Jason Reitman made his feature film directing debut with the 2006 hit THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, based on the acclaimed 1994 novel by Christopher Buckley, which Reitman adapted for the screen. THANK YOU FOR SMOKING had its world premiere at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, where it was acquired by Fox Searchlight. The film went on to screen at the 2006 Sundance and SXSW Film Festivals, and Reitman was ultimately nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In the wake of the success of THANK YOU FOR SMOKING Reitman and his producing partner, Daniel Dubiecki, formed a new production company, Hard C, which is based at Fox Searchlight. Hard C is developing a number of projects, including the spec script “The Ornate Anatomy of Living Things.”

Reitman was born in Montreal on October 19, 1977. He was on his first film set (ANIMAL HOUSE) 11 days later. The son of director Ivan Reitman, he spent most of his childhood on or around film sets, surrounded by the funniest human beings on Earth. He even appeared in cameos in many of his father’s films (TWINS, GHOSTBUSTERS II, KINDERGARTEN COP, DAVE, and FATHER’S DAY).

By 10, he was making the typical short films with his dad’s home video camera. At 13, he got his first job on a film crew, as production assistant on KINDERGARTEN COP. At 15, Reitman made an AIDS public service announcement with actors from his high school that went on to win many awards and play on network television. Reitman graduated high school in 1995 and went on to USC to study English. There, he became a member of the comedy troupe Commedus Interuptus and held a short stint as co-host of a morning radio show.

During his sophomore year in college, Reitman created a small collegiate desk calendar company that provided the budget for his first short film, OPERATION. The short comedy about kidney stealing went on to premiere at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. At 19 years old, this made him one of the youngest directors ever to have a film at the festival.

This began a string of short films, including H@ (premiered at South by Southwest 1999), IN GOD WE TRUST (premiered at Sundance 2000, went on to play Toronto, Edinburgh, US Comedy Arts, New Directors/New Films at MoMA and won best short at many festivals including Los Angeles, Aspen, Austin, Seattle, Florida, Athens, the New York Comedy Festival, and Bumbershoot Festival), GULP (premiered at Sundance 2001), and CONSENT (premiered at Aspen Shorts Fest 2004 and won awards at Aspen and Seattle). Reitman’s short films have played in over a hundred film festivals worldwide.

In early 2000, Reitman had signed with the commercial production company, Tate and Partners. In the five years since he began directing television advertising, he has received honors from the Cannes commercial awards, the Addys, as well as the highly coveted One Show. Selected clients include Heineken, Honda, Nintendo, BMW, Kyocera, Asics, Amstel Light, Baskin Robbins, GM, Burger King, and Dennys.

In beginning his professional career, Reitman fulfilled a life long dream by joining the Directors Guild of America; at that time he was the guild’s second youngest member.

Jason’s latest feature film is JUNO, which opens in select theatres on December 5th, 2007. To learn more about the film, visit its official Web site:

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/juno/

Blog Entries by Jason Reitman

Big Shit

Posted December 13, 2007 | 03:49 PM (EST)


This has been my last week on the road. It started off in Dallas. Fun screening at the Magnolia Theater. They apparently had to turn away 170 people. Sorry, guys. Hope it's worth the wait when you finally see the film. After the screening I signed a bunch of postcards...

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Bareback

Posted November 28, 2007 | 04:01 PM (EST)


Diablo was in my hotel room yesterday, thumbing through my blog, when she found out that I initially write my blog into Word then copy and paste it into the website. She frowned and explained that real blogging is done directly into the website... "Go Bareback!" she exclaimed as she...

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We Blew Seattle Away!

Posted November 27, 2007 | 04:43 PM (EST)


Sunday night was the DGA (Director's Guild) screening of Juno. Craig Gillespie, the director of Lars and the Real Girl and tons of bad-ass commercials, gave me the honor of moderating. He showed up James-Lipton-style with index cards and everything. It's always fun to play the DGA and be amongst...

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Meep Meep

Posted November 20, 2007 | 07:58 PM (EST)


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Spent the week directing a set of commercials for Time Warner. I've worked with the advertising agency a few times. I did some cool Walmart spots for them a little while back. Some of them are up on YouTube.

One of...

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Mystery Call

Posted November 12, 2007 | 09:37 PM (EST)


I'm at the tale end of a twelve-hour trip to NY. I flew in last night for a screening at the DGA that went really well. During my Q&A, I saw Arthur Hiller in the audience. I ended the evening with a cheeseburger from P.J. Clarks - The best burger...

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