Last month director Jason Reitman revealed that his next film, which he hopes to start filming by years end, is “a comedy and a drama [book adaptation]. Think ‘Thank You for Smoking,’ but instead of political it’s corporate.” We put the question to the /Film readers, trying to figure out what book he could be talking about. A bunch of readers suggested that it could be The Company by Max Berry.
Yesterday on the Howard Stern Show, Reitman was prodded for more information on the book, but the writer/director kept insisting that “No one has read this book…” I’m not sure if he was just saying that to shut Stern up or if he meant that the book is unpublished or an undiscovered gem. Retiman later revealed that the book stars a guy (in contrast to his last film, Juno, which had a female lead) and that the story “deals with the idea of would life be easier alone or is life easier when you have people clogging things up.”
“What is a cleaner life? One where you have no connection to anyone or with your life full of em,” Reitman asked, alter adding that “Most of the time, in a movie, it’s about a guy and at the beginning he’s lonely, and he thinks he has it all and he meets a girl and she changes everything… this is not that movie.”
So basically this eliminates Max Berry’s The Company from the list of possible books Reitman might be working on. Retiman also admitted that this new project would probably have a budget around $12 to $15 million, compared to his last two films which were shot for about half that (Smoking: 6.5m, Juno: 7.5m).
Anyone have any better ideas about which book Reitman might be bringing to the big screen? Comment below!
April 11th, 2008 at 5:14 am
And to think I bought Company because of the suggestions last time and now I’ve read it and it’s great! Damn, it would’ve been a great book to see Jason adapt…
April 11th, 2008 at 5:36 am
Harry Potter and the Clog of People
April 11th, 2008 at 5:52 am
I really hope he, or someone tackles Confessions of an Economic Hit man. That book screams MOVIE!
April 11th, 2008 at 6:18 am
survivor by chuck palahniuk?
April 11th, 2008 at 7:10 am
i dunno, i’m still thinking max barry. talk about a perfect marriage.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:35 am
cbabes, Palahniuk’s Survivor is actually a good guess!
Its been in development hell for a while [especially after 9/11]…
but with the author’s Choke just being adapted [it recently made the festival circuit, I think it premiered at Sundance?], I’d be surprised it Reitman would go for this.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:44 am
god i hope i’m right… if not someone better adapt it soon!
April 11th, 2008 at 10:16 am
i love that reitman could EASILY get a larger budget, but sticks to the lower dollars. i absolutely love when directors in his position keep things relatively low. this guy’s got a lot of cool films to make, & i’m there for all of em.
also i can’t get over how cool he was on stern, right?
April 11th, 2008 at 10:36 am
April 11th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
The company is a fantastic book (I believe Barry’s first)… what happened to Jennifer Government (at one point I though Steven Soderbergh was producing)
April 11th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
the guy who did I am legend is doing survivor