The nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards have been released, and there are a few small and pleasant surprises in the list. The list of ten films nominated for Best Picture is causing some sensation, as District 9 is among the group. Lest that make you too hopeful, The Blind Side also got a Best Picture nod, though after the success of that film in the past two months that isn’t much of a surprise. Audible cheers went up among the media audience when that and Sandra Bullock’s Best Actress nomination were announced.
There are some good small surprises: Woody Harrelson got a Best Supporting Actor nod for his excellent work in The Messenger; Joel and Ethan Coen got a Best Original Screenplay nod for A Serious Man and their film is up for Best Picture; and Jeremy Renner got a Best Actor nod for The Hurt Locker. As expected, James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow both have Best Director Nominations, and their films Avatar and The Hurt Locker are competing for Best Picture. The full list of noms is after the break. Read More »
We love to hear filmmakers talking about their favorite films, great movies, or the best movies of the year. You may have noticed we’ve featured quite a bit of this on /Film over the past few years. Last night, I came across this video recorded by Roger Ebert, with writer/director Jason Reitman talking about some of the best films of the year: The Hurt Locker and District 9. It’s great to hear Reitman’s honest and gracious thoughts on both films, especially when Hurt Locker/Bigelow is being built up to be his direct competition come Oscar-time. Watch the two-minute video embedded after the jump.
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Jason Reitman is this week’s guest on ESPN’s Bill Simmons podcast, The BS Report (mp3). Amidst all of the discussion of The Golden Globes, how Clooney got involved in Up in the Air, Reitman’s second choice casting for the role of Ryan Bingham, and when the director is going to start work on his next project.
And the good news is we won’t have to wait too long. This very week is when Reitman will set about scripting his next project:
I’m actually about to start writing my new screenplay next week. I have a trip planned I’m gonna go out, I’m adapting this book… I’ve got a five day trip, I’m gonna try to write as much as possible.
Obviously, he’s not thinking he’ll get it all done in those five days, he’s not John Hughes - but what book is this? None of the potential projects in Peter’s post “What will Jason Reitman direct after Up In the Air” are literary adaptations. It seems like the project heaped on to the top of the pile a month later is the one - an adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s novel Labor Day.
Here’s Peter’s synopsis of the book:
The book tells the story of a long Labor Day weekend through the eyes of a then 13-year-old boy who along with his reclusive depressed divorced mother are willingly taken “hostage” by an escaped convict in their own home.
After the break, Reitman’s comments on another project he’s lining up.
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A while back, we took a look at some of the projects that Jason Reitman might direct following Up in The Air. One of the projects was a screenplay written by The Duplass Brothers — Jay and Mark Duplass, who broke onto the scene as part of the indie mumblecore movement (The Puffy Chair, Baghead…etc). It turns out that the Duplass brothers were not working on a screenplay for Reitman to direct, but instead produce.
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The last big bellwether for Oscar nominations is the nomination set for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film from the Directors Guild of America. The DGA nominations are the best indicator of what films and directors will be on the shortlist for the Best Director Oscar. Before the Best Picture Oscar field was widened to ten, the DGA noms were also a reasonable indicator of what films would be in contention for Best Picture, too.
The DGA announced the five nominated directors today, and the list generally conforms to expectations created by other recent awards and nominations. Read More »
I’ve always found the process of interviewing filmmakers on press tours to be a bit strange. It usually happens at some big fancy hotel, in one of the suites, on an entire floor taken over by a press junket for the film release. You often enter a room as the last journalist is finishing up his interview or saying goodbye. The filmmaker sits, ready for another set of questions. A publicist waits in the corner, and gives you the wrap it up signal just as its getting good. Has it really been 15 minutes already? You say goodbye and leave as another journalist walks by and says hello. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t give up doing what I do for anything else in the world — it’s just a very odd process.
