George Clooney In Talks For Jason Reitman’s Up In The Air
By Peter Sciretta/Aug. 27, 2008 7:22 pm EST
On the other hand, Jason Reitman, who broke onto the scene with his 2005 adaptation of Thank You For Smoking, was still not a name director. Smoking, which was made for $6.5 million, grossed $24.8 million domestically, enough to be considered a big success in it’s own right. But not enough of a success that most of your friends probably still hadn’t heard of it, never mind seen it. Last year around this time, Reitman was busy finishing his second film, getting ready for the movie’s premiere at Telluride and Toronto. A movie written by a blogger and starring some small canadian girl that most of America didn’t even know existed. And we all know that that film, Juno, went on to gross over $227 million worldwide, receiving four Oscar nominations and one Academy Award win. It’s interesting what difference a year makes.
What we already know:
“Bingham’s job as a Career Transition Counselor has kept him airborne for years. Although he has come to despise his line of work, he has come to love the culture of what he calls “Airworld,” finding contentment within pressurized cabins, anonymous hotel rooms, and a wardrobe of wrinkle-free slacks. With a letter of resignation sitting on his boss’s desk, and the hope of a job with a mysterious consulting firm, Ryan Bingham is agonizingly close to his ultimate goal, his Holy Grail: one million frequent flier miles. But before he achieves this long-desired freedom, conditions begin to deteriorate. With perception, wit, and wisdom, Up in the Air combines brilliant social observation with an acute sense of the psychic costs of our rootless existence, and confirms Walter Kirn as one of the most savvy chroniclers of American life.”
