There’s plenty of haters out there (who we’re sure will make themselves known below…), but as far as this writer’s concerned, Jason Reitman is three-for-three after “Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno” and “Up in the Air,” a trio of smart, assured, well-executed comedies. All’s been quiet on the Reitman front since the release of “Up in the Air,” but today brings news of a potential new project for the helmer, according to The Hollywood Reporter
Reitman’s Right of Way Films have picked up the rights to the first novel by 26-year-old “Saturday Night Live” writer Simon Rich, a coming-of-age book entitled “Elliot Allagash,” about an eighth-grade kid in an exclusive private school who comes under the wing of the titular Allagash, a new transfer whose crimes include “vandalism, truancy, unprovoked violence, drunkenness, hiring an imposter to take a standardized test, and blackmail.” Between the “Rushmore”-like setting, and the background of Rich (the Harvard-educated son of New York Times writer Frank Rich), it seems like Reitman’s either unafraid, or unaware, of some of the brickbats hurled at him; it’s a bit like Sofia Coppola optioning the rights to a book about a sad movie star in a hotel.
Rich will adapt his own novel, and Reitman’s producing, but there’s no word if he’ll be directing. He’s got a number of other projects lined up, including a movie about a hockey referee, a project entitled “See Also: Sambo,” from “Rachel Getting Married” writer Jenny Lumet, and football pic “Whispers in Bedlam,” but the most likely candidate seems to be an adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s novel “Labor Day.”
We’re sure that Reitman will confirm his next project in the next few months; he’s kept to a fairly clockwork one-movie-every-two-years schedule so far, so we imagine he’ll be filming on something at the end of this year, or early next. In the meantime, you can watch a trailer for the book (via /Film), featuring Rich and Bill Hader (who teamed with Rich on the horror-comedy “When A Stranger Calls A Dude” for Judd Apatow), and take comfort in the fact that while the young writer might be way more successful than you, he will never stop getting ID’d in bars.