I was lucky enough to interview Jason Reitman on September 5th at the Telluride Film Festival, just hours after his film Up in the Air had it’s sneak preview premiere. It was one of the most enjoyable interviews I’ve conducted, partly because I demanded that it take place “up in the air” in a Gondola over the mountains of Telluride, far away from the normal press junket atmosphere. That was there before there was a pie chart. Oh yeah, for those of you not paying attention, Reitman has been demystifying the filmmaking process though daily updates on Twitter. During his publicity tour, he began taking note of all the questions that journalists would ask him, and kept track of the most popular ones. How many times has Jason been asked what its like to work with George Clooney? There is a big slice of pie, created on an iphone app, for that.
Along the way, Reitman has been documenting his experiences promoting the film. He took photos of everyone who interviewed him, snapped pictures of some of the food and drinks, and recorded videos in each and every city. When the film was released, he asked fans on Twitter to send him photos of their ticket stubs. And for what purpose? Well, Jason is a filmmaker… so it shouldn’t be a surprise that he took all of the photos, videos, twitpics and edited them together into a short film titled “Lost In The Air: The Jason Reitman Press Tour Simulator”. It’s interesting to see a national press tour from the point of view of the filmmaker. I love the shots where the people, journalists, so many people I know or recognize, change in rapid cuts, but the background remains almost static. And yes, if you look quickly, you’ll notice me near the beginning of the interviewee montage. I asked Jason if we could premiere the video on /Film. Watch the video now, embedded after the jump.
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Okay, first of all, let me warn you: If you haven’t yet seen Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air:
1. Why haven’t you? It’s in theaters everywhere… go now!
2. You might not want to read the following story as it contains some spoilers for the film. (the headline is not a spoiler, trust me)
While George Clooney’s character Ryan Bingham is not dying of terminal cancer in the actual theatrical cut of the film, might one have been written and even filmed? After the jump we get to the bottom of the mystery. Is it true? Was it written? Was it filmed? We talked to Jason Reitman to get the answers.
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The Hollywood Reporter recently conducted a round table interview with some of the biggest directors of the year, including Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Lee Daniels, Peter Jackson, Jason Reitman and Quentin Tarantino. THR has released a few segment where the filmmakers talk about a couple different topics, including what they would do instead of directing, how they deal with challenging scenes, and if they consider themselves insiders or outsiders. I hope that THR releases the complete round table interview as a whole as I just find this stuff fascinating. But knowing them, we’ll probably only see a few clips from the extended roundtable chat. You can watch 12 minutes from the interview after the jump.
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Posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 by David Chen
Last night, Jason Reitman, director of Juno and Up in the Air, joined us for a special live Q&A with /Film readers. Those who tuned in live know that it was an epic night of director-fan interaction. In this special episode of the /Filmcast, Dave Chen, Devindra Hardawar and Adam Quigley chatted with Jason about a wide range of topics. For the first 1 hour and 48 minutes of this discussion, it’s all about /Film reader questions and the /Filmcast chat room. Jason talks about how/why he chose to get into filmmaking, why he turned down directing Dude Where’s My Car, how he chooses music for his films, why he wasn’t really an asshole in front of Tom Ford, his favorite directors of all time, and his affection for NPR’s Terry Gross. After that, David has a spoiler-filled chat with Jason about the ending of Up in the Air, and some of the film’s broader themes.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Let us know what you think of the show!
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Posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 by David Chen
In the past few years, wunderkind director Jason Reitman has emerged as one of the most exciting people in Hollywood. His newest film, Up In The Air (out in limited release now and expanding wider each week) is one of my favorite films of the year and is already winning awards and Oscar buzz.
Jason has agreed to join us for a live Q&A tonight at 8:45 PM EST on the /Filmcast. If you have any questions for Jason, feel free to leave them in the comments below. You can also e-mail questions to slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at (781) 583-1993. We’ll choose the best questions and read/play them for Jason. Please note that by this point, Jason has been asked the same questions thousands and thousands of times, so bonus points will go to creative questions.
Want to listen live? Then head on over to /Film’s live page at the appointed time. Can’t make it tonight? No problem. Just use the links below to subscribe to the /Filmcast. Tonight’s discussion will be recorded, and when the episode is done, you’ll be able to download it automatically. See you guys there!
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