Jason R. Reitman ( ; born October 19, 1977) is a Canadian and American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the films Thank You for Smoking (2005), Juno (2007), Up in the Air (2009), Young Adult (2011), Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), and Saturday Night (2024). He has received a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe, and four Academy Award nominations, two for Best Director. He is the son of director Ivan Reitman and is known for frequently collaborating with screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Gil Kenan.
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Early life
Reitman was born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Geneviève Robert, an actress sometimes billed as Geneviève Deloir, and film director Ivan Reitman (1946–2022). He has two younger sisters: Catherine Reitman, an actress, producer and writer, who is four years younger, and Caroline Reitman, a nurse, who is 11 years younger.
Jason Reitman's father was born in Czechoslovakia, to Jewish parents who were Holocaust survivors. His paternal grandfather ran a dry cleaner and then a car wash. His mother is of French-Canadian descent and grew up a Christian; she converted to Judaism. When he was still a child, his family moved to Los Angeles. His father, Ivan, directed the films Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, Stripes, and Kindergarten Cop.
Jason Reitman grew up on sets and has photos of himself as a baby on the set of Animal House in 1978; Bill Murray said that Reitman was "a pain in the ass" while filming Ghostbusters, with Dan Aykroyd joking that "he was directing back then". Such experiences showed him that making movies is "a job that people do, that it's not just this piece of magic that happens". Reitman made a cameos in a few of his father's films, notably in Kindergarten Cop in which he played a student at the school who is caught making out with a girl by John Kimble, who is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Reitman feels he was "a loser... a movie geek...[and] shy" as a child. In the late 1980s, he began appearing in small acting parts and serving as a production assistant on his father's films. He learned how to edit film in the editing rooms of his father's movies. Reitman graduated from Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Los Angeles in 1995. He was a high jumper in high school, coached by Occidental College Hall-of-Famer Phil Sweeney.
Reitman attended Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York and was to major in pre-med studies before transferring to the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles to major in English and creative writing. At USC, he performed with improv group Commedus Interruptus.
Film career
Reitman began making short films while at USC. Throughout his 20s, instead of accepting offers to make commercial feature films, he made his own short films and directing commercials. Although he was offered the opportunity to direct Dude, Where's My Car? on two occasions, he declined.
Reitman's first feature film, Thank You for Smoking, opened in 2005. 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 (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 the projects eventually became Up in the Air, the second project has not come to fruition.
His second film, Juno, generated great buzz after it premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in December 2007. It was Roger Ebert's favorite film of 2007 and received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Elliot 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. 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.
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 (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 two episodes of The Office: "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, 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. Since 2011, Reitman has directed the Live Read series, a monthly live staged reading of film scripts as part of the Film Independent at LACMA. In 2020, Reitman directed The Princess Bride, a television adaptation of novel of the same name for Quibi featuring an ensemble cast to raise money for World Central Kitchen.
Personal life
Reitman is a self-described libertarian. He is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. When Reitman was 16 and still in high school, he moved in with a woman 10 years his senior. They separated after 7 years.
In 2000, when he was 23, Reitman and his next-door neighbor, writer Michele Lee began dating. They co-wrote the 2004 comedic short Consent. Their daughter, Josie, was born in 2006. After 10 years of marriage, Reitman filed for divorce in June 2011 and as of 2014 is divorced.
Filmography
Feature film
Acting roles
Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
BAFTA Awards
Golden Globe Awards
Other awards
Directed Academy Award performances
