Coming off the grand and unexpected success of “Juno” what’s director Jason Reitman’s next self-penned move aside from blogging for the NHL (dude is Canadian, hockey is a prerequisite for most) and directing a Jim Carrey vehicle?
Well, we know what he’s not doing. He’s resisted the obvious temptation to work with Diablo Cody again. Or at least, not directing her work (Reitman is producing her follow-up script “Jennifer’s Body”).
And he won’t be directing the much-maligned, much-delayed “Justice League” film. Reitman was apparently offered the director slot on the superhero ensemble a few weeks ago, but he turned it down and told Howard Stern about it on his satellite radio show.
How’s the script? Reitman said “It’s good, fine… You know, I mean. I had to sign something, they send me the script and it comes on this spy paper which cant be xeroxed. They have a time when I have to have the script back to them and the script is fine and I could be spending [time on something else]…”
Reitman knew immediately that the material wasn’t for him. “What am I going to do with Justice League of America? So Basically I’ll make a movie that is not as good as ‘X-Men,’ then I’ll be the guy who made a movie not as good as X-Men. Where just like you talking about, going to smaller stations, if I make another small movie, and it’s really good, it performs well…Right now I’m thought of as a particular type of director. I’ve got an Oscar nomination. I’ve made two indie films that play film festivals that are considered thoughtful. I want to stay in that world, I like making those type of films.”
Well, that’s that. No Reitman film for a superher0 ensemble movie that’s likely never going to get made anyhow and if it does, it’s likely going to suck harder than even “Ghost Rider” or “Fantastic Four” if you can believe it (to make it even semi-decent effects-wise they have to hire budget actors so they can pay for the effects of 8-plus heroes and villains).
Last month Reitman revealed some details of his next project, a book he’s adapting, but he wouldn’t say what that novel was yet. He told MTV some small details. “It’s a comedy and a drama [book adaptation]. Think ‘Thank You for Smoking,’ but instead of political it’s corporate.” A bunch of people over at /Film suggested that it could be “The Company” by Max Berry, but Reitman insists this is a book no one has read yet (so it hasn’t been published yet?) Unlike “Juno,” it star a man lead instead of female and “deals with the idea [that] life would be easier alone or life is easier when you have people clogging things up.”
Bueller? Is this a Red Herring or does Reitman have his hands on some manuscript that’s not hit shelves yet? Does anyone even care that much? Do we even care? (halfway through this post, we just wanted to delete, but we were halfway there, oh well…)