoming very innovative, and almost everyone has a camera now. They know how to shoot, cut, use music. Look at all the moving stuff on YouTube done by people who are not in the film industry and who have never even taken a film class.”
Reitman, 35, has also disproved another adage: that children of famous filmmakers best opt for careers of another nature to avoid comparison and failure. He has made it on his own terms: crafting entertaining films that also pack a social punch. He captivated audiences and critics alike with his satirical debut feature Thank You for Smoking. He followed that up two years later with the heartwarming Juno, which starred Ellen Page as a pregnant teen and which went on to gross over $230 million — Ivan Reitman-like numbers. In 2011, he re-teamed with Juno writer Diablo Cody for the acclaimed comic drama Young Adult with Charlize Theron.
Reitman’s latest is the thriller Labor Day, based on the Joyce Maynard novel and starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. It will be released this year.
Curiously, Reitman attributes his interest in directing not so much to his father’s oeuvres but rather to Richard Linklater’s indie flick, Slacker. “I re- member (director) Kevin Smith’s reaction to that movie: ‘That counts (as a film)?’ Those were my thoughts, too.”
Reitman was 15 when he made an AIDS public-service ad — with actors from his high school — that went on to win awards and play on network TV. When he was 19, he made his first short film, Operation, a comedy about kidney stealing, which premièred at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.
“Initially, I wanted to be Quentin Tarantino,” Reitman confessed. “I tried to emulate Quentin. But then the question is how to evolve from there, how to tell your own stories. Do you learn to find confidence in your own voice, or do you stay afraid of it?”
While trying to get his film career kick-started, Reitman was relegated to making TV ads. “I was making my living making some of the worst commercials ever shot,” he said, referring in particular to one dud involving both NASCAR and the Outback restaurant chain.
“You need the time to make mistakes. Fortunately, I was f…ing up in a safe environment — making mistakes on someone else’s dime.”
When not allegedly screwing up on commercials — in fact, some of his work for Miller Light, Heineken and Honda won awards at the Cannes advertising-film fest — he was trying to get Thank You for Smoking off the ground. He wrote a script based on the Christopher Buckley novel of the same name. Problem was that Mel Gibson owned the rights to the book, and he had not only sunk a lot of money into it, he also wanted to star, direct and produce the film.
“Movies are like relationships,” Reitman tried to explain. “Let’s say that a couple has serious issues. Sure, they can try to make it work, but, really, wouldn’t it be easier to start over again fresh.”
As it turned out, Reitman lucked out. He got the rights to the book, and PayPal co-founder David O. Sacks came on board to produce and finance Thank You for Smoking. It premièred at the 2005 Toronto filmfest, picked up a Golden Globe nomination for best picture and a Writers Guild of America nomination for Reitman for best adapted screenplay. Plus, he was named Best Debut Director by the National Board of Review.
But success often comes to those who take chances. Take the film Juno, scripted by Cody. “This was written by someone who never went to film school and clearly someone who never studied screenwriting. She was a stripper at the time when she wrote Juno at a McDonald’s.”
Juno, made for a modest $7 million, paid quick dividends for its writer and director. Cody won an Oscar for her Juno screenplay and has since been much in demand. Reitman was nominated for best director as was Juno for best film.
“Juno changed my life. Then people in the industry thought I knew something that I didn’t,” Reitman said with a broad smile.
He pointed out that while he had been adapting the screenplay to Up in the Air — based on the Walter Kim novel of the same name — for quite some time, his script had to take on a far more serious tone when the recession hit hard in 2008. He credits his dad for urging him to change the tempo. But he also acknowledges that his decision to cast real people who had lost their jobs provided the film with gravitas.
“There are very few movies for adults out there now — the movies are mostly geared for teens,” he noted. “If films for adults don’t get made, they will disappear. You can feel a hesitancy inside and outside the studios to make those films. I want to make niche films for adults that can be found by an audience. I think what’s most important is be- ing in a room — a theatre — with strangers and connecting with people because of what’s on screen. That’s the ultimate.”