Up in the Air is the third film from acclaimed director Jason Reitman. After the indie hit Thank You for Smoking and the Oscar-winning Juno, the name Reitman now makes everyone think "Oscar buzz." Reitman himself always thought the name would help him out all along.

"My whole life, people told me nepotism was actually going to pave the way for my career," Reitman joked. "Nepotism let me down."

Instead, the son of comedy hitmaker Ivan Reitman got his start when a different industry's success story gave him a break. "I got a call from my agent saying, 'There's an internet millionaire, one of the creators of Paypal who wants to make Thank You For Smoking. That's how my career started. Let me tell you, nobody wanted to make my screenplay. It was a San Francisco internet millionaire who started my career, made Thank You For Smoking, brought it to the Toronto Film Festival, sold it to Fox Searchlight."

Reitman was already 30 pages into his script for Up in the Air at that time. He wrote another 30 pages when a second offer came in. "This time I get a new call. It's from a friend who says, 'Hey, there's this screenplay you've got to read. It's a teenage pregnancy comedy.' 'Who wrote it?' 'This girl who I think used to be a stripper in Minneapolis or something.' Great, this sounds perfect, but of course it was perfect. It was Juno and it was one of the greatest screenplays I've ever read, something I knew if I didn't direct, I would regret it for the rest of my life. So I stopped writing again, went and I directed Juno. Finally came back after two years, finished this script."

See what took Reitman so long when Up in the Air opens Friday.




Story/Interview by Fred Topel

Starpulse contributing writer

(Starpulse in Hollywood): Every week, Hollywood's biggest stars are meeting in the hot spots and Starpulse is there